Health and Safety in Events Management

Health and safety in events management is essential and needs to be undertaken and understood both at a practitioner level as well as academically. The subject area has created a lot of interest due to the various case studies of events that have received attention due to, in some cases, poor practices leading to substantial media and public awareness. Therefore, its management needs to be seen as a priority and an area that needs to be understood greatly. The aim of health and safety management is to ensure that all the participants and attendees, as well as those affected by an event, are protected from threats to their health and safety.

Event Management and Terrorism in a Global Order

Over the recent years, the public spectacle and media events have become fertile grounds for terrorist attacks. Particularly, media events play a leading role enhancing the social cohesion as well as revitalizing the psychological frustrations that happened during the working days. Paradoxically, terrorism needs to maximize its gains while the costs are minimized. The spectacularisation tourism and events offer a double-edge sword. The same attractiveness that makes global cities a safer place to live are employed by the terrorist cells to cause chaos and uncertainty. The chapter theoretically explores the difficult interrelation between terrorism and event management as well as the conceptual limitations of Western rationality to understand the “undesired Other.”

Understanding and Negotiating Contracts With Venues

Signing the venue hire contract is a significant stage in the event planning process as it formalises the agreement with the principal supplier to the event. Venue contracts can be quite lengthy and detailed documents as they cover all aspects of the agreement between the two parties. As well as confirming the hire charges, it will stipulate a number of rules and regulations that will govern the event, and it will outline the penalties for failing to comply with the contract. Much of this is rooted in the venue's plan to ensure that the event complies with relevant legislation and health and safety guidance. This chapter covers the purpose of a venue contract, typical terms and conditions, likely penalties for breaching the contract, plus an overview of venue specific laws and health and safety guidance.

Managing the Risks

Since the 1980s employers in the UK have been subject to statutory responsibilities to ensure that all workplaces are safe. These responsibilities also extend to event managers staging one-off events. The Corporate Manslaughter Act of 1997 and the Health and Safety Act 1999 have invariably changed the way that events are planned, managed, and delivered. This chapter examines best practices for managing major health and safety issues at outdoor music festivals (OMFs) based on an extensive literature review and the author's practitioner experience of various music festivals nationwide. It will provide a practical and convenient reference guide for event managers who do not have time to attend other training or to do extensive research. The first section will discuss the legislative framework for outdoor events in the UK. Next, commentary is provided on the nature and characteristics of outdoor music festivals. Common risks associated with outdoor music festivals are discussed accompanied by actionable steps that event managers can employ to mitigate risks.

Management of Health and Safety Risks at Large Events

This chapter details and guides managers and researchers to consider organisational culture, risk management systems, procedures, principles, and processes to manage larger events successively and effectively without any potential tragedies, harms, and risks. It begins with the conceptual understanding of events and how the event organising involves managing health and safety risks. Health and safety management in such situations consists of organised efforts and procedures for identifying workplace hazards and reducing accidents and exposure to harmful situations and substances. The events are organised with different purposesm and each event has a unique blending of durations, seating, management, and people. This is further followed by risk management planning, which assists event organisers in devising and conducting events in the safest possible manner while mitigating losses. HSE England commissioned a study in 2012 and found a range of potential risks and remedies at major events. The main risk identified were design and construction, public health and safety risks, airborne and communicable diseases, non-infectious risk, respiratory diseases, road traffic accident, crowd control, strain on healthcare, workplace violence, fires, etc. Managing a safe event involves planning, assessing risks, precautions measure and corrective and perverting actions, contingency, emergency planning and procedures, effective communications, managing crowd and resources, review, and reflection. The primary legislation covering occupational health and safety in Britain is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which makes employers responsible for the management of health and safety. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, and employees have to themselves and to each other. The last section discusses main principles of a H&S risk management policy followed by some case studies.

Event Management

In this chapter, the sustainability and development related to corporate social responsibility is assessed. The intermediate approaches of group thinking and their future possibilities are discussed in brief. It will be helpful to break the orthodox mentality and also for future purpose to bring development and innovation in the society. The techniques of current approaches regarding the thinking process and their impact on the society are assessed. The group thinking has been assessed through a particular mentality of the society. The process of implementing change in the recent mentality and the platform to implement the process has been analyzed in the context of learning and development.

Risk Managment in Events Management

Risk management is a key requirement in the events industry today. All elements in event delivery have to be considered in the decision to deliver the event during the planning phase, and this information has to be shared with all the stakeholders so that they are able to input it to the document. The chapter highlights useful models such the EMBOK and also the five-step process to enable both practitioners and those wishing to gain a greater knowledge and understanding on what can potentially be a complex area. This is further supported with a body of knowledge of those who have written in the area and support some the ideas that have been presented.