ND : The answer is that we can indeed set up regular checks , our system came from the incredibly exciting world of fire door inspections . It was originally built following the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower incident , where a report showed that 50 % of the fire doors hadn ’ t been inspected and the suspicion was no one had actually inspected many others .
The guidelines say an inspection should be conducted on a fire door every six months , the inquiry recommended that is changed to every three months . So , we ’ ve built the platform with regular inspections in mind . The only difference with the festival scenario is that the checks will likely be daily rather than every three months .
CM : Locations on event sites are notoriously difficult to tie down , does this system integrate with something like Google Maps or What Three Words to direct those assigned to their tasks ? mobile phone and present it easily via a QR code . It is a resource that is GDPR compliant and could prove invaluable as an immediate helper should we get a short-notice announcement for further Covid testing .
An event operator ’ s perspective
We invited Craig Mathie , managing director of Bournemouth7s , to attend a product demonstration , hosted by Catenae representatives Nick Delacamp , chief commercial officer and Guy Meyer , chief executive officer .
Post demonstration , Mathie said , “ We at Bournemouth7s are a team of six but an actual onsite event team of 800 , so for us it ’ s important that there ’ s a clear line of communication between us and the boots on the ground . That ’ s where I see a technology like this coming into play .
“ The other side of this for me , is that software is only ever as good as people are trained to use it . We ’ ve used a system in the past where our team are up to speed with the program , we get on site , and no one else knows how to use it so they just don ’ t utilise the system .
“ I think what looks great about this system in particular is that it ’ s been
created by people with an understanding of how events actually work , rather than what happens so much of the time , which is software people develop a system without understanding the practicalities of how it will work .”
Matthie was given the opportunity to ask questions during the demonstration .
Q & A
CM : How will this work for a regular check up ? At a festival we will often have to check things like lighting rigs every morning rather than just as and when ?
ND : “ Yes , we already integrate the program with all sorts of different mapping tools . Strangely it ' s usually more challenging inside than outside – a positioning system can be set up outside relatively easily using mobile or Wi-fi , whereas inside mobile and Wi-fi signals can be more challenging .
CM : How does the system disseminate the safety check reports ? It would be useful to have so we can keep things like fire officers informed when it comes to fire extinguishers .
GM : “ So you can absolutely do this , in fact you can drill down on a dashboard to the individual asset level ( toilets , lighting rigs , fire extinguishers etc ). What we do is assign risk levels to assets , so we can show a RAG status by asset type for the entire site for example .
CM : I think it is important that those who need the information on the reports get it , what ’ s the functionality there ?
ND : “ Our dashboards can be incredibly powerful , we can display information at many different levels . As the organiser , you might want to see a geographical representation of the event with problem areas highlighted in red . You could filter it and see it from a power point of view , or a toilets point of view – so everyone sees the data relevant to their role and have a visualisation of their own world .”
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