Sir Ben Ainslie made the return of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series (LVACWS) to Portsmouth a winning one. Showsec were the Official Crowd Management Supplier to a sporting occasion which drew 130,000 people to the banks of the Solent, for three days of sailing.
The company’s South Coast team were engaged by two new clients, Team Origin and Sportsworld, to provide their specialist services throughout the Race Village, hospitality areas and beyond on Southsea Common for LVACWS. An inaugural event was held in Portsmouth last year.
Jeremy Troughton, Operations Director for LVACWS Portsmouth, said: “The event this year was much more successful than the one in 2015. Much of this was down to knowing our audience, their expectations and the overall demographic of the people attending. In Showsec, we found a crowd management company who fully understood our primary aim of being customer focused.
“They absolutely embraced the fact that their staff were the first and last impression people had of visiting our event. Therefore, the choice of individual staff, not only in key positions, but right across the event, was critical to its success.
“They were personable, well-spoken and engaged with the public, helping out, directing and advising where necessary.
“We would have no qualms in recommending Showsec to other events in the future because they ticked all the boxed from our point of view.”
The Showsec operation featuring 150 staff covered many different areas of the LVACWS event including the ticketed Race Village, the unfenced, unrestricted free-to-view area on Southsea Common, car parks and the park and ride site.
Troughton said: “A number of challenges required specific crowd management teams to monitor crowd densities and crowd movement, as well as plans in place to deal with any crowd surging in the area around the waterfront. The systems and procedures put in place by Showsec, along with the support of our volunteers, saw no issues arise over the three days of the event.”
Sportsworld, the specialist hospitality, travel and events company, were as complimentary.
Francesca Heap, Project Manager for VIP Hospitality, said: “Showsec will definitely be my go-to crowd management/security supplier from now on. To a man and woman, the Showsec team were consummate professionals; real people with real personalities who understand real life and can engage with the general public in the most positive of ways. They offer something totally different. Ours is a people business and the best compliment that I can pay Showsec is that they know how to choose the best people and match people and personalities to get the very best results.
“Much of the praise will be directed to the guys on the ground, but every positive comment should also be paid to the management team of Ian Featherstone and Tracey McCarthy – not least for dealing with all my last minute changes!
“Often with suppliers, you see the management team at one initial meeting and then they are absent. Not so this pair. Apart from the fact that Tracey parked her caravan alongside my site office, so that she was on-hand to make sure everything was going to plan; they both popped in regularly for a cuppa and to say hi. I am under no illusion that they were ‘passing through’, I know when I am being looked after and I was very well looked after. Based upon my experience of working of them, I cannot recommend Showsec highly enough. They are firmly in my little black book in permanent marker.”
Tracey McCarthy, Showsec’s Area Manager for the South Coast, hailed it as a significant step for the business in the region. She said: “The America’s Cup was a landmark occasion for the South Coast Office, the first major event which we have done in Portsmouth, and that has been quite significant in terms of profiling our range of services to potential new clients.
“It also demonstrated to a new audience that we have broader capabilities than our core activities in music and live events, and can actually deliver what we promise wherever there is a crowd and whatever the occasion. The hope therefore is that this will lead to other new opportunities in the region in a wider range of sectors.”
