Site office

Site offices are usually only needed for larger events that are especially set up. If a hotel holds a function, the site office is usually the hotel office.

1. Will you need a site office?
2. What will you need it for?
3. What are your requirements for location and visibility?
4. Will the general public need services from your site office (e.g. lost property, lost children, etc.)
5. Will you need someone continually there on duty during the event?
6. What equipment will you need?

 

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Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)

Check your systems.

1. Do you and the venue have an up-to-date OHS policy in place?
2. Do you have an up-to-date system for identifying risks on the venue?
3. Do you have an up-to-date system for checking your safety equipment?
1. Is it maintained according to manufacturers' specifications?
2. Find out how often you should inspect safety equipment. It varies with different kinds of equipment. (Note: you must get a Fire Department inspector to inspect some kinds of fire extinguishers. You can't do it yourself.)
3. Inspect safety equipment regularly to ensure it complies with legal requirements.
4. Do you need to have qualified first aid personnel on site?
5. Is there the likelihood of other kinds of medical support personnel and equipment?

 

Do a building safety inspection. Check all aspects of the set-up to ensure the safety of guests and colleagues, including the elderly and those with disabilities. Some examples:

• Is access to the venue clear? Does it comply with OHS rules?
• Are equipment leads taped down and/or covered with mats?
• Is adequate space left between tables and chairs?
• Are passage ways and corridors clear?
• Have you prevented changes in floor surfaces from being tripping hazards?
• Are overhanging equipment and decorations securely attached?
• Are there are multiple exits with fire-doors?
• Are exits clearly identified?
• Is signage secure?
• Is fire equipment and first aid equipment easily available?
• Have fire extinguishers been inspected? Are they the right kinds for your fire hazards?

 

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Crowd management

You should already have a lot of information useful for planning crowd management. You should have already considered legal requirements, and identified risks associated with crowds and the venue itself. You should have already estimated the number of attenders. Your onsite inspection should also have given you an idea of parking and how people will move around the venue.

Traffic flow

At this point, we're only thinking of people, not cars.

1. How will people move through the venue?
1. Where will people congregate?
2. Will people be able to move easily to destinations?
3. Where will people want to go in straight lines to their desinations rather than follow the footpaths?
4. Plot destinations and traffic flows, and look for bottlenecks.
2. What is the optimum crowd density for this kind of event? (Some events feel better when people are packed closer together, but others need more space.
3. s the venue the right size for the anticipated numbers?
4. How do you prevent congestion?
5. Decide on restricted areas. How will you keep people away from them? Who may enter them (e.g. performers and staff only).
6. Will children, the elderly and the disabled be catered for? What will you do if they have to stand in queues? What about wheelchairs?
7. Can you place extra seats in walkway areas (at least for older people and people with small children to rest)?
8. What will you do to make queues flow quickly and easily? (E.g. have extra staff on call at peak times?)
9. How will people know how to get to everything? What is obvious to people who don't know the venue? What isn't? You might need signs, announcements, guides (greeters, check-in staff, concierge, etc.), maps, or written information in info packs.

Write a crowd management plan

Assess the impact of each identified risk and write a plan to minimize it. This will include:

1. setting a limit on the number of people you will admit to the venue.
2. specifying the number of people required for crowd control and how you will deploy them.

Your crowd management plan should work for the estimated number of people and be consistent with the risk management plan. It should normally cover:

queues ticketing admission ushering

seating controls security first aid

catering toilet facilities dispersal of crowds procedure for disruptions (fights, drunks).

Emergency procedures for crowds

You will need to write procedures for managing people in an emergency. Large crowds can require extra procedures not covered by EVAN's general emergency management section, and they should be written down and include in your training.

Your procedures would normally include:

1. How you will minimize panic
2. Announcements: How will you make them and who will do it?
3. Instructions to staff for crowd control.
4. Evacuation routes and procedures (the building should have them in place as an OHS requirement).
5. What you will do for special populations, e.g. the elderly, disabled, pregnant women, people who don't speak English, small children, etc.)

When your plan is ready, you should get event personnel to practice their roles and then check that you have everything in place (e.g. enough trained personnel, adequate procedures and equipment).

 

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Integrate technology

You will often face these kinds of technology:

• Large-screen projection, including videography
• Sound
• Lighting
• Stage management wireless communication
• Teleprompters
• Interpreter systems
• Websites
• integrated event management software
• project management software
• CAD
• ticketing systems
• delegate registration systems.
• Normal office technology (telephones, email, photocopier, bookbinder, email)

It is reasonable to expect you to be able to use most of them, with a few obvious exceptions. Wireless interpreter systems are fairly uncommon in Australia so far. Other tasks are specialised skills, particularly sound and lighting. Except in rudimentary cases, you don't need to know how to do them yourself, but you do need to liaise with technicians. Some of them are deceptively complex (e.g. some telephone network systems), and you really only need to master the features that affect your job.

