Due to the advent of technologies such as social media, it has become easier than before to organize events and have numerous people attend in large numbers. For event organizers, this is a good thing since it means that they can make more money more frequently depending on how they strategize the events. However, having many people in a venue comes with a new type of danger: the safety of the attendants. There are many instances in history where too many people congregated in an area for an event, which then turned out chaotic and lead to either injury or death to a number of the patrons.
The number of things that can contribute to this is large, including poor planning, events that could cause a panic and stampede, a reduction in the number of emergency exits and many more. The use of a company that provides security solutions in Montreal as part of the planning is important, since it helps in cementing the role of the event organizer as a reliable and trustworthy service provider. When choosing guards from such a facility, you need to ask yourself a number of questions which will then guide you with various details including the number of guards you should hire. Some of these include:
Is it prone to any possible chaos?
If you are organizing an event which is likely to be peaceful, there is usually little chance of it turning chaotic in future. Examples of these include rallies for causes such as stopping cruelty against animals. However, when the crowd is likely to be polarized, this could result in a few skirmishes which could then evolve into full-blown violence.
An example of this is when you organize a boxing event where one half rabidly supports one fighter, while the other half strongly supports the competitor. In such cases, you know that emotions can run high, and this in turn means that there is a high chance of issues such as violence breaking out. In these situations, you are better off hiring multiple security guards who can handle this. The ratio of guards to patrons should be higher than in other events in anticipation of the violence and skirmishes.
How many people will be in attendance?
This is usually one of the most obvious questions asked when hiring security guards for an event. The number of people who are going to attend the event will influence the number of guards you will get. When an event is slated to have thousands of patrons, then you have no option but to hire a large number of guards to keep things calm. However, when the crowd size is going to be just ten or twenty people, then you only need one or two guards to keep things in order.
Do you have an evacuation plan?
There is the possibility of issues such as fires occurring, and these will then lead to a stampede. Irrespective of the venue of the event, you should have a clearly defined evacuation plan. The plan should be designed in such a manner that it will result in all the patrons leaving the area in the shortest time possible.
It is important to make such plans with the company you are hiring the guards from, and also make sure that the guards have all the details regarding such plans. This way, they will be in a better position to guide the patrons to the exit points in case of such an issue. Since security firms have a lot of experience in this, they are likely to be better advisors when it comes to designing an evacuation plan.
