The backbone of any successful event is proper risk management. That’s why up to 67% of event professionals include event safety and security in their meetings and events policies.
It may seem daunting, but it’s manageable.
To help you, we’ve put together this guide. You’ll find tips on pinpointing and tackling the types of risks that can turn your event from a headline to a footnote.
We break down what makes great risk assessments effective, provide strategies and resources to manage potential risks, and hand you the tools to communicate your event risk management plan to attendees and staff.
With this knowledge, you can zero in on what you do best: creating unforgettable moments.
Complete an event risk assessment
An event risk assessment is a key step for identifying and managing potential hazards that could impact your event. It’s essential because it ensures participants’ safety and contributes to your next event running smoothly.
By proactively identifying what could go wrong, you can take steps to mitigate them, ensuring a more enjoyable and secure experience for everyone involved. Types of risks to assess include:
1. General Considerations: These are broad risks that can affect any event, like unexpected weather changes, technical failures, or logistical challenges. For example, even indoor events can suffer from inclement weather, causing issues like power outages.
2. Health Risks: Events bring people together, so you’ll need to consider health risks, such as the spread of infectious diseases. Measures like sanitation stations and health screenings could be helpful.
3. Security Risks: These involve protecting people and properties from threats like unauthorized access, theft, or vandalism. Implementing security checks and surveillance can help mitigate these risks.
4. Crowd Control Risks: Large gatherings come with the risk of overcrowding and require emergency evacuations. Effective crowd management strategies are crucial for safety.
5. Personal Safety: This encompasses the risk of accidents or injuries to individuals at the event. Ensuring safe environments and having medical assistance on hand are key preventive measures.
6. Location Risks: Every event venue has its unique risks, such as structural issues or limited access points, which require tailored solutions.
7. Virtual Risks: Online events avoid many of the risks of in-person events but have their own set of potential issues. You’ll need to prevent data breaches or technical disruptions, for example. Remember, with hybrid events, you’ll have to consider both in-person and virtual risks!
To help you manage these risks effectively, Eventbrite has made a comprehensive Event Safety Assessment Checklist. This downloadable tool guides you through identifying and mitigating risks. It’s adaptable for various event types, and you can reuse it for future event planning, too.
The checklist ensures a thorough assessment, helping you create a safer, more enjoyable event.
Create a plan to address any identified risks
Once you know what the risks are, you need to make a plan to address them. Let’s explore how to tackle different types of risks with some actionable event safety measures to add to your event risk management plan:
1. General Considerations: At an event with multiple entry points, secure non-public entrances or have staff monitor them.
According to Eventbrite’s in-house expert on entry management Sophia Schenkel, you should also make sure those entry points are “set out adjacent to the infrastructural needs, like shelter from bad weather, power and internet.
You need to design somewhere your staff will feel well equipped and comfortable working for up to 16 hours a day.”
2. Public Health Risks: If your event is during the flu season, follow CDC guidelines. Implement frequent handwashing protocols for employees and set up sanitation services to significantly reduce the spread of germs.
This proactive health measure helps maintain a safe and healthy environment for attendees.
3. Security Risks: Take the scenario of a large public gathering. Training staff to recognize and report suspicious items is essential.
Ensure that staff know the acronym HOT: Hidden, Obviously suspicious, and not Typical. They should look for items they may have hidden intentionally, have suspicious electronics, odors, or powders, and aren’t typical.
Establishing communication with local authorities ensures quick and effective responses to security threats. Knowing how to identify and handle suspicious items can prevent potential crises.
4. Crowd Control Risks: In a crowded, dark setting like a concert, managing large crowds is crucial.
Use social media to monitor attendees’ reports of crowd conditions live, and keep an eye out for any signs of overcrowding. You can use it to estimate the number of people within a certain area of the event, as well as the crowd’s sentiment and behavior. Then, you can respond with appropriate crowd control measures before there’s any cause for worry.
5. Personal Safety: At a food festival — or any event where you’re serving food — labeling all food items with potential allergens addresses personal safety risks like food allergies. You should also make sure all vendors have food handlers permits or other local food safety certifications to help prevent food poisoning and other foodborne illnesses.
