Crowd safety and risk analysis course

Steve Laws talks about the value of maintaining your continual professional development as a crowd safety professional in a changing world, and announces a course that takes place in October.


_{If you are involved in planning, or licensing/permitting crowded spaces, then you need to understand crowd safety and crowd risk analysis. A three-day course is being run at Manchester Metropolitan Unversity (UK), which will develop greater awareness of how individuals and crowds react and behave in places of public assembly (Image Zsombori / 123rf)}

If you are reading this, you have probably worked at events or have had some management responsibility for crowd safety at events and have worked at a number of these. I have a question for you: Have you ever walked around your event in that tranquil time before the gates open and asked yourself these questions:

• Where do my customers want to go today and how are they going to get there?
• Can my customers get to where they want to safely and, importantly, are they allowed to go there today?
• Have I worked out my flow rates and capacities to ensure that I can accommodate everyone safely?
• Have all my stewards the required qualifications and experience to cope and deal with anything that I might reasonably foresee occurring today? 
• Can I deal with my worst case scenarios?
• Do I know what these worst case scenariois might be?
• Can I cope if it all goes wrong?

Whether you are from police, government, sports stadium, arena or event safety and security organisations, if you are involved with planning for crowds in places of public assembly, you need to understand the principles and applications of crowd safety and risk analysis.

I have been working for some time since completing my degree studies with Professor Dr G Keith Still, who is Professor of Crowd Science at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), where he developed and now delivers an online MSc programme in Crowd Safety and Risk Analysis. His work focusses on the use of planning tools for places of public assembly and major events. Keith has consulted on some of the world’s largest, and most challenging crowd safety projects  (click here for the project list). 

He regularly runs short courses around the globe in Crowd Safety and Risk Analysis and we are proud to be working with him after his recent successful courses delivered in Canada and Australia.

In October, a three-day course will introduce participants to the subject materials and provide a bridging link between industry experience and further academic studies. The course is certified by Manchester Metropolitan University and approved by the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management. If you are interested in a MSc in Crowd Safety and Risk Analysis, then this will be of specific interest, as it is designed as an Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) course.

The course aims to develop greater awareness of how individuals and crowds react and behave in places of public assembly. We explore the application of crowd safety and risk analysis techniques to enhance public safety. This approach is outlined in the book Introduction to Crowd Science and taught across a range of short courses at University Levels 5 (Foundation Degree), Level 6 (BA Hons) and Level 7 (MSc Crowd Safety and Risk Analysis). The key learning points are as follows: DIM-ICE risk analysis; Crowd dynamics; crowd modelling; RAMP analysis; crowd counting; crowd monitoring; control room information; queueing systems; crowd risk analysis; site design; event egress analysis; emergency response; crowd simulations; decision analysis; and emergency situations.

If you are involved in planning, or licensing/permitting crowded spaces, then you need to understand crowd safety and crowd risk analysis. The course covers sports, entertainment, shopping, transport, festivals, mass gatherings, street events and places of public assembly. We cover site and venue operations for managers, stewarding and security organisations, police officers with crowd management responsibilities, architects working in the complex and built environment and local authorities with licensing/permitting/approval planning, building control and/or leisure management responsibilities.

Delegates will be issued with certificates of attendance and have the option to submit work for assessment for further certification (certificate of achievement approved by MMU). This course is a pre-qualification for entry to the University MSc in Crowd Safety and Risk Analysis.

Details on the course can be found here