Planning an event can be time consuming and expensive and takes a lot of coordination, so it’s easy to skim over details like safety.
Let’s face it, it isn’t the most exciting aspect of the event, however, when it comes to safety you cannot take short cuts, because if overlooked it can spell disaster.
When organising an event, you need to be clear on your safety expectations with everyone involved and follow up immediately on any potential safety issues that may arise.
High standards in event safety help to ensure everyone who is involved or attends has the best experience possible.
Prepare a Risk Management Plan
A risk assessment plan has three main parts and serves the purpose of making your event as safe as possible for everyone involved and those nearby. The plan includes:
- Hazard identification – recognize any hazards associated with your event. To do this you need to consider the different people involved and their roles in the setup, running and participating in the event. As well as human-related hazards, you should also recognize technological, natural and environmental hazards.
- Risk assessment – use a risk assessment matrix to estimate the potential impact of a hazard to find the level of risk. Once you have done this, you can prioritize the most significant risks.
- Risk control – with the help of the event committee, develop reasonable and practical solutions, starting with the high-level risks.
Ways to Reduce the Risk of Accident or Injury
There are many ways you can ensure a memorable event that runs smoothly and safely.
A couple of key options are:
Designate a safety officer
As the event coordinator you have a huge responsibility, making sure everything is booked, the timing is right, and everyone is doing their allocated tasks. If your job is also to oversee safety at your event, it can be easy for you to overlook important details that could result in a safety issue.
Allocating a designated safety officer to oversee safety compliance at your event can make a big difference to the outcome. This person is responsible for organising everything involved with safety and risk management such as booking security personnel, temporary fence hire, engaging first aid officers or law enforcement if needed.
Keep Numbers at Safe Levels
Having a sold-out event may be an organiser’s dream, however this could also mean people who could not get tickets may try to illegally enter the event. Overcrowding poses many risks and is an issue particularly for outdoor events where attendees are not allocated seating. With safety a priority, you should always keep crowd numbers to safe levels.
Hire Temporary Fencing
Temporary fencing is the perfect inclusion to any risk management for a few reasons.
Temporary fencing:
Helps crowd control – When hosting a large event, temporary fencing can be set up and arranged in ways to guide and control the flow of the attendees. This will be quite helpful in controlling the masses so everybody can enjoy the event.
Keeps onlookers away – Temporary fencing may also give you a little privacy or exclusivity if you are having an event in a public area. You can prevent invasion of privacy and prevent unauthorised entry from unwanted guests.
Decorate addition – For smaller, more intimate or botique events fencing can also be a decorative addition. Large numbers are no longer a concern and you simply need to clearly identify your event or space to all those invited and provide a clear barrier for security to monitor. Pages offer some stunning decorative temporary fencing such as the ever popular white picket fence, double jarrah fencing and exhibition barricades.
Safety starts at the top, so if you as the event organiser set a high safety standard, it will be clear to all involved that they also have to reach this standard.