How to manage a crowd in an event

1. SRI KRISHNA COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
21PNE050– EVENT MANAGEMENT
Mr. SARAVANAN
Assistant Professor

2. Crowd Management
• Crowd management typically only becomes relevant when your
event draws a big crowd. If you’re planning a small get-together
with family and friends, managing a crowd won’t be an issue.
• But once you start organising these types of big events, it’ll
become more relevant:
• Music concerts and festivals
• Sporting events and tournaments
• International business conferences

3. Why is crowd management important?
• People act differently when they’re part of a large
crowd of faceless individuals. Strong emotions
such as joy, anger, and excitement can quickly
spread and become dangerous.
• Lack of crowd management can lead to the
destruction of property, personal injury, and
general hooliganism.

4. Tips for effective crowd management at
events
1. Know your audience
2. Plan in advance
3. Inform the relevant parties
4. Make a risk assessment
5. Have an emergency plan
6. Use a lot of signage
7. Demarcate the different areas
8. Limit access to alcohol
9. Screen attendees
10. Streamline check-in to reduce queues
11. Have the right number of staff
12. Hire security
13. Ask everyone to report suspicious behaviour
14. Have a way to alert everyone
15. Review your strategy

5. • Know your audience
• Football matches and heavy metal festivals will have a little
more action than academic conferences and trade shows.
Know who your attendees are and how they act in crowds.

6. 2. Plan in advance
• How you deal with the crowds at your event should be part of your event
planning process. Once you’ve selected a venue, you can start thinking
about how people will move around.
3. Inform the relevant parties
• Once you have an idea of the who, when, and where, you can start
contacting everyone that will be affected by your event and needs to
know what kind of crowd to expect.
• Make sure to contact the following:
• Emergency services
• Event contractors
• Local authorities
• Neighbouring businesses
• Venue management
• They’ll be able to help you work out the practicalities of crowd
management, as they’re likely to have experience with similar events in

7. 4. Make a risk assessment
• Risk assessments for health and safety at your event are an
integral part of planning your crowd management strategy. Identify
potential dangers and plan how to keep people away from them.
5. Have an emergency plan
• Things can go wrong no matter how meticulously you’ve planned
your event. That’s why you should always have a contingency plan
for when they do.
• You should have a plan for some of these worst-case scenarios:
• The weather suddenly changes
• Flammable objects catch fire
• A fight breaks out between attendees
• Someone is caught stealing
• Everyone panics and people trample each other

8. 6. Use a lot of signage
• You can avoid having to answer a lot of questions on the day if you
use proper event signage. Make sure that your attendees can find
their away around and know where not to go.
• Have big signs that can be read from afar for the following:
• Registration queues
• Restrooms
• Smoking areas
• Staff-only rooms
• Potential hazards

9. 7. Demarcate the different areas
• Use barricades, cones, ropes, or stanchions to show where people
should queue up for tickets and registration. Make clear where the main
event is and fence off the areas you want to be left alone.
8. Limit access to alcohol
• Alcohol is a good ice-breaker, but it can also break a lot of other things if
consumed in copious amounts by an excited crowd. Depending on your
crowd, you might want to consider imposing certain limits.
9. Screen attendees
• If you think there’s a chance that some of your attendees will try to bring
anything illegal to your event, consider having the security team pat down
everyone when they arrive.

10. 10. Streamline check-in to reduce queues
• A sure-fire way to tick people off is to make them wait. Long
queues can turn otherwise civilised event attendees into their
polar opposites.
• Here are some ways to streamline the check-in process:
• Have multiple check-in points
• Use a ticketing app like Billetto
• Assign customer-minded staff to handle registrants
• Use turnstiles, barcode scanners, or RFID chips

11. 11. Have the right number of staff
• You can’t do it on your own, so make sure you’ve hired the right
number of staff in proportion to the size of the crowds you expect.
• There should be ushers to show people around. Your whole team
should know the layout of the venue. They should also have a
convenient way of communicating with each other, such as walkie-
talkies or a group chat on everyone’s phone.
• Place your staff strategically around the venue and make sure you
cover key points of interest:
• Entrances
• Check-in lines
• Ticket purchase windows
• Seated areas
• Guest service desks
• Presentation rooms

12. 12. Hire security
• Big events usually require a third-party security firm that is
trained to deal with large crowds, rowdy behaviour, and
dangerous situations.
The security personnel you hire should deal with the following:
• Screening attendees for contraband
• Breaking up physical confrontations
• Contacting the emergency services

13. 13. Ask everyone to report suspicious behaviour
• Your security personnel won’t be everywhere all the time, so
you need to recruit more eyeballs. Ask your team and event
attendees to report anything shady or suspicious to security.
14. Have a way to alert everyone
• It’s easy for your voice to be drowned out by a roaring crowd, so
you’ll need other forms of communication in case you need to
alert them of anything important. Consider using a PA system to
amplify your message, or alert attendees via your event app if
possible.
15. Review your strategy
• Once your event is over and done with, review your crowd
management strategy. Speak to your team and security firm
and ask what worked well and what could be improved.