21.04.22 Protecting People in Crowded Places Conference

Date: 21st April 2022

Time: 10:00 - 18:00

Venue: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, London E20 2ST

About this event

Join the Security Institute for a Protecting People in Crowded Places Conference. 

What are the definitions of safety and security? What is the importance of Securing a major Events Venue? And what are the benefits of creating a fully interoperable team? These are just some of the topics that are being discussed at our Protecting People in Crowded Places Conference, where we will be joined by a list of expert speakers in the subjects of Crowd Safety, Contract Delivery and much, much more.

This is the perfect opportunity to learn from these educational CPD presentations whilst also being able to meet other members, hear expert speakers and visit one of London's unique venues.

Timings

10 AM Guests’ arrival (refreshments provided)

10:30 - 10:45 Peter Swordy London Stadium Introduction

10:50 - 11:30 Co chair panel (PPICP SIG)

11:35 - 12:15 Miriam Stone

12:15 - 13:00 Finger buffet lunch

13:00 - 13:45 Prof. Dr G Keith Still

13:50 - 14:30 Eric Stuart

14:35 - 15:05 Refreshments

15:05 - 15:45 Chris Kemp

15:50 - 16:30 Jane Fairweather

16:35 - 16:45 The event host Carl Dakin

16:45 - 17:00 Jason Eglash 

17:00 - 17:45 Networking

18:00 Event concludes

Further Details 

Cost per person                  £20-25 pp

Speakers:

Miriam Stone

Title of the talk: Reflections on managing a major incident 

This is a personal reflection on managing the incident of the suicide bomb attack outside the Manchester Arena on 22 May 2017.  The coming together of the world of security and that of crowd management, the real-life responses from the team and the successes and difficulties associated with such an experience.

Miriam has worked in the events industry for 30 years.  Starting out in theatre and small music venues, her career has taken her via local authority through to orchestras, concert halls, big top festivals, field and street events, venue events management to now being the Head of Operations at the AO Arena in Manchester.  The venue has a capacity of 21,000 and hosts events ranging from netball to boxing, from classical through to rock concerts and from Disney to Strictly.  Miriam manages the Events Management team, the Venue Security Team and the Venue Technical Support team.  She is a great believer and practitioner of the table-top exercise and has been known to tag a big game onto those taking place at the Arena; a treasure hunt, massive snakes and ladders. She believes her team are her greatest asset and her focus is on their development and understanding of the very broad role they have.  Miriam was the Duty Manager on the event in 2017 which is the subject of her talk.

Prof. Dr G. Keith Still

Prof. Dr G. Keith Still will discuss the definitions of safety and security - why these are different concepts and often confused.The focus on vocabulary for normal and emergency situations, the issues of screening and queueing (creating soft targets) and the early warning signs of crowd related problems

He was born in Aberdeen and attained a BSc in Physical Sciences at the (then) Robert Gordons Institute of Technology. His PhD “Crowd Dynamics” in 2001 created a new science, combining risk analysis with crowd behaviour in both crowd models and crowd simulations. He is a visiting Professor at University of Suffolk and also teaches at Breda University of Applied Science (Holland). Keith has over 30 years of consulting experience across a range of international crowd safety and risk analysis environments and has advised on crowd behaviour, crowd risks and crowd safety considerations for events of 500 people to 3,000,000 people. He has published two books on the subject of Crowd Safety and Crowd Risk Analysis “Introduction to Crowd Science” and “Applied Crowd Science”.

Professor Chris Kemp

Title of the talk: Can we be fully interoperable in an age of egos?

This talk will focus on the benefits of creating a fully interoperable team across a range of disciplines, and the consequences of not buying into this type of ethos. From the blame game to team fulfillment, this session explores the far-reaching idiosyncrasies of human nature and how to survive a crisis. 

Professor Chris Kemp a former rock promotor, venue manager, university Pro Vice Chancellor and the founder, CEO and owner of Mind over Matter Consultancy worked with Yourope for almost two decades heading up the YES Group.

He is known throughout the world for his knowledge in crowded space environments and the development of risk analysis processes for events and entertainment and sports venues globally. He has addressed the House of Commons Select Committee on Olympic Security as well as the Royal Society of Medicine on crush injuries in crowds. He has worked on major events including the Pope’s visit to Romania, the British and Singapore Grand Prix, the European Football Championships and the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

His unique way of creating innovative solutions was used on the Wembley Steps Project, capacity increases at arenas festivals and stadia, directional flow and capacity reorganization at the British Grand Prix, the identification of capacity challenges at eight major UK railway stations and for many other interesting and complex projects. He has provided crowded space consultancy for twelve major event companies, six arenas, Wembley Stadium, the O2 as well as providing leadership education for 38 British Olympic head coaches and medics for the Rio and Tokyo Games. Chris is well published and has written a series of books on the subject. His education courses from Level 5 to a Master’s degree have been taught in twenty two countries.

Jane Fairweather

Title of the talk: Securing a major Events Venue (The Before, During, and After).

Jane oversees the security contract delivery to Manchester City FC, which includes a broad range of security responsibilities. 

Jane Fairweather, G4S Contract Manager for a 54,000 capacity premier league football club will provide an overview of some of the challenges involved in securing such a  complex environment. 

Jane's presentation will include: 

- Match day preparation and planning 

- Match day 

- Post match 

Jane will present why she has learned to expect the unexpected, the complexities of dealing with players, staff, the public and the media and why planning is key. 

Eric Stuart

Eric is the Chair of the United Kingdom Crowd Management, Chair of the Global Crowd Management Alliance, board member of the Events Industry Forum and director of Gentian Events, a Crowd Safety Management Company established in 2009. He has been involved in Crowd Safety for 21 years, although working with crowds since 1980. He is engaged in planning and creating crowd management plans, delivering them on events sites and training others to do likewise. He is also the author of the UKs good practice guide for multi agency safety advisory groups for events. His current work includes contracts in the UK, US and Canada. He is the author of the Safety review of the (est) 2 million attendance Toronto Raptors Victor Parade in 2019 and the author of the crowd safety chapter of the Baroness Casey review of the Euro 2020 Finals at Wembley in 2001. 

Jason Eglash

Title of the presentation: Safety, Security and Service – an event overview from arrival to departure. The Safety Officers considerations and observations for an event at the London Stadium. From planning, preparation, layers and deterrents to resourcing, egress, Zone ex and the protect duty.

Jason has worked in different fields and on both sides of the ‘counter’. He started as a regulator, both as a Building Inspector and then as Public Safety Licensing Inspector, licensing, pubs, clubs, places of entertainment, including the Wembley Complex. He worked on the design of the new Wembley Stadium and in 2006, left local government to join private industry. He was part of the start-up team and was Head of Safety at the O2 in Greenwich. After the O2, he joined the Football Association as Head of Health and Safety and Lead Safety Officer for Wembley Stadium, as well as fulfilling free-lance work at large public events and green field sites. In 2018, Jason started at the London Stadium as the Safety Officer

About London Stadium 

Built to host London 2012, the former Olympic Stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is home to Premier League football club West Ham United and UK Athletics. With rock concerts through the intervening months, this versatile venue has also hosted the Rugby World Cup, international and domestic Rugby Union, The Race of Champions, the RFL Four Nations and was home for the first Major League Baseball games to be played in Europe.

This event has kindly been sponsored by our Golden sponsor G4S, Silver sponsor Global Support Services, and our Bronze sponsors Carlisle, HardStaff Barriers and Raven Controls 

Supported by UKCMA