This post will look at Health and Safety in events and risk management.
The Event Management Body of Knowledge (EMBOK), identifies risk management as one of the main knowledge domains necessary for the management of a successful event.
Bowdin et al 2011 states that the definition of event risk is ‘any future incident that will negatively influence the event’. This means that if an incident such as lack of crowd control or an accident happened, the event would not only have negative press but consumers would not come back to future events. It is important to manage risk as it can reduce unexpected and costly surprises such as a customer deciding to sue the event after an accident.
The Event Safety Guide seperates events into 5 different phases:
- Build up,
- Load in,
- Show,
- Load out,
- Break down.
This is a technical approach and goes through the stages of the event step by step.
However Berlonghi (1990), categorises the main areas of risk as:
- Administration – office layout should pose minimal risk to employees,
- Marketing and Public Relations – the promotion section of the company must be aware of potential risks and not just ignore them to avoid bad press,
- Health and Safety – the main area of risk management. Loss prevention plans and safety control plans. Or taking into consideration specific event risks such as catering at a food and drink event,
- Crowd Management – monitoring crowd flow, ingress and egress, alcohol sales and noise control,
- Security – security plan including careful risk management thinking,
- Transport – deliveries, parking and public transport contain hazards that need to be addressed.
However as this was published in 1999, this may be outdated and may not take into account modern day issues.
HSE also states that ‘The law does not expect you to eliminate all risk, but you are required to protect people as far as ‘reasonably practicable’. This emphasises the fact that it is impossible for event organisers to illuminate risks altogether but they can work to reduce them. This can be done through risk assessments, producing a risk matrix or creating a risk register and prioritising risks.
There are 5 steps to risk management:
- Identify the hazard,
- Decide who might be harmed and how,
- Evaluate risks and decide on precautions,
- Record your findings and implement them,
- Review your assessments and update if necessary.
If these steps are followed correctly, it will be easier for event managers to make an event run smoothly.
Communication is a key part of managing risk at an event. Stewards, security and venue management are the main sources of communication during the event. If the crowd knows where to go and what is happening they are more likely to cooperate therefore reducing the risk of an accident, and leading to a successful event.
References.
Berlonghi, 1990, Special Event Risk Management Manual, Bookmasters, Mansfield, Ohio.
Bowdin et al, 2011, Events Management, Elsevier Ltd, Oxford.
Health and Safety Executive, 1999, The Event Safety Manual, HSE Books, Norwich.
www.embok.org (accessed on 10/12/12)