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it really has,” he tells me. “There has to be
an emergency plan in place. The problem
with crowd management, security and
counterterrorism is that it’s invisible. It’s
also the most important part of your event,
because if it does go wrong that is all you
have. You could have up to 15 minutes’
response time from the emergency services,
first response is only as good as your
management and safety & security team.”
Blake adds that security and risk
management is all about scalable mitigation,
making a judgement call for each individual
event based on a risk assessment and what
would mitigate potential risk. One potential
area of vulnerability he highlights, which is
certainly relevant to the world of exhibitions,
is who is let into a venue during build-up.
“A vetting process would be a really good
way forward,” he explains. “There’s no
point having a load of vetted security staff
when every other Tom, Dick and Harry can
come onsite. The biggest threat is an insider
threat. It’s easy to set up a perimeter and
search people, but if you’ve got 500 staff
onsite during build with no system in place
then you might as well not bother, because
anything they want in is already there.
“It’s often just a changing of working
practice, it’s having the right systems in
place monitored by the right people.”
A cunning scan
The entrance to an event can be a focal
point for security planning, and for high-risk
events with a high volume of visitors it can
be a tricky task balancing proper security
with the visitor experience.
This is a problem Farnborough Airshow
knows all too well. The biennial show
welcomes up to 100,000 visitors and more
than 1,500 exhibitors as well as a range of
government officials and VIPs, which makes
efficient and effective security of paramount
importance.
Operations director, Neil Theuma, talks
EN through an innovative solution the
organiser trialled in 2018.
“What we looked at was technology
through a company called thruvision,” he
explains. “They’ve developed a camera which
takes an X-ray image of visitors walking
“It’s all about scalable
mitigation. You don’t throw the
kitchen sink at everything”
– Steve Blake
through a particular walkway and it can be
set to varying levels and can pick up things
from small weapons all the way through to
larger items.
“We trialled that on our main entrance,
and it enabled people to effectively walk
through without having to stop, if they
weren’t carrying bags. We set the system
up to accept laptops coming through. If
anything was being picked up on people
walking through the new technology, they
were then taken aside and searched in a
traditional way.”
The use of the technology meant that
visitors who had printed their badges at
home and who either didn’t have bags or just
had a laptop were able to walk uninterrupted
into the event, vastly reducing queue times.
“Security has always been paramount,
especially on a show of our nature where
there are high-value assets,” continues
Theuma. “We have some civil and defence
organisations at the Airshow and security is
always very high on the agenda.
“What we like to think we’re doing is
pioneering the use of new technology by
trialling and using these new systems as
they come out. What we also try to consider
more now is the customer experience and the
visitor journey, which is another key driver in
making sure the Airshow remains one of the
best shows in the world.”
Tech is clearly driving innovation when it
comes to security at events, whether that’s in
the form of apps enabling visitors to become
an organiser’s eyes and ears, or scanning that
helps to prevent issues before they occur.
But as incidents at live events continue to
make headlines around the world, it’s vital
that the exhibition industry takes the threat
seriously. EN
How can we better protect everyone involved in
our events? If you’d like to join the conversation
get in touch at [email protected]
May — 23