Crowd Management

There is a vast difference between Crowd Control and Crowd Management.

Crowd Control is a reactive process. It steps is when a crowd behaves differently from expectations and forces the crowd to do things as the authority at that moment wishes. It often relies on force, either physical or sheer numbers, to enforce 'control'.
Where it may have its' place in law enforcement, it rarely leaves people with the good experience event organisers and entertainment providers aim for.

Crowd Management is based around understanding crowd dynamics and creating an environment where people feel they are in control but actually are gently guided to behave as the organisers intended.
Crowd Management starts with analysing the demographics of the intended audience. The expectations from a hard rock concert crowd are very different from an Electronic Dance Music crowd. A kids' show requires a completely different approach from a corporate event.
Next is understanding the 'lay of the land' whether that is a greenfield site or an existing event venue.
Once all that is established, a long process of mathematical calculations is applied to crowd densities, crowds flows and dispersion before returning to the drawing board to map flows and positioning of informational signage.
It then looks at how all this works under normal operation and in an emergency. Based on those finding a set of procedures and staff information is generated.
And when everything works well and fall in place, the crowd manager can sit back and watch the plan work without external force.

Crowd Management is often overlooked or not taken seriously. In an increasingly nervous society, likely to panic at even the smallest disturbance, it is becoming more and more important to address crowd safety actively.

Please contact us if you would like to learne more about crowd management:

Crowd Science Training

The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought a renewed focus on crowd management, crowd spacing and crowd streams. Roderick is extremely proud to have been contacted by Professor Keith Still, the leading scientist when it comes to Crowd Science, to deliver his world renowned course 'Introduction to Crowd Science', in conjunction with the Dutch Event Safety Institute, in Australia.

For more details about the course, click the button

Sensible risk management

Sensible risk management is about:

• Making sure all potential risks are identified
• Focus on reducing real risks – both those which arise more often and those with serious consequences
• Encourage innovation and learning not stifling them
• Ensuring that those exposed to risk understand the consequences if not taken seriously
• Understand that as well as the right to protection, people also have to exercise responsibility

Sensible risk management is not about:

• Aiming for a totally risk free environment
• Generating mountains of useless paperwork
• Scaring people by exaggerating trivial risks and ignoring real risks
• Stopping important recreational and learning activities for individuals where the risks are managed
• Reducing protection of people from risks that cause real harm and suffering

Sensible WHS Systems

The biggest problem most people in the entertainment industry have is that much of the OH&S documentation is based on building sites or manufacturing, often quite different from the entertainment industry environment. This has often lead to misconceptions, wrong interpretations and downright silly situations.

Stage Safety aims to de-mystify the 'chinese whispers', working on a safer, and happier, workplace for everyone.

Our philosophy is to work with you, so that together we develop, maintain and monitor your own WHS policy and systems.
We will sit down with you and your staff, analyse your needs, explain what is required - and why, and then come up with proposals how you can run your business in compliance with the Act and the Regulation without hampering the way you operate.

Crowd Dynamics

Crowd Dynamics can be defined as the study of the how and where crowds form and move above the critical density of more than one person per square metre. At high density there is the potential for overcrowding and personal injury.

It is therefore important to understand the dynamics of crowds, how crowds understand and interpret information systems, how management systems affect crowd behaviour. We call this the science of crowd dynamics.

There is potential for minor or major injury occurring through the dynamics of crowd behaviour, as past tragedies have demonstrated. Measures should be taken by the organisers of events to ensure that there is effective and safe crowd management so that overcrowding does not occur.

Who we are and what we have done

In the last few years we have been providing services to a broad range of events, exhibitions, concerts and companies.

From basic OH&S policies to detailed risk assessments for large events.
Have a look at who we are and what we have been doing lately!

COVID-19

The spread of the Coronavirus and subsequent infections by COVID-19 shut down the entertainment industry around the world from March 2020

The economic impact of the 'lock-downs' has been overwhelming for most people, struggling to make ends meet and to see how we can move forward in a new reality.

It will be of the greatest importance to understand how the virus spreads and what we can do to control outbreaks.

Stage Safety has been spending much oof their lockdown researching the spread of coronavirus in the past, understanding how it spreads based on international research and finding ways to control the risk as best as possible within our workplaces.

Australian Entertainment Resource Guide

The entertainment industry needed a reference guide how to meet its’ obligations under the current WHS legislation, Codes of Practice and Australian Standards.

In 2017 Roderick van Gelder and Stage Safety ran a successfull crowd-funding campaign to raise money to start work on the first industry specific safety handbook for Australia.
With the generous support from individuals and businesses Roderick set-out to write the guide roughly based around the Purple Guide concept.
CX Magazine provided the website support to get everything on-line for review and comment by late 2017 and administer the subscriptions.

In 2018 the paywall was removed to give everyone access to the information. Unfortunately this meant that there is no funding available to update the Guide as initially intended. The site is still very well visited and hopefully one day there will be financial support to take it to the next level.

Click to see more detail about the guide and a link to the site

How to get in touch with us

Stage Safety p/l
PO Box 307
Hunters Hill NSW 2110

Phone: +61 (0)2 9879 3602
Mobile: +61 (0)414 406 052