Simon Hopes

It’s not an easy task to organize an event, whether you’re organizing it for hundreds or thousands of people. It’s an enormous responsibility to ensure you’re managing properly all the health and safety risks for all of your attendees – staff, volunteers, contracts and members of the public. From ensuring line dividers to covering every other security aspect, you have to think about every single detail if you want your event to be a success.

To ensure your event doesn’t result in minor or major injuries, you will need to effectively manage your crowd. It might seem easy when you’re standing in your empty venue, but once there are people, you will be faced with a really big challenge.

So, how can you ensure your event is as successful as you want it to be? There are several methods that will help you achieve your goals.
#1 Thorough Planning

Without planning, you can’t organize a good event. Not to mention it has an enormous impact on the security aspect of your event. Crowd management is essential if you want to have a safe, enjoyable event. To avoid any troubles, you should start planning in the earliest stages. However, don’t expect you’ll be able to do it on your own.

Regardless of the number of participants you’re expecting, you will need the help of various professionals. Start consulting the key figures inside your organization, but don’t forget about those who need to be reached out to if you want to run a safe event. Depending on the nature of your event, those people can be:

• Event contractors
• The venue owner
• Local transport providers
• Local authorities
• Emergency services

#2 Knowing Your Crowd

It’s not easy to estimate how many attendees you could have at your upcoming event, but you will need to do it anyway. Some businesses have no trouble with getting their crowd calendar down to detail, while others completely depend on the weather, holidays or any other external factor. Your estimates should be based on your previous turnout, advance ticket sales or comparison with similar events.

Also, you should think about the demographics of your public. Think about the level of the direction you will need to provide and the time of their arrival to the venue. All these things will help you organize a safer and more pleasant experience for your attendees.

#3 Assessing the Risk

It could be that assessing the potential risks of your event is a part of your legal requirement, but you should also think about it if it’s not. Considering all the risks which can be generated by your crowd is not always clear and straightforward.

The risk related to your crowd’s health and safety is very connected to their movement. For instance, a simple swaying can easily escalate to crushing, so you will need to find efficient ways to safely manage the movement of your crowd through your venue.
#4 Efficient Communication

Besides communicating with your colleagues and other people involved in this event, you will need to communicate efficiently with your crowd as well. How will you communicate your key information? Will you place them on a fixed notice or LED boards? All of your signs should be positioned so they are visible from afar. This will help your guests to continue moving around the venue without the need to stop in front of signage.

Your guests should have access to maps, so they can see which alternative routes they can take around the venue and avoid a bigger crowd. These routes should be marked clearly on your maps and within the venue as well.

When it comes to communication with your security team, it will be crucial that you communicate clearly among yourselves. As soon as the crowd starts arriving, you will need to exchange a lot of information and not being able to communicate it right might damage the entire event. The best way to communicate is still via two-way radios, but telephone systems might also work as well.
Final Thoughts

It’s vital that you review your plan before you decide to execute it. If planned right, your crowd will be safe and they will enjoy the event they are attending. Once you’re sure you have everything covered, start executing one item and assign it to other people in your team.