How can communications technology improve safety at sporting events? In the event of an emergency, effective communication is crucial to ensure that the safety of spectators and athletes is protected at major sporting events. After the Rio 2016 Olympics, Nick Hawkins, Managing Director of Everbridge EMEA, discusses how critical communications platforms can help organising bodies improve safety and security procedures.
Just like all major sporting events, the Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics were a celebration of sporting excellence and culture. However, following a series of riots, the targeting of athletes and spectators by criminal gangs and widespread fears about the impact of the Zika virus, the event was overshadowed by issues of health, safety and security. Despite the fact the Rio government deployed an 85,000 strong security force (that included 23,000 soldiers) to patrol and monitor the games, the event was marred by an influx in street crime. One of the most high profile incidents saw the Chief of Security, Felipe Seixas, the victim of an attempted robbery at knife point outside of the Maracanã stadium following the opening ceremony.
For the organisers of high-footfall events—such as Brazil’s National Olympic Committee (NOC)—implementing effective security measures and practices can be a serious challenge. To ensure that it is best placed to manage a crisis, organisers need to have the tools to be able to communicate quickly and reliably with large numbers of people, including stewards, security officials, visitors and competitors.
When incidents like the rioting close to the Rio Olympic park take place, how can organisers make people aware of a fast-changing situation and what actions they should take to keep themselves safe? One solution is to implement the use of a secure, independent, critical communications platform to manage emergency responses and to prioritise the safety and security of spectators. This technology enables organisers to send out emergency notifications—via more than 100 different communication channels and devices—and ensures that the lines of communication between organisers and visitors remain open in any situation.
Power of critical communications platforms
The use of critical communications platforms at large scale events has become increasingly important. In February 2016, organisers of Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco used this technology to manage all communications in the lead up to, during, and after the event. One of the biggest sporting events in the world, with more than 1.1 million people in attendance during Super Bowl week, emergency services, local authorities and organising bodies ensured visitors were kept up-to-date with all of the latest information as the week unfolded