Marcus Evans event spotlights latest trends in Australia’s public venue safety and security

This week sees the international event management company, Marcus Evans, hosting the 2024 Public Venue Safety & Security conference at the Pullman Sydney Airport. The event focus is on the latest trends in Australia’s safety and security sector, specifically on establishing safety through integrated threat detection strategies and advanced crowd management techniques.

The event is bringing together over 100 delegates and 20 speakers. Presentations cover a range of case studies which address topics ranging from regulatory compliance, evolving industry standards, to stakeholder engagement to ensure public safety and security. Technological developments are also being spotlighed, particularly advancements in camera technology and video analytics.

Day one featured a keynote by Stuart Bailey, former Head of Security & Anti-Corruption Compliance at Cricket Australia who emphasised the importance of communication between stakeholders in implementing effective preventative security measures. Bailey also covered strategies which are now seen as critical to countering security breaches, such as hostile events as well as pitch invasions. These included innovative approaches such as safety guard positioning as well as regular meetings between police, venue management, security officials, and event directors leading up to events. Other preventative steps even extended to liaising with immigration to track serial international pitch invaders. The increase in pitch invasions over the years has seen fines of up to $13,500 being introduced as a deterrent.

A particularly interesting case study was presented by Kevin Poilly, Manager of Events & Sister Cities at Blacktown City Council. Poilly discussed the evolution of the Australia Day Festival in Western Sydney, which had faced significant challenges in 2010. These included 80 arrests, 160 lost children, and cultural tensions due to alcohol consumption, and extreme heat. In response to negative feedback particularly from families the event was transformed into a family-friendly, alcohol-free celebration the following year in 2011. Changes included shifting the entertainment from rock to country and blues, increasing the availability of water stations, and creating segregated areas for police and marshals to monitor the crowds. While attendance initially dropped from 40,000 to 7,000, the event has since grown to 25,000 in 2024, with no incidents and strong vendor and stakeholder support.

Other presenters on Day One included Stephen Goss, founder of L.E.V.8, who addressed the need for event and venue managers to reduce the time spent on the administrative aspects of compliance. He introduced his company’s cloud-based SaaS platform that provides real-time access to safety-critical information, as well as compliance status, and the function of being able to file event documents, and action items, all in one place. The L.E.V.8 Portal, designed by Goss, has gained a strong reputation in recent months as it allows organisers to create and manage multiple events from a central dashboard, with an interactive file management system for instant access to policies and procedures.

The three day event continues on Tuesday with an address by Andrew Cooke, Head of Safety Security & Access at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 and will conclude on Wednesday with a keynote by Scott Taylor CPP, Managing Director of Praesidium Risk and Resilience on Conducting Risk Assessments to Identify Potential Targets and Prioritise Security Measures

Image. Patrick Elliott, CEO and Founder VisualCortex speaking Day one at the 2024 Public Venue Safety & Security conference. Credit: James Croll, Australasian Leisure Management