Event Planning, Risk Assessment, and Venue Safety
Planning is a cycle, not a document. Candidates should know the sequence: identify hazards, assess likelihood and severity, control the risk (eliminate, reduce, isolate, administrate, PPE), record, and review. Risk assessment must be dynamic - reviewed when attendance, weather, layout, or programming changes.
Key concepts include capacity (the safe maximum occupancy set by the venue's licence and egress calculations), egress width (the narrowest point governs flow), sightlines, segregation (physical separation of rival groups, often by sterile zones and staggered exit times), and zonal management (dividing the venue into areas with named responsibility). Traps include confusing licensed capacity with the number of tickets sold, assuming a fire certificate guarantees current safety, and treating a generic template risk assessment as sufficient for a specific event.
Venue safety involves checking exits are unobstructed, signage is visible, lighting is adequate, and communications work. Stewarding ratios and controller numbers should reflect risk, not just attendance. Briefings must confirm that every person knows their zone, their radio channel, their supervisor, and their emergency role.
Rule of thumb: if a control relies on people behaving well, it is a weak control. Prefer physical and design controls first, then procedural, then behavioural.
Worked example: A concert sells standing tickets for a fenced area with one 1.2-metre exit. The assessment should calculate egress flow from the narrowest point, not the total gate count, and either widen the exit or reduce capacity.