Tuesday tips for planning safe events: evaluate, revise and improve!

It’s time for another edition of Tuesday tips for planning safe events!

People who host/plan events will often do so on more than one occasion. It’s helpful to learn from previous mistakes in order to make future events safer and more successful, which is why today’s tip is to evaluate, revise and improve event safety plans for future events!

Practice makes perfect!

The more you plan and host events, the more familiar you will become with the types of risks, hazards, incidents, and challenges to expect. In order to avoid similar mishaps from occurring during future events, it is helpful to take some time to evaluate, revise and improve your event safety plan.

Step 1: Evaluate
Here are some questions to ask yourself when evaluating the effectiveness of your event safety plan:
- Were any risks identified during the event that were not considered as potential risks in the event safety plan?
- Did I have enough staff/volunteers to run my event?
- Were my staff/volunteers properly trained and effective at handling their responsibilities?
- Did I have the equipment and tools necessary to run my event safely?
- Was the crowd disruptive? What kind of problems did they create?
- Was the venue suitable for the type/size of event I was hosting?
- How many people were injured at my event? Were their injuries preventable?
- Did I have medics on site that were able to respond quickly to any incidents?

Step 2: Revise and improve
Once you’ve evaluated your safety plans effectiveness, you will have a better understanding of what you need to revise and improve. Some of your revisions/improvements may include:
- Adding newly identified risks to your event safety plan
- Hiring more staff/volunteers if needed
- Creating new training programs to better train your staff/volunteers on areas where they underperformed
- Purchasing new equipment/tools that will ensure better safety
- Identifying better methods of crowd management
- If necessary, considering other possible venues to use in the future that may be better suited
- Creating strategies for better avoiding preventable injuries
- Hiring a qualified event medical services team such as Spectrum Event Medical Services. Advanced Care Paramedics can be added to an existing event medical team if an event/venue requires a medical team with additional training.