Business events must adopt Olympic standards on safety

In the heightened global security environment, business events organisers should look to the learnings of past Olympic events when it comes to issues of security and cyber security.

That was the message delivered by former Director-General of the British security service MI5 and Chief Security Officer for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games, Lord Jonathan Evans, when addressing a business audience at Australia House in London overnight, which included the Australian High Commissioner to the UK, Alexander Downer and more than 20 Association leaders.

Hosted by Business Events Sydney (BESydney) and the new International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney), Lord Evans provided valuable insights on how international business events organisers should look to the learnings of previous Olympic events when it comes to issues of security and cyber security in today’s changing global environment.

Linking  Sydney, the city that changed the way the world looks to host Olympic events, and London, where Olympic event security had a new focus in the current world order, Lord Evans stated “collaborative activity between the venue, the event organisers, law enforcement and security authorities is critical. Being able to access the best intelligence, the best law enforcement capabilities is a very important underpinning to the security for major events.

“During the London Olympics, success meant tremendous support from all of our colleagues, and in particular from Australian intelligence.”

BESydney Chief Executive Lyn Lewis-Smith, said that there are significant gains for modern day business events organisers in working more closely with their convention bureau partners to harness their connections within a city.

Lewis-Smith advised “as the world changes, globalisation is forever present. With the digitisation of our economy standard practice, it is more important now than ever before that association leaders work closely with destination leaders to assure integrity of their event and the safety and security of attendees.

“Sydney is a dynamic, modern global city and we are keenly aware of the safety and security needs of event organisers. As business leaders, to successfully partner with event organisers we work in close collaboration with a number of stakeholders across both the public and private sectors in bringing together our clients with the relevant policy, protocol and law enforcement agencies to ensure seamless and cohesive partnership regarding safety and security.”

The city’s premier, new major business events venue, ICC Sydney, was designed with security in mind.

As ICC Sydney Chief Executive Geoff Donaghy explained, the new world-class facility was built to host the world’s most prominent speakers and events, adding “entry, egress and the ability to isolate areas across the venue are core to our operation but more important is our management experience in high profile events, our technology systems and the strength of our partnerships with law enforcement agencies.

“Within our first month of operation, ICC Sydney had already successfully hosted major events and their security requirements for guests such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Indonesian President Joko Widodo and regularly welcomes Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.”

Images: Geoff Donaghy, Alexander Downer AC, Lord Jonathan Evans and Lyn Lewis-Smith in London (top) and securoty checks for an event at ICC Sydney (below).

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