RISK MANAGEMENT AND MITIGATION

Now more than ever, the health and safety of your event is paramount. A single, overlooked detail can result in a disaster. At any event, risk management is an essential part of the planning process to ensure you’re able to respond quickly and appropriately. Your team should know your risks and develop the best strategies to mitigate them with an “Event Risk Assessment”. We abide by three stages of risk management and mitigation: assess, treat, and monitor. Read on to see how you can ensure the health and safety of everyone who attends your events, while continuing to provide the highest level of service.

• ASSESS

Before you get to the planning of the event, be sure to take the time and assess all aspects to ensure safety and health. Starting with an onsite consultation is best to get the most accurate idea of what you will be working with. Be sure to assess food and beverage handling & safety. Keep your attendees protected through adopting best practices in food safety culture and good quality control. Events that are offering food and beverage to their crew, talent, and studio guests are encouraged to provide individually-packaged food and drink. Due to the ongoing aftermath of COVID-19, the CDC still recommends physical distancing in large groups of people, so crowd control is another aspect of your event to be prepared for. In your onsite consultation, imagine different layouts of the space to encourage the best social distancing. Depending on the size of your venue, the number of guests at your event might need to be smaller than years prior. With in-person events, you will need to be sure to have the right permits and insurance to produce your type of event. Resulting in the wrong permits or no permits at all, could lead to not only legal issues, but possibly unseen safety hazards in your venue. Having the right insurance for your event, whether it be event cancellations, liability, or even cyber, can provide some comfort and mitigate any risk of unforeseen occurrences at your events. 

It’s unfortunate that large gatherings of people are subject to security threats, ranging from verbal disagreements between attendees to possible major violence. Your team must take all the steps that are necessary to ensure the security and safety of your event, and this means bringing in trained security personnel to assess the venue as well. It is important to note that an experienced security consultant will be able to identify potential problems in the venue or crowd conduct so that your team or the hired security guards are ready and able to respond to threats, should they arise. In this stage of the pandemic, virtual and hybrid events are still popular and being produced. If this is the method of production for your event, be sure to take cybersecurity equally as important.  Cybersecurity provides protection of your or your attendees’ computer systems and networks from information disclosure, theft, or damage to hardware, software, or data. 

• TREAT

After assessing the venue and all aspects of the event that will take place, we encourage you to join forces and liaise with partners to implement those preventive measures and ensure the safety of your event. The pandemic has influenced a lot of new or different safety protocols that are now being enforced, for the health and well-being of both event workers and attendees. In order to ensure proper physical distancing, you can use ropes and stanchions, partition barriers, or social circles, all depending on the layout and size of your venue. ​​Attendees must practice social distancing by maintaining a distance of, at least, six feet from other individuals, except for members of the same immediate party/household/family. It is also important in this day and age to include at least a few hand sanitizing and washing stations so your guests are encouraged to wash their hands regularly throughout the event, and an up-to-date air filtration system. Frequent disinfecting and sanitization of spaces and high-touch surfaces is an absolute must and so is the sanitization of all event equipment. This sanitization process should be done before, during, and after the event to ensure the removal of possibly threatening germs. 

Both attendees and event personnel should receive a health screening questionnaire prior to the event. The health screening consists of questions regarding current or recent COVID-19 symptoms (e.g., temperature in excess of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit), close or proximate contact with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, recent positive COVID-19 test result(s), and compliance with the State’s travel advisory. Entry to the event should be denied to any attendee who fails the health screening questionnaire, as well as any members of the attendee’s party who may have been in close contact within the past 10 days. We also encourage for your event’s attendees to provide proof of vaccination or proof of a negative Covid-19 test to ensure that the group at large is safe. 

• MONITOR

Now that the venue and the guests have been treated, event managers should work with the staff to monitor and adjust protocols as needed, throughout the event. This starts with onsite security or additional staff to manage and control the crowd flow. They should be making sure that the attendees are following all rules and regulations by keeping proper social distance, as well as wearing masks. It is crucial to continue to monitor and re-stock the sanitizer and hand washing stations frequently and remind all staff to wash hands frequently, wipe down surfaces, and wear protective masks as needed to protect themselves and the event’s guests. 

It is important to continue to update your plan as new guidelines develop. In the meantime, these principles have your event covered with risk management that minimizes the impact of potential health and safety hazards. Implement and follow them as you plan for your event. The more complex your event, and the larger the number of attendees and staff involved, the more careful planning is required. And most importantly, effective communication during the event will be the key to your ability to respond quickly if things go wrong, if necessary. If you would like our experts to help ensure the safety of your next event, contact Wizard Studios today!