Health and safety has been in the spotlight as never before since the start of the pandemic, particularly in the events industry. As the Group Safety Manager in an organisation that has that rare commodity, an in-house safety team, we’ve been at the front line of that shift in focus. Since 2020, event organisers have been asking about health and safety practices before almost anything else. In 2021, the approach evolved through changing rules, lockdowns and travel restrictions. This year, while we hope there will be fewer COVID restrictions, it’s important to maintain effective and clear communications around health and safety.
Safety measures have been very visible during the COVID pandemic, with testing, hand sanitiser, face masks and social distancing taking centre stage. Health and safety may now become more of a subtle art, but your attendees are used to getting a more detailed picture of your safety protocols and will expect this moving forwards.
Here are my top tips for event organisers when it comes to your approach to health and safety this year:
- Health and safety management should blend into your project planning process. Safety decisions should help you meet your event goals and not hinder them. Discussing safety consistently with an in-house team throughout the project can certainly help! Why add awkward looking safety signage to your event at the last minute, when this could have been considered from the start and designed in keeping with the look and feel of your event?
- Mental health and wellbeing remain a big focus in 2022. Some people may be excited at the prospect of getting back to live events, while others may feel nervous and apprehensive. We saw in our Return to Live insights report that event communications can play a huge role in helping people to feel comfortable. Be clear and consistent and take time to think about the concerns that attendees may have and how you can alleviate them. FAQ pages provide a great way for attendees to access information in advance, but also consider how they can contact you with any direct questions or concerns both ahead of and during the event.
- Going over and above can be a good thing. There is an abundance of health and safety law which sets out the absolute minimum requirement of what we should do, but remember that following the law is exactly that, the minimum requirement. In any other aspect of our event, we wouldn’t consider ‘the absolute minimum’ to be good enough, as we want to be the best. Having this same mindset in relation to health and safety management for events can really ensure that workers and attendees, as well as feeling safe, can feel appreciated and cared for. If you don’t think that your venues or suppliers currently meet your safety standards, work with them to bring them up to your level… you don’t have to just accept that a lesser level is good enough.
- Sharing of knowledge and learning. I’m fortunate to work as part of an award winning Safety Team and get to support a wide range of fantastic events in some incredible locations. Although many aspects of these events are top secret, health and safety is not one of them. If we know something works, or doesn’t, we shouldn’t be afraid to share that knowledge with other people, contractors, venues, clients etc. The end goal is always to minimise the risk of illness, injury or damage to property. Sharing our learnings to help others achieve this goal can only be a good thing.
- Contingency planning is a vital part of risk management. As different regions open up at different paces and travel restrictions are continually changing, it would be naïve to plan any event without first asking the question ‘what if?’. What if the delegates can no longer attend in person? What if our supplier can no longer get to the location? What if a key team member or speaker has to isolate in a foreign country for two weeks and unexpectedly can’t be at the event? ‘What if?’ can sometimes be a scary question, but it’s not about finding reasons why we shouldn’t do something. It’s about making sure we have plans in place so that whatever happens, we can meet our objectives.
As COVID potentially becomes endemic, rather than a pandemic, it may be tempting to think health and safety can retreat into the background. For me, that should never be the case. By communicating clearly, sharing knowledge and going above and beyond the minimum requirements, we can ensure that event attendees feel not only safe, but confident as they return to the experiences they love.