On venue and event management, Martyn's Law, the transition to digital and dealing with both the expected and the unexpected. 

365 venue management and event delivery

The challenge for safety officers and operations directors here is a complex workload: carrying out business-as-usual organisational work, 365 venue management, and always working towards your next event.

In some ways these areas are not so distinct - they all fall under the same umbrella of venue management - and for that you need a single source of truth. At WeTrack we sell planning and operations software, sometimes together, sometimes separately - but in a venue you are always both planning and operating. And for 365 days a year, whether your venue is empty or full, it needs to be safe and secure.

Martyn's Law

The progress and eventual passing into law of this proposed legislation will mark a significant material change for venue operations. In our guide, you will find steps to respond effectively to the new requirements proposed by the 'Protect Duty' arising from Martyn's Law.

Before the legislation is passed, which continues to move at glacial pace, there is an opportunity for venue managers to proactively consider your security processes. Are your operations efficient, with processes that work for your staff? Are your operations accountable, with a strong audit trail? Crucially - do you have confidence in the safety and security of your venue?

A transition to digital

In any industry, it is difficult to know where your operational shortcomings are. Most changes take an investment in time and money that you might not get back - will you see a return on investment? There are 3 areas we want venue managers to consider in this regard: accountability, reporting and a single source of truth.

• Can you be accountable enough with pen and paper, radios and spreadsheets? Is your audit trail sufficient and efficient?
• How long does it take you to compile and share reports? Are you satisfactorily able to review a previous event and learn from it?
• Do you have a single source of truth for when you need to collaborate across venue management, event delivery and organisational project and risk management?

Making improvements to these underlying processes might not get your heart racing, but it will save you much-needed time and money.

The expected and the unexpected

Venues and events need to have solid processes in place for dealing with both. The expected can be dealt with through the assignment of jobs around your site. The unexpected is dealt with through incident management, which you can read far more about here.

Together with your standard operational checks and pre-event checks, these are the areas that, when managed effectively, give you oversight over the status of your venue at any one time. Together they give you the tools to keep your venue secure.

We have written a white paper on safety and security for venue managers, safety officers and ops directors, to provide some best practices and resources to tackle these challenges. We hope you enjoy reading and find it useful. If you'd like to continue the conversation, find us on LinkedIn or watch an introductory video to WeTrack here. Thank you!