Planning an event can be a huge undertaking. With all the coordinating and organizing going on, you could forget about a crucial theme — safety. Safety is key since it allows your guests to have a fun time without having to worry about anything going wrong. Along each step of the way, you should keep safety in mind.
On the day of the event, you can go in with a clear headspace, knowing you did everything you could to keep each of those guests safe and healthy. But how, in all of the steps of event planning, can you manage to keep safety a top priority?
13 Ways to Keep an Event Safe
Safety doesn’t have to be just another box to check off your list. Instead, it should be an underlying current you can use to emphasize each characteristic of your event. If you keep safety in mind as you go about the planning process, you will have an easier time with the event itself.
You might be wondering how to keep guests safe at a wedding, graduation or another celebration with a large number of people. With an event safety plan already in place and thought through, you won’t have to panic the night of the event. All the potential problems and issues will have been handled weeks previously, and you and your guests can enjoy the event without worry.
Reference these thirteen tips for event safety.
1. Choose Proper Equipment
There’s a lot of equipment that comes with events — venue materials, such as tents, tables and chairs, and equipment that other people bring, like a wedding band’s setup or food vendor items. Be aware of what is being brought into your event. You can do this in advance of the event, requesting a list of items a band or vendor is bringing so you can be confident in the safety of their materials.
Make sure the equipment you’re providing is safe, as well. Check chairs and tables for sturdiness and support, and ensure any setup components for tents are secure.
2. Control the Crowd
Controlling your crowd is a careful maneuver — you want to promote that fun, buzzing atmosphere and do it in a way that doesn’t create overcrowding and the potential for injury. Take a look at your number of guests and find a venue that’s roomy enough to support this number without being too huge. It’s safer to go with a larger venue so you don’t risk squeezing too many people into a small space.
Overcrowding can create fire hazards and injuries, so you’ll want to find adequate space for your event. This is especially true for safety planning for large events. Be sure to diagram a clear pathway for people to enter and exit your venue without being strained by too many bodies. Plant stewards to help ease the entrance process and dissuade pushing and shoving, and consider placing several entrances to distribute crowd flow.
3. Know Your Venue
A common theme of these tips so far has been the venue. This is because the venue will directly impact so many aspects of your event — event safety planning often starts with location. Knowing this, you should take extra care in choosing the venue, and, once you’ve decided on one, map it out and study it.
Identify exits, walkways and potential areas for concern, such as narrow hallways or landscape hazards. Some venues may be outdoors and have aspects to avoid, such as cliffs, outlying rocks or rivers. Take time to recognize these as potential areas for danger and consider installing fencing or an obstacle to keep guests safe. It’s good to know the positives of your venue and emphasize those attributes, but it’s just as important to plan for safety and examine areas of concern.
4. Scout the Weather and Climate
Weather depends on various factors, including where your venue is located, season and timing. While you probably won’t know the exact nature of the weather until it rolls in on the day of your event, you can take steps to control it on your end as much as you can. Plan for conditions like:
- A hot, dry climate: You may need to keep fire hazards in mind as you go about your event. Fireworks or sparklers may have to be eliminated or at least kept away from flammable materials.
- A rainy climate: Wet and rainy venues could mean strategizing for non-slip surfaces to defend against injury.
- A hot, humid climate: Lots of humidity and high temperatures can be the ideal combination for bouts of dehydration in your guests. Place water jugs near the dance floor, invest in AC units, offer complimentary bottles of water and space several bartenders around the room offering free water to promote hydration.
- A cold climate: For colder temperatures, you may need to provide portable heaters outside to keep guests comfortable. This presents another potential fire hazard, so you need to ensure the heaters you bring in are safe.
5. Be Aware of Your Guests
A guest list is more than just names on paper — it’s a vast range of temperaments, personalities and unique characteristics that are all going to be mixed at your event. Some events, especially weddings, can bring up a lot of emotion in some people. Often it’s good emotion. Tears are shed, laughter is shared and everyone has a great time.
But sometimes, other emotions can run high. Excessive alcohol and late nights can combine for a brief change in behavior. If you know a person on that list could cause trouble, keep an eye on them or have someone else do it. Make sure their behavior is adequate. Speak to your bartenders if you must about drink limits. Oftentimes, bartenders have a keen eye for when someone has had too much to drink, so it’s good to rely on their judgment, as well.
Aside from personality traits, also be aware of any disabilities, health issues or previous injuries for your guests. Make sure you have disability services and accommodating entrances and exits for everyone attending. Keeping your guests in mind, you can instill an effective safety and security plan for events.
6. Vet Your Staff
Along with your guests, it’s good to have a firm handle on your staff. You should be surrounded by people you can trust and rely on to fulfill your safety and security planning for events. Ensure all bartenders are licensed and experienced and that staff know how to treat guests happily and agreeably.
