One of the fundamentals to risk management is to know what you are talking about. Have a solid understanding of the risk, the variables, the details, and all of the vulnerabilities as well as mitigation measures. With information on risk comes the ability to manage and mitigate it. Intelligence-led security is paramount. To enable an organization to move forward and progress during and indeed after the pandemic, they will require knowledgeable security project managers to guide the corporate function through numerous potential scenarios and align risk management protocol and measures to any event. Project Managers will need to be the practitioners transforming continuously evolving policy in to practice, with their own understanding of risk.

A common mistake among special event organizers is the assumption that security measures cross-deck between events, venues, locations, regions, cultures, and risk. This thought process will seriously hamper the process of event planning. The same simple theory and strategy should be employed for dealing with the current COVID-19 risk.

For example:

The security and safety design for a large multi-component event with an exhibition floor and keynote speaker session will be different to that of a corporate hospitality travel package to a sports event.

Special event security is about enabling operations to succeed and yet remaining flexible with the ability to adapt or pivot will little notice. Any security company within the special event industry that doesn’t stay flexible, and refuses to blend into hospitality and safety roles, will find it difficult to operate successfully

Security screening has evolved immensely over the last few years and is no longer just magnetometer wands and bag checks. Post-COVID-19 event and security managers must leverage technology to reduce the contact-points between security and guests, and work towards eliminating unnecessary
choke points.

There are currently two industry leader’s in this field Evolv and Metrasens. Both are passive screening that minimize interaction. Any secondary screening can be carried out away from the main traffic flow.

• Reduced waiting times
• Less lineage and queuing
• Distanced queuing
• Passive scanning
• Minimal physical interaction with people or belongings

Anyone can write Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and more often than not, people will just cut and paste some ‘Industry-best’ SOPs with little thought into whether they are relevant, or how to implement them or enforce them. Implementing, communicating, rehearsing, and enforcing SOPs will be the differentiator between a successful, safe event versus one which just “goes through the motions”.

The ability to implement SOPs and support operations is a key strength to any reputable security organization. The team’s experience often stems from military, Police, and Government, where details matter, where roles and responsibilities, checks, balances, and management of people in order to get results is ingrained. Designing and implementing effective SOPs requires experienced project managers assessments, communication, a system of checks and balances, incident reporting, and on-the-ground managers ensuring that all these components are carried out correctly and in a timely manner.

Any experienced event organizer knows the importance of having people on-the-ground, managing small teams with clearly defined parameters and objectives.
Having an enhanced and robust cleaning and disinfection plan is, in the current environment extremely important, but, is it being implemented? How many times at an event have you asked for something at a certain time, with clear instructions only to see it done half-hearted, incorrectly, or not at all.

A security manager blends into this role perfectly, able to get the most out of a team and meet clearly defined objectives, communicate to all stakeholders and ensure results.

The risk of reputational damage, as well as litigation looms overhead constantly during events. Security is an asset that can facilitate and assist. This may involve incident reporting  to evidential standard, the safety and security of data (including Cyber) as well as access control security.

Yes, COVID-19 is scary and without a doubt, a risk, and one which must be managed. It is important to avoid getting distracted or focusing on COVID-19 to the detriment of other threats that may be relevant, and higher risk.

At the end of any event, a sound departure strategy should be considered. Threat to life and imminent danger takes priority over the threat of infection, but has the event team considered issues such as a power outage, an unscheduled fire alarm or even a weather-related issue? A robust evacuation and egress plan should always be considered.

Any evacuation plan needs to be carefully considered by all the event stakeholders, with the security function taking primacy during the planning phase. All parties should be aware of the plan and have a clear understanding of their role during this process.