August 2021

EVENTS
Be Specific on
SAFETY
Select
the right event safety
consultant, with advice from
Steve Allen
IMMANUEL KANT once said “Experience
without theory is blind, but theory without
experience is mere intellectual play”.
Events, as we all know, differ in type, size,
crowd profile, structure, demographics,
complexity, structures and location.
Your event may have media coverage, be
recorded or have a live feed. Some events
are indoors, some outside and others a
combination of both. Some may have
special effects, such as fireworks or lasers,
others will have nearby neighbours who
may be affected by noise, even more so
depending on the way the wind blows.
Other events may have animals,
motorsports, fairgrounds, inflatables, hot air
balloons or even aircraft. Maybe your event
is on the water; one thing for sure is that
each event will have people (we hope!). The
paying public, free attendees, contractors,
guests, artistes, traders, sponsors, the crew
that keep the event running and safe, and
the VIPs of course – let’s not forget them…
I have had the benefit of experience of a
wide range of events from local corporate
events through to concert stadium world
tours, major football fixtures, world title
boxing, festivals, and water events, as well
as conducting pre-event consultancy for
the Olympics, F1 and motorsports, Red Bull
events, the Sydney fireworks, theme parks,
at Heathrow airport and at mainline train
stations in London and Sydney. I have also
represented some of the largest brands in
the world.
At Crowd Safety, we have managed
safety at royal palace ice skating events at
Christmas, and conducted security audits
post the Manchester Arena bombing.
We continue to be asked to provide fire
risk assessments that consider human
behaviour in emergencies based on our
experience with a wide range of crowds and
demographics.
I have had the envious experience
of working across every continent on
the planet (not Antarctica though, yet),
undertaking safety consultancy for a wide
range of clients, spanning 30 years to include
war zones.
Over the past few years, we have been
asked to send more and more subject matter
consultants to the Middle East and United
States. I emphasise the need for subject
matter consultants because one size doesn’t
fit all. A safety consultant who may have
vast experience in an arena, and perhaps
only worked on indoor arena events, will
not have the necessary skill set for an
outdoor event. Equally, someone who has
no experience with fireworks, animals or
motorsport, would not be aligned with an
event with these attributes.
We are regularly contacted by new event
organisers after there has been a serious
fallout at the post event debrief with the
local authority. This only makes for an uphill
struggle to rebuild trust and confidence with
the local authority (council, police, fire, NHS
ambulance, environmental health, H&S etc.)
and the event organiser, as trust has been
tarnished by previous episodes. Far better to
start right in the first place.
AN EVENT ORGANISER’S RESPONSIBILITY
Event organisers have the legal
responsibility to engage ‘competent’ safety
consultants to assist them with their legal
responsibilities in identifying the significant
and foreseeable risks associated with their
event, that may affect those in attendance
and others.
One thing I have learnt is that it pays to
ensure you have the right people engaged
from the outset. The cheapest is often more
costly in the long run.
Do they have the relevant experience
for the type of event you are planning?
Word of warning, no one is an expert in
everything, despite what they may tell
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