Event security is so much more than merely placing security guards around the vicinity of your event. There’s much thought to be put in to ensure that the event stays safe as possible, and that the participants, guests, and even items in the event are free from any risk of injury or damage. Failure to implement such security properly can entail a myriad of problems. For example, a guest might get injured fighting with another guest or that an unexpected situation couldn’t be contained.
When you hire security personnel for your events, here are four tips to make the most out of their services:
1. Identify Potential Attendee Risks
While it might be impossible to run a background check on every attendee, what you should do is to check out the more prominent ones. For example, if you have a guest speaker coming to talk at your event, and you know that they have a controversial background, you can keep an eye out for any attendees who might cause mayhem.
In other words, try to gauge the risk of your attendees. For example, if you notice that a single person purchased a bunch of tickets, that might be an indication that they might be aiming to disrupt the event.
2. Assess the Need for Armed Guards
When you’re running an especially large event, know that you could a big target to terrorist attacks. While this might sound like being paranoid, however, that is the reality that you live in.
If you’re running an event that has a potential for attack, you will need to implement extra layers of security to cover your entire event. For example, every bag a guest brings must be checked thoroughly. Not only are they to look for weapons, but the security personnel should also look for anything that can resemble a weapon.
On top of that, other items, such as toxic chemicals, should also be searched to ensure that the chance of an attack is minimized and that anyone planning to carry out the terrorist act will be apprehended.
3. Study the Venue
Before you get to keep the event safe, you need to study the venue carefully. What you’re trying to look for are different entry points the venue might have. This can include back doors, windows, and any other kind of entryway. The goal here is to ensure that each of these entryways will be guarded by the security personnel.
Make sure to diagram every entryway, if possible, to give your security team a better idea of which areas to pay careful attention to for any uninvited guests.
4. Maintain Crowd Control
Keep in mind that you should always maintain your crowd. If anything goes wrong, security personnel and staff should act immediately to keep the situation under control.
To add to that, security staff should also be comfortable in dealing with large groups of people. Their tasks would include anything along the lines of asking guests to move away from the exit, stopping people from cutting line, and keeping non-VIP guests away from areas designated for VIPs only.
Conclusion
Keep in mind at all times that anything can go wrong in an event. From fights among the crowds to an all-out terrorist attack, these situations will go out of hand very quickly if you do not have security personnel in place to keep everything under control. When you do work with a security team, make sure that they have all the certificates, licenses, and training needed to ensure that they can do their job effectively, and that’s to keep everyone safe at your event.
Are you looking to hire security services for your upcoming event? Get in touch with us today to see how we can help!