Training

September 2016: Training at Wembley

by Mark Rowe

From past disasters at UK and other stadia – Heysel, Bradford, Hillsborough – we know things can go wrong, whether deliberate or accidental: crushes, fires, bomb threats. Planning and training are necessary as staff may make poor decisions when an emergency does crop up. But how to make training realistic? Trainer Prof Chris Kemp speaks to us about ‘immersive learning’ – full article in the September 2016 print issue of Professional Security magazine.

His clients include the Football Association and Wembley Stadium; and the O2 and other arenas, besides security companies. He takes real-life situations and bases exercises on them. Say something has gone wrong at an event; even something not strictly to do with Security, such as a fire alarm in a theatre; or an actor falls off the stage. In these days of social media, it’s one thing to have something serious happen such as that fall; it’s another that some in the audience may take a picture with their phones, and post it on social media. How then do you manage that?!

Professional Security invited itself to Wembley Stadium and was taken through the corporate gates from reception through the corridors and upstairs to a room where Chris Kemp was giving the training to several people, on two tables. It was a Friday afternoon in summer and Wembley was quiet – although the advertising boards were still running through their adverts to an empty stadium. Those taking the training – event managers – had no eyes for that; they were concentrating on Chris’ training, that was relevant to their everyday (or night, as events can happen in the evening and after dark, which brings its own risks).

By drawing on scenarios from actual events, and the imagery and mapping and document planning that has to go into an event, such training has realism. It has relevance to security managers not only as a model for other sectors of security than events, but for where Security fits into the operation of an event, both when it’s all going smoothly and in a crisis, and – the point of Chris’ training that afternoon – in those hours or perhaps only minutes between everything going smoothly and an emergency when perhaps lives and entire event reputations are at stake.

For more, turn to page 22 of the September 2016 print magazine.

Related News

  • Training

    Online risk date

    by Mark Rowe

    eRisk is a new conference on problems and threats that have emerged in online retail and digital processes, some of which are…

  • Training

    InfoSec in London

    by Mark Rowe

    Dr Eric Cole, one of the most prominent instructors at the upcoming SANS London 2013 InfoSec training event, warns that organisations need…

Newsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay on top of security news and events.

© 2024 Professional Security Magazine. All rights reserved.

Website by MSEC Marketing