How Event Organisers Ensure Public Safety Using These 6 Top Tips

From red carpet affairs
through to trade shows, music festivals through to country fairs, a
well attended event can be a rewarding prospect for the organisers
and team involved. However that’s only if the event is safe. There’s
no doubting that the right measure of security can ease the mind of
the customers, exhibitors, speakers, and/or celebrity guests, making
it enjoyable for all parties concerned. If you’d like to follow suit
and get your event off to a great and safe start, here are 6 top tips
you might want to follow.

Get expert help

Tip number 1 is to
always seek expert help. Security companies who specialise in event
security will have much more experience than you. As a result they’re
likely to come up with helpful suggestions and possible security
scenarios that you probably haven’t even thought of. So despite the
fact that it will cost more it really pays to hire the experts.

Understand your
event

When you hire
professional event security they’re going to want to know some facts
about your event in order to carry out their role properly. This
includes

• The gender and age
  group of people likely to attend

• A rough number of
  people in attendance

• Are there any high
  profile people in attendance

For this reason it pays
to have a good understanding of the type of event you’re trying to
put on.

Make people aware
security are present

People are far less
likely to do stupid things if they know that there is a strong
security presence. While it’s agreed that you’ll always attract a
certain amount of criminals and drugs at say a large-scale music
event, some will be dissuaded if you let it be known that there is a
strong security presence. In addition there’s no surprises at the
door. Everyone knows what to expect.

Have a large enough
security budget

We’ve already stated
that it’s necessary to hire an experienced event security company and
that it will cost. However it’s best to allow a large enough security
budget to cope with any hidden costs that might come up. For instance
to ease customer foot flow your security company might suggest
opening up another entry and exit point, or alternatively they might
suggest that a second stage be moved to avoid congestion. They might
even suggest more staff than you’ve budgeted for. For this reason it
always pays to have back-up contingency funds. You can skimp on other
things if necessary but you can’t really afford to skimp on security.

Always have medical
support

If your event is going
to attract large numbers of people, it’s always best to have medical
support. All it takes is for someone with an unexpected food allergy
or sudden medical condition to suffer real problems, so by having a
first-response team in the vicinity it gives peace of mind that they
can be in attendance quickly should the worst happen.

Identify personnel
using clear credentials

Make sure that all
staff are easily identifiable so that your guests know who to turn to
if they have any problems. For instance you may decide to identify
crowd marshals differently to event security and they in turn might
be identified differently than the security controller or event
organiser. Doing so will make it easier for problems and issues to be
ironed out.