An effective staff can do more than just make an event go smoothly. They can be instrumental in keeping safety strategies in place. Experienced bartenders can use de-escalating tactics to smooth things over at the bar or say no to serving someone amicably. Waitstaff can make guests feel welcomed and at home at your venue, and a band can create the ambiance needed for a pleasant, fun time. Invest in a great staff to create a safe atmosphere for your event.
7. Stay Organized
One of the best tips for keeping a safe an event safe is organization. This is an overarching tip, as organization can cover everything from setting the seating chart to crafting a playlist. But there are smaller, simpler ways to stay organized, like writing things down, communicating with people, delegating tasks to others and finishing one thing before starting another.
Organization doesn’t have to be abstract, either — the venue itself should appear organized and neat. Loose cords, dangling tablecloths and other miscellaneous items piled in corners can be tripping hazards and dangerous to your guests. Clean up your space and make sure it’s neat and safe.
8. Be Detailed
Detail is a tool that goes right along with organization in the event safety process. To keep track of the multitude of factors at your event, you need sharp attention to detail. Detail is crucial because it goes into picking competent staff, planning for disabilities, identifying dangers at your venue, examining areas to keep an eye on and any number of other small, seemingly tedious details.
But when it comes to event planning safety, no detail is too small or tedious to focus on. One of your highest priorities is the safety and protection of your guests, so you should be sure to cross off every box and take care of any potential hazard.
9. Keep Children in Mind
At many events, whether that be a wedding, graduation party or another celebration, there will probably be a variety of children running around. They may be aged anywhere between toddlers to teens, exploring the venue and escaping their parents for moments of blissful independence.
Though you may not be directly responsible for these children, you should make sure your venue is relatively childproof and safe from the curious hands of smaller children. Event and wedding safety hazards, such as sharp objects, should be safely covered, and climbing areas should be cornered off.
Look around your venue with a child’s mind and try to find areas you can make safer. Parents will thank you, and you’ll take a lot of the worry off their shoulders, opening room for an enjoyable time.
10. Plan for Accidents, Injuries and Sickness
It’s hopeful to go into an event thinking that everything is going to go exactly as planned. It may go this way, and in those cases, you can pride yourself on being organized and maybe even a little lucky. But often, something does happen, usually out of your control, that calls for your immediate action.
Accidents and incidents happen. In these cases, it’s good to have a plan already in place so you can be ready to take some actionable moves.
In the case of accidents or injury, know where the nearest hospital is and the fastest route to get there. Make sure you have a first aid kit on hand to mend cuts and bruises. For headaches or nausea, carry some Tylenol or ibuprofen on hand.
You can be the silent hero your event needs, spotting people in need of assistance and making their experience go as smoothly as possible, even with obstacles in the way. No bride wants a twisted ankle on their special day, and no graduate wants to see someone trip at their celebration. But you can set event and wedding safety precautions in place to try to counter this.
11. Emphasize Effective Communication
For staying organized, keeping a keen eye on small details and carrying out a comprehensive event safety plan, you’ll need to utilize effective communication. You shouldn’t take on everything yourself, no matter how capable you are. Most events are just too big. With the number of people you’ll be planning for, you need to centralize safety as a common theme at your event.
Talk about the importance of safety with your staff and emphasize ways to effectively carry out safety and tailor a fun, inviting environment.
12. Map out Transportation Services
Transportation can pose a safety risk for your staff and guests, so it’s essential to look at how people will be getting to your event as well as leaving. Is your venue in a secluded area or in the center of a bustling metropolis?
If your venue is more secluded, bank on several of your guests getting lost finding it — place signs along the way to help guide them or list several landmarks on the directions. For city venues, ensure you have adequate parking and a strategy for getting everyone safely home at the end of the event.
If you can, organize shuttle busses to offer people who have had too much to drink a way home. They will be grateful, and you will be instituting an important safety attribute — making sure everyone gets home OK.
13. Ask for Help
These tips can set you on the right path for event safety planning. But planning an event can be a lot, and with all of the detail involved, you will inevitably need help during the process. You don’t have to feel overwhelmed. Partner with a trusted, respected event service that can help you take care of certain aspects of the event for you. This will take the pressure off you and allow you to see the overall event with more clarity and focus.
Rent Reliable Event Equipment With Peerless Events & Tents
The venue is one of the most important parts of planning a safe event. Peerless Events & Tents can help you build an atmosphere of reliable, high-quality rental items paired with our excellent customer service and affordable prices.
Make your event planning a joyful and easy process, and consult Peerless Events & Tents for your party venue needs. It’s as easy as filling your cart and requesting a quote. Or, reach us at one of our four locations in Austin, Dallas, Houston or San Antonio. Contact us today!