According to industry advice, some technology is generally out of date within 18 months of first release. This applies particularly to increasingly sophisticated digital image projection (especially if it coordinated by software around the room on multiple different screens) and building virtual venues before producing an event in the real one.

Identify potentially useful technology:

• Assess the potential for technology to improve the management and operation of the event.
• Identify and research the features and costs of specific technologies that may apply to an event.
• Recommend the use of specific technologies to decision-makers.

Integrate technology:

• Get it done on time.
• Liaise with other event contractors if you need to.
• Train your staff how to use the techology, or organize an outside provider to give the training. Allow enough time for them to become proficient.
• Monitor the effectiveness of technology
• Address any identified problems.
• Keep notes of the lessons learnt for the future.

 

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Plan event security

This will vary greatly according to local laws, because security guards must have licenses in some jurisdictions. There are some roles that you can only give licensed personnel, and some tasks that can only be referred to police.

You should start by identifying risks and potential problems, because they will determine your security arrangements. This might not be as daunting as it appears. First, some events are relatively low risk. Second, you might already have procedures from previous events. Third, your local police might be able to give you some free advice for anything affecting their role, because it is often in their interests to prevent serious security problems. Fourth, if you use a security company, it will do a risk analysis, set many procedures, and handle serious interventions.

However, the task is much more challenging if this is a large, complex event of a kind that is quite unfamiliar to you and you do not use a security company. You should throughly research risks and procedures at other similar events, in discussion with your team, in consultation with police, and at the venue.

1. Identify specific safety and security regulations. If necessary, get a paper copy so you can refer to it if you need to.
2. Write a security policy and set of procedures.
3. Plan an identification system for restricted areas (e.g. ID card worn at all times).
4. Plan a way of distributing keys and keeping a key register.
5. What kinds of security signage will you need? (E.g. restricted areas, conditions of entry, etc.)
6. Consider whether you need special protection for performers and/or patrons, crew and other personnel.
7. Plan lines of communication and communication procedures.
8. Who will organize for caretakers or other staff to open and lock up? Who will hold venue keys, codes for electronic alarms, etc.?
9. Plan how you will use security equipment, e.g.:
• computer access systems
• surveillance video
• smoke and fire detectors
• hazard warning system
• clocks
• keys
• barriers and gates
• emergency codes and contact numbers within the venue and to a contracted security company
• radios and telephones
10. What items will be restricted? These will vary according to the kind of event, but could include:
• cameras and recording devices
• telecommunication equipment, e.g. mobile phones
• umbrellas
• drinks and food
• alcohol
• dangerous or illegal items, e.g. drugs, weapons
• potential weapons, such as sharp objects, drinks in hard containers (bottles or cans), etc.
11. Do you need procedures for:
1. Using security equipment?
2. Oral incident reporting?
3. Controlling entry points to the venue (e.g. public entrance, stage door, fire exits)?
4. Controlling queues firmly and courteously?
5. Checking identification and access authorization and only give access authorized personnel access to restricted areas?
6. Restricting access to the auditorium until all clearance procedures are done?
7. Observing patrons and handle or refer any irregularities (e.g. stealing, possession of illegal substances, or aggressive behavior)?
8. Protect performers and/or patrons, crew and other personnel?
9. Transfering cash?
10. Controling and/or reporting potentially disruptive behavior or people?
11. Carrying out searches?
12. Handling confiscated items?
13. Diffusing any threatening situations?
12. Do you need a procedure for handling difficult situations? For example:
1. What will you do with unauthorised people found in restricted areas? (It will depend on the kinds of risk they pose.)
2. When will you refer the matter to licensed security guards, front-of-house manager, venue management, other security staff, medical personnel, specialist crowd control staff, or police?
3. When will you expel people?
4. Will refunds apply?
13. What tolerance levels will you have?
1. Polite instructions or negotiations for what?
2. Warnings for what?
3. Zero tolerance for what?
14. Will you need to train staff
1. to write reports with legal, insurance or organizational implications such as OHS reports, incident reports)?
2. to use security equipment?
3. to follow procedures listed above?

 

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Cleaning

What cleaning will you need to do?

1. Empty waste bins:
• public rubbish bins
• staff area bins
• catering
2. Will you hire dumpsters?
3. What can be recycled?
4. Clean and restore the venue
• Sweeping/vacuuming/mopping
• Cleaning kitchens
• Cleaning toilets, bathrooms, etc.
• Dusting/cobwebbing
• Litter pickup/clear grounds
• Replace broken or crushed plants
• Repairs
• Clean windows, gutters, machinery, etc.

When will you do each task?

• Before the event?
• During the event on a daily or weekly basis?
• After the event?

If you need to clean during the event, what will you need to do

• constantly?
• on a daily or twice-daily basis?
• on a weekly or twice-weekly basis?

Who will inspect for cleanliness? And how often?

 

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