Looking to plan a campus event that stands out while ensuring safety and security? From choosing the right venue to anticipating crowd behavior, proper planning is key. This guide walks you through 8 essential steps to hosting a successful and secure campus event while mitigating potential risks.
1. Identify the Scope of Your Campus Event
Before you schedule anything, you should consider the scope of the event or mass gathering, the risks to spectators and participants, community impact, the emergency support required (personnel and logistics) and any negative risk factors. These negative impacts to your campus could include community standing, reputation and financial costs.
The primary goal of contingency planning is to be prepared for all emergencies that might negatively impact the campus. These plans are the specific written assignments of roles and responsibilities during normal operations as well as major campus activities.
2. Determine the Type of Event Taking Place
First, campus public safety administrators and other stakeholders must determine the type of event that will be held. Could it be considered a special event and/or a mass gathering? A special event is a non-routine activity within a campus that brings together a large number of people from on and off campus. Emphasis is not placed on the total number of people attending but rather the impact on the campus and its stakeholder’s ability to respond to a large-scale event that has the potential to draw exceptional demands on response services. A special event requires additional planning, preparedness and mitigation efforts by the university, local emergency response and public safety agencies.
Planning considerations should include time constraints, command and support staff availability, NIMS-required training, campus safety concerns, manpower requirements and emergency response issues. It also includes identifying persons responsible for particular types of hazards and risks assessments, lead agency, resources, expenses and jurisdictions.
Related Article: Security Planning for Graduation Ceremonies
It is important to evaluate the type of crowd that will attend your event.
- Ambulatory – usually calm unless agitated
- Limited movement – crowd has limited or restricted movement; requires additional planning
- Expressive – emotional release
- Aggressive – initially verbal, open to lawlessness
- Protestors (for example pickets and marches) – organized to some degree and are capable of attacking or violence
- Degree of organization – can they become spontaneously aggressive? Is there a volatility triggering point and to what extent of violence is this crowd capable of?
3. Engage Stakeholders and Event Planners
One of the first steps in planning an event is to bring together those who are hosting it with those who are responsible for public safety within the campus and community. A multidisciplinary planning team should be composed of the key university personnel, affected stakeholders and any agency that holds a functional stake in the event (e.g., emergency management, law enforcement, fire and rescue, public works/utilities, public health, etc.). The planning team should also develop its structure using ICS Unified Command as a model (that is command and support staff, sections, branches, divisions and groups, as needed).
The university should consider obtaining legal advice early in the planning stage. Items that warrant consideration include liability for injuries, acts or omissions, and financial obligations incurred in responding to major emergencies occasioned by the event.
4. Understand Your Audience
Venue management must be aware of the characteristics of the expected audience that is attracted to a particular artist, political figure or event. Crowd control is always an important planning consideration – both the likely makeup of the attendees and how to control them. Remember that you can anticipate your crowd behaviors through intelligence based on past artists or the type of event.
5. Anticipate Crowd Reactions
Once the facility operator, university planning team, police commander and campus promoter evaluate the expected crowd, they must plan accordingly. Anticipated crowd reactions should include normal behaviors for a specific artist or event, panic and craze reactions.
Panic in a group is the flight from a real or perceived threat from which escape appears to be the only effective response. What appears to be panic is usually the result of poor inputs (especially communications or the lack thereof) and previous knowledge and experience. Craze in a group is the temporary, short-lived competitive rush by a group toward some person, place or object. A craze tends to occur on entering an event and may be exacerbated by the lack of information or cancellation of the event.
Related Article: CISA Releases New Venue Security Guidance
When the event will have standing room areas, always consider personal space conflicts. At approximately three square feet per person, involuntary contact and brushing against others occurs. This is a behavioral threshold generally avoided by the public, except in crowded elevators and buses.
Below two square feet per person, potentially dangerous crowd forces and psychological pressures begin to develop. Plan for any circumstances that can cause an unplanned movement of a crowd.
6. Plan for Emergency Evacuations or Cancellations
From time to time, an event may need to be canceled, postponed or interrupted. If a crowd has already gathered, these actions have the potential to create dangerous crowd reactions. Have plans in place to manage an angry crowd appropriately and to address the possible readmission of patrons to the venue.
One major aspect to consider is who has the authority to cancel or postpone an event. During the planning phase, the promoter and the planning team must discuss this contingency. Who has the authority to cancel or postpone an event? When and under what conditions can the event be postponed or canceled?
Emergency evacuation or cancellations planning must take place before the event begins, and everyone must know who has the authority to order it.
7. Use the Incident Command System (ICS)
The Incident Command System (ICS) is a management system designed through the use of best practices that enable effective and efficient incident management by integrating a combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures and communications operating within a common organizational structure. It is normally structured to facilitate activities in five major functional areas: command, operations, planning, logistics, finance and administration.
Related Article: A Brief Overview of the ICS Structure
8. Conduct a Pre-Event Planning Meeting
All events that include major conferences, that involve high profile participants or that will draw media attention, require complex contracts from an outside vendor a
nd involve minors (anyone 17 years old or younger) need to be preplanned. It should be held as soon as possible once the event has been booked. This type of meeting may be deemed necessary if any of the following circumstances are met:
- The event is of a complex nature and needs extra attention
- The event will draw a large attendance
- The event has attractions, rides or a large stage
- The event is a first time event
- The renter, group or type of event has a negative history
- The organization is a new renter
- If the organization is under new leadership
ICS, planning and training are the keys that will make your event successful, safe and secure.
Planning a campus event may seem overwhelming, but with thorough preparation, proper crowd management, and robust incident response frameworks, your event has a much better change of running smoothly while prioritizing attendee safety. Implement these 8 best practices to ensure your event is not only enjoyable but also safe and well-organized.
Dennis Terpin, Ph.D., is a certified FEMA/DHS master level Instructor for the Center for Domestic Preparedness and was formerly the senior industrial hygienist for the University of Illinois at Chicago. This article was originally published in 2016, and the recommendations still apply today.
NOTE: The views expressed by guest bloggers and contributors are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Campus Safety.
