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Safety

As the event organiser you are responsible for the safety of everyone who participates.

As the event organiser you are responsible for the safety of everyone who participates. This includes those who work at, service and attend the event.

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Event risk management

The goal of risk management planning is to identify the potential hazards and implement measures to eliminate or reduce them. There are often scenarios that can't be controlled. Assigning responsibility for managing such instances is a critical part of the planning process.

There are five key steps in the event risk management process:

  1. Identifying the hazards associated with event activities
  2. Identifying the risks associated with each hazard
  3. Developing hazard controls
  4. Preparing an event risk assessment and control document.
  5. Preparing an emergency management plan

Identifying hazards

A risk assessment should be a thorough process. Getting help from people who are involved in different parts of the event can identify hazards you may not have thought of.

You should work through every aspect of the event to determine what could cause harm.

Think about:

  • the event size
  • infrastructure
  • operation and production
  • emergency management.

An example of a hazard might be someone tripping over an uneven section of land on the event site. Consider what could happen and whether someone could be injured.

Identifying risks

When you identify a hazard, you need to consider the:

  • risk of it occurring (high, medium or low)
  • consequences if it does occur.

For example, if your event is July the risk of rain is reasonably high. Ask yourself how rain would affect your event? Would it ruin everything, or could undercover areas keep your event going?

The combination of likelihood and consequences will be your guide for how to treat hazards and whether to proceed with an activity or element.

Developing hazard controls

When you have identified hazards and considered their risks, you need to think about what action you can take to 'treat' that hazard.

Can you reduce or eliminate a hazard with the right approach, or is the risk too high?

Think about which event team member can best deal with each hazard and give responsibility to them. Also consider who will be responsible for monitoring hazards. For example, the risk of back injury to event staff is always present, but with the right training and monitoring, the chance of injury is significantly reduced.

Event assessment and control document

Think about the hazards that might arise at your event and what action could mitigate them. Depending on the size of your event and the planned activities, you may have to prepare an event assessment and control document as a condition of your event in public space permit.

You should present this information in our event assessment and control document template [ DOCX, 3.55 MB] (PDF 3.6MB)

Each event will have different requirements. You must tailor the event documentation to reflect the size, scope and complexity of the event.

Emergency Management Plan

The purpose of an Emergency Management Plan is to outline what steps to take if there is an emergency during your event.

Regardless of the size or scope of your event, your Emergency Management Plan needs to identify:

  • potential emergencies that might arise
  • procedures in the event of those emergencies
  • who is responsible for managing emergencies.

The Emergency Management Plan should be clear, concise and easy to use. It is vital that key staff are familiar with the plan and can access it. You must also keep staff up to date with any changes to procedures.

At a minimum, your Emergency Management Plan should include:

  • an emergency services contact list
  • a key event staff and contractors contact list
  • an emergency response plan to each type of emergency listed
  • site plans highlighting:
    • evacuation routes and marshalling points
    • emergency service access and egress routes
    • locations for fire extinguishers, fire blankets and first aid kits/posts.

Our Emergency Management Plan template [ DOCX, 36.48 KB] (PDF 37KB) is a guide for how you should present your information. Each event will have different requirements and you must tailor your documentation to reflect the size, scope and unique aspects of the event.

More information

These resources can help you develop a safe event: