Setting up security for your event
Event security involves a lot more than checking tickets and hiring a couple of stewards to keep an eye out for any anti-social activity.
Planning an event can be extremely exciting, but sorting out the security is probably not top of the list of things about the planning process you are looking forward to. That said, it is certainly one of the most important and any event manager who doesn’t take their security seriously is opening themselves up to all sorts of potentially devastating situations.
Luckily, event security doesn’t have to be a headache for much longer, and by using the advice in this guide you will ensure that your guests are kept safe and property protected when the big day comes along.
Here are a few top tips for the best way to approach your event security needs:
Invest in Rapid Deployment CCTV
If you are planning an event in a venue that does not already have a CCTV system in place, an outdoor festival for example, you will need to bring in rapid deployment CCTV so that your security staff can keep an eye across the whole crowd for anything that could cause potential issues.
Luckily mobile CCTV towers are now incredibly advanced and pretty affordable to hire, making them perfect for short-term surveillance. They are also self-charging and sustainable and can be plonked in the middle of a field miles from a source of mains electricity and still work perfectly.
Contact a professional event security firm
By far the most sensible way to set up event security is to let the professionals handle it. Rather than sources even individual security measure one at a time, contact a professional event security company and arrange for them to take control of security on the day.
These companies not only know what threats that you are likely to face based on their past experience, but they also have access to all the security measures that you could possibly need. They will be able to install CCTV, deploy security guards, and provide you with temporary access control technologies such as turnstiles and more.
Learn the venue
The more that you know about the event venue the easier it will be to build an effective event security strategy.
Every event is different and has different security requirements and this rule applies to the venue as well. Just because you have hosted a political conference in a sports hall before, for example, does not mean that you will require the exact same security measures the next time when you host it in a hotel.
If you are only using the venue as a one-off, your best strategy is to talk directly to the on-site staff, in-house security if possible, and ask for their advice. They will have seen many events hosted at the venue and over the years have probably seen a few things go wrong. Liaising with them will allow you to make sure that you don’t make the same mistake twice and learn from the experiences of the past.