6. Location Risks: Address risks that are specific to your event venue. If you’re hosting an outdoor event in the summer, providing ample water and shade is critical to prevent heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses.
Even on cooler days, direct sunlight can pose health risks. If you’re relying on electric fans to keep your attendees cool, make sure they are shaded as well — heat in the high 90s can cause them to break.
7. Virtual Risks: In a virtual conference, controlling who has access to the event, who can show video, and who can post in the chat is essential. Even if someone has the name of an invitee, check their email address and consider putting a password in place so that only the intended attendees can enter.
These measures prevent unauthorized access, maintaining a secure and orderly virtual environment.
In each case, the goal is to anticipate potential issues and have a robust plan in place. This approach mitigates risks and enhances the overall experience, ensuring that you’re as prepared as can be. By addressing risks proactively, you create an environment where attendees can focus on enjoying the event.
Communicate plans and guidelines to staff and attendees
It’s all very well and good to have backup plans, but you’ll need to inform your team of the protocols and possibly train them.
If you’re managing a large event, hire event staff or recruit volunteers and prepare them for as many of those identified risks as possible.
In order to communicate with your team, you’ll need effective pre-event meetings, documentation, and possibly other people managers.
To do this, bring in people with experience working at similar events who have faced similar kinds of potential risks. These individuals often contribute insights and skills that you can use to modify your plans.
When it comes to attendees, clear communication of safety guidelines is essential.
You can achieve this through pre-event emails, on-site signage, and announcements.
Take advantage of tools like Eventbrite’s Event Safety Steps Email Template. This template helps you convey important safety information in a concise and understandable manner. Customize it to include specific details about your event’s safety measures, health protocols, and emergency procedures.
By articulately informing both your event staff and attendees about safety protocols, you ensure everyone is on the same page, contributing to a safer and more enjoyable event experience.
Want a simple way to email all of your attendees at once?
Implement any necessary safety procedures during the event
Throughout your entire event day, it’s vital to maintain a consistent focus on your safety playbook. Make regular check-ins with your safety staff a priority. These check-ins ensure that they can communicate about and address any potential issues promptly, and they also help prevent human error.
Focus your attention tactically at different stages of the event. As it begins, monitor the entrance closely to manage the influx of attendees. As the night progresses, shift your focus to areas like the bar, dance floor, or other central locations where guests congregate.
Finally, as the event winds down, pay special attention to the parking lot, especially if you’re serving alcohol. This approach ensures a comprehensive oversight of safety throughout the event and makes it much easier for you to catch potential risks before they become larger problems.
Evaluate your risk management success
Post-event, it’s essential to evaluate how effectively you manage risks. Revisit the Event Safety Assessment Checklist you used during planning. This checklist guides your initial risk assessment and serves as a measurement tool for handling those risks.
Incorporate a safety section in your post-event surveys. Ask attendees to provide feedback on the safety measures implemented. Were they noticeable? Did they feel secure? This direct feedback is invaluable.
One critical step is to keep track of any incidents or reports from the event, such as stolen items or safety concerns. Analyze these reports to understand where your plan succeeded and where it fell short. Consider the response times to any incidents. Was your event security prompt and efficient in handling unexpected situations?
Reflect on the communication strategies you used. Were the safety protocols effectively communicated to staff and attendees? Did you need other event managers to help cover those communications needs?
Finally, don’t forget to debrief with your event team. Gather insights from those on the ground managing the event. Their perspectives can provide a wealth of information on the practical aspects of risk management for event planning and what you can do to host safe events in the future.
Focus on what’s important
The amount of work required to succeed in risk management for events might seem overwhelming. There’s certainly a lot to do, and it’s important that you take it seriously. But the good news is that with a solid event risk management process, it doesn’t need to be difficult.
Make the most of the tools available to you, such as the templates and checklists provided to you in this post, and focus your energy on creating the best event ever.
Eventbrite makes every aspect of organizing your event as simple as possible. From setting up an event page to automating your event marketing, our event management platform is here to help you make time to create one-of-a-kind events.
