Section I: Documentation & Planning Tools

1. Key Event Details

Event Title
Event Description and purpose
Date(s) of Event
Venue(s)
Venue Contact person		Phone No.
Set-up start time
Start time of the event
Finish time of the event
Pack-down finish time
Group organising event (eg. Activities C’ttee) and names of coordinating group
Event Coordinator		Phone No.
Staff Member assisting (if student rep event)		Phone No.
Key Stakeholders to notify	1.		Informed      Y       N
	2.		Informed      Y       N
	3.		Informed      Y       N
	4.		Informed      Y       N
	5.		Informed      Y       N
Other important information to note

3. Running Order

Complete a detailed running order of the event. Remember to include set up, clean up, pack-down, entertainment rosters and catering. The table below can be used as a template to fill in or as a guide for developing your own Running Order. Add rows as required.

Date	Time	Venue & Area	Description of Activity	Person Responsible
PLANNING
LEADING UP TO THE EVENT
ON THE DAY(S)
POST-EVENT

5. Risk Management Plan

Person monitoring progress of tasks to action

Contact Phone Number

Potential Risk

Likelihood A-almost certain B-likely C-possible D-unlikely

Consequence 1-minor 2-moderate 3-major 4-catastrophic

Level of Risk E-Extreme H-High M-Moderate L-Low

Tasks to Action

Responsible Person for Implementation (name and contact details)

Steps to monitor your tasks to action (specific dates and details required)

Task Complete?

Section II: Event Resource Material

Event Security: Sample event BBQ

Security is an important element of a successful and stress-free event.  Not only can security stop trouble and ensure the right people are at your event, they can also assist event organisers by pre-empting any inappropriate behaviour.

The key to hiring security successfully is:

• Knowing whether your event requires security and how many security staff will be required
• Choosing the right security company with professional and courteous staff who have the same aim as you – to ensure a successful event
• Booking security staff to arrive 15 minutes prior to the event starting and 30 minutes after the scheduled finishing time
• Taking security staff for a complete site check before your event if they are unfamiliar with the venue

Do you need security at your event and if so, how much?

Not all events require security but events of over 250 people must have security and if the event involves the sale or distribution of alcohol, the numbers are much lower.  Different types of events may have special security needs, regardless of numbers so you will need to assess what is safe for your customers.  There are also Liquor Licensing and Responsible Serving of Alcohol laws, which provide some direction.

E.g. a BBQ for 100 people does not require security but a BBQ for 100 with free alcohol must have security.

The general rule to go by is two security guards for the first 100 customers, then one guard per 100 patrons after that. Don’t be fooled into thinking that one security guard is sufficient for a function of less than 100 people.  If you are unsure of your numbers, be cautions rather than cost saving – you don’t want to end up with a large crowd and not have the personnel to control them.

Event Venue Security

Venue security are direct employees of Event Venue and so their first priority is servicing the students and staff of Venue University. Trying to double up Venue security as the security for your event whilst they are on shift, will not meet the needs of your event.  You must book external security whilst still informing Venue security with all aspects of your event and security.

Venue Security however can be booked exclusively for your event as if they were an external company (at commercial rates). 

Security contacts

Towards the end of this document are the contact details of several security companies used on Venue and recommended.

4. Developing a Risk Management Plan

Step 1: Call a meeting and list potential risks associated with your event

• Call together a meeting of event organisers. If possible try to involve venue, catering and security staff. They will have a view on situations that you may not have considered.

• Make a detailed list of potential risks involved with your event (at least 10 items). Whilst this section needs to be detailed, use your judgement. You don’t need to list every little thing that could go wrong.  Consider the following categories to get your thinking started:

Safety (must be included)	Staff and Volunteers
Medical, first aid issue emergency evacuation fire hazards, exits alcohol intoxication aggressive behaviour drug use/over-dose sexual harassment excessive noise	Non-attendance of staff/volunteers intoxicated volunteers theft of money injury to staff/volunteers failure to perform tasks staff/volunteers leaving event early
Event Logistics, Communication and Promotion	External Influences
Low ticket sales competing events offensive advertising confusion over time or venue technical faults and difficulties	Non-attendance of performer(s) Non-attendance of speaker(s) extreme weather conditions power failures late venue cancellation

Step 2: Assess the seriousness of the risk

• Using the likelihood rating table below, rate how likely to happen you consider the potential risks you have identified to be

LEVEL	DESCRIPTOR	LIKELIHOOD OF INCIDENT
A	Almost certain	Incident expected to occur in most circumstances
B	Likely	Incident will probably occur in most circumstances
C	Possible	Incident could occur at some time
D	Unlikely	Incident may occur only in exceptional circumstances

• Using the consequence rating table below, rate the consequence of your potential risk if you do not put any measures in place to prevent it.

LEVEL	DESCRIPTOR	EFFECT OF CONSEQUENCES
1	Minor	Consequence would not threaten the efficiency or effectiveness of some aspect of the event, but would be dealt with internally or through routine operations, eg. Medium financial loss, first aid treatment, on-site release immediately contained.
2	Moderate	The consequences would not threaten the event, but would mean that the event would be subject to manageable changes eg. High financial loss, medical treatment required.
3	Major	The consequences would threaten the continued effective functioning of the event organization and therefore the event eg. Major financial loss, important external resources required.
4	Catastrophic	The consequence would threaten the event and the event organization. eg. Death, huge financial loss

• Using the ratings on the Risk Management Matrix below, identify the level of risk of each of the potential issues you have identified by referring back to your likelihood rating and consequence rating.  Once this is done, you now have all the information you need to enter information on to the one-page Risk Management Plan table (in the Documentation Section of this Planning Guide).

LIKELIHOOD	CONSEQUENCES
	MINOR 1	MODERATE 2	MAJOR 3	CATASTROPHIC 4
A (almost certain)	H	H	E	E
B (likely)	M	H	H	E
C (possible)	L	M	H	E
D (unlikely)	L	L	M	H

E: Extreme Risk-       Immediate action required

H: High Risk-  Prompt event staff attention needed to reduce risk

M: Moderate Risk-    Specific risk reduction strategies needed

L: Low Risk-            Manage using existing controls