The key to any successful event is clear and concise information and communication, for both guests and employees. An effective logistics strategy ensures that your event provides appropriate resources for everyone involved!
Whether your event is a music festival or a corporate function, it is vital to have a detailed strategy in place. The smallest changes can make the biggest difference to the safety of your event. Planned and detailed safety measures provide an enjoyable and risk-free experience for attendees and employees. However, as seen in past events, some of the largest and well thought out events can end in unexpected tragedy. The Manchester arena bombing in 2017 and the Eagles of Death Metal concert shooting in 2015, highlighted the imperative need for tighter security checks at live events.
Although management could have been improved, event planning isn’t necessarily to blame for these devastating circumstances. There are however, a number of lessons we can take away from these unfortunate situations. We have compiled a list of the five best ways you can safeguard your event to enable better control. Implementing these will ensure your guests are safe and that your event runs as smoothly as possible!
1. Crowd management
Before your event, you should review the potential risks and hazards and implement a relevant crowd management strategy. You may want to create a plan that factors in your venue and attendee size. For instance, staggering the entry and exit process and using barriers to keep emergency exits clear might be necessary to safeguard your event from overcrowding.
Fisheye Hub has an innovative heat map feature and geo-fenced secure messaging which allows event organisers to track crowd movements, traffic density, and direction of travel! This feature can be extremely useful for preventing and identifying locations which might be prone to overcrowding. Customisable geo-fenced messaging can also help direct crowds and control crowd dispersal at any time, including emergencies!
2. Suitability of your venue
It is important to check that your chosen venue reflects the needs of the event you are planning. Before booking the venue it is worth keeping in mind the number of expected attendees in relation to the site limitations. Pay attention to the capacity of the venue, access limitations to entrances, security checks, public transport access, ticket counters, and first aid kits.
The demographics of your audience is also necessary to consider, as children, the elderly, and disabled individuals all have specific and varied needs. For example, it is vital to discover whether your venue has sufficient access and exit points for pushchairs and wheelchairs. Having these features available on modern mapping tools help guests, visitors and attendees plan their travel in advance, increasing their comfort and security.
3. Employ fully trained staff
An array of well-trained staff for the safety and security is imperative to achieve event success. Employing trained ushers, fire marshals, first aiders, and security teams, directly or through event staffing agencies, means that you are equipped to successfully deal with any eventuality that might disrupt the running of your event. Ensure that all of your employees and the agency staff involved, have the relevant qualifications and training required to safeguard your event properly!
Providing them with modern communication tools also allows them to have good visibility and awareness of situations during the event. Fisheye Hub has a secure messaging feature which enables effective communications across teams. The pin protection option also allows messages to be made private if need be!
4. Data encryption
Traditionally data security isn’t something you would necessarily associate with event organising, however, our increasingly digitised world means your customers handover a whole host of personal data when purchasing a ticket or signing up for an event online. Credit card details, names, addresses, and emails can be extremely valuable to hackers, which is why it is imperative to implement appropriate measures which protect your guest's data. Event management software should provide adequate data encryption and data protection to make compliance easier for you to achieve!
Fisheye Hub app has an amazing feature allows a hard deletion of data, both at the account level and at the event level. App users can share personal data with other users securely as any data generated about them can be permanently removed. For instance, users can share their location without revealing any other personal details, either as a snapshot or a session. This data can be then deleted not just from their devices, but also from Fisheye Hub servers permanently, based on the users choice. This feature makes Fisheye Hub one of the safest ways to organise events and meetings!
5. Create an emergency plan
Hope for the best but plan for the worst...it’s always a good idea to have safety and security measures in place which will keep your attendees safe in the event of an emergency. Some important things to consider are; an evacuation process, a traffic management system for emergency vehicles, and onsite incident responses. The upsurge of terror attacks carried out in crowded places has meant your emergency plan needs to be well thought out and most importantly, communicated clearly with everyone.
Fisheye Hub can help you manage all of these elements, for example, our heat maps are a brilliant way to gauge traffic density and allocate resources. You can send targeted messages to the guests based on their physical location. You can also isolate groups of people based on location or other attributes, you may use on your digital ticketing apps by integrating the Fisheye SDK to the ticketing app. This feature could be particularly useful to inform targeted guests to relocate or avoid specific gates or locations in an emergency without causing alarming the rest of the attendees.
For more information with regards to managing terror attacks in busy locations please read the Gov.uk ‘Crowded Places Guidance’ information pack.
Organisation and planning ahead is key to ensure that your event is safe and secure for your guests. Remember, it is always best to identify and prevent a potential issue before it becomes a reality.
At Fisheye Hub, the safety of our users is always a priority, making the features of our app very useful for event organisers and planners! Our app allows you to protect your guests like never before. Discover how Fisheye Hub can help you manage crowds and protect personal data by downloading the app or by getting in touch! We are more than happy to tell you more about its features so you can organise your events better.