Emergency Planning Saves Lives
Planning for the unexpected can be hard. Nevertheless, it happens to be an important part of not only life, but of business too. Event planners and public officials are often required to work together to ensure that consumers stay safe – as are police, paramedics and industry leaders. In a world where all kinds of threats are possible, it’s important to ensure that all public events can be safely monitored, controlled and shut down quickly, if necessary.
All large scale events should be backed by an in-depth emergency action plan. This plan should be effective, yet simple enough to follow without the need for extra guidance or training. It should be exhaustive and it should focus on the first priority of all public events – consumer safety. Here are some important tips that you can use to develop your company’s emergency plan.
Anticipate
According to Meetings Net journalist Tommy Jones, you should always be able to control the size and scale of your event. You should know approximately how many people will attend, how many will stay for the duration and how you are going to safely manage them. This is especially important if you’re working with large crowds. Incident reporting can help you to anticipate emergencies before they get out of hand. Fire evacuation points, emergency rescue plans and medical response requirements all depend on the number of people you are dealing with. It cannot be stressed enough – know your crowd!
Risk Factors
Will there be alcohol at your event? Will there be children or is it adults only? What types of activity will be taking place at this event? You must ask yourself all of these questions and be honest about their answers. There’s no harm in involving alcohol at an event, as long as trouble can be quickly and quietly dealt with. If there are any activities that involve a degree of personal risk, you must make sure that visitors are aware of it. Even if it is something as simple as a children’s climbing frame, it is important to know your rights. Whilst you may not be liable for a fall or injury on a properly constructed climbing frame – you are legally obliged to provide a certain degree of medical assistance. Once again, you cannot know how to avert a risk, if you have not first identified what that risk may be.
Weather Conditions
This is an especially tricky one, when it comes to planning an event. Most large scale events have to be held outdoors, where thunderstorms and heavy rain are a possibility. Event planners are encouraged to form a working relationship with their national weather service, to try and predict poor conditions in advance. The most common problem is in fact, extreme heat. High temperatures can be very dangerous, especially after long amounts of exposure. If you are planning to hold an event in the height of summer, you must take the necessary precautions. A large number of drinks stations or water fountains must be close by and there must be medical personnel on hand to deal with sun-related illness. It is vital that this type of risk be adequately considered before an event.
Commitment
Don’t be afraid to broadcast the fact that safety is high on your agenda. The vast majority of consumers do listen to safety advice and do care about its consequences. Your event will most likely be more popular if people know that it is completely secure. Post a copy of your emergency action plan on your website, if necessary.
According to the emergency action strategy of Edinburgh city council – an authoritie’s ultimate goal should be to lead a community or group back to a state of normality in the event of emergency.
Application
Many of the safety guidelines surrounding event planning, also apply to in-office scenarios. Things like fire exits, evacuation strategies and medical response requirements are all relevant to your company or business too. Scale down the numbers and the basics are usually the same – though it is important to account for staircases, lifts and electrical equipment.
Make sure that all electrics in your building are regularly checked and never tampered with by unqualified staff. Hold regular fire safety meetings, test smoke alarms and have practice evacuation sessions. All workplaces MUST have a first aid-kit and several fire extinguishers. This is a legal requirement and cannot be shirked. The HSE website offers a unique risk assessment simulator. Find it here http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/office.htm
Author Bio: Rob James is a successful entrepreneur, specialising in large scale events. He has run all kinds of different successful events. He recommends Vocal for efficient and effective incident reporting. Rob likes to blog in his spare time and help raise awareness of business continuity.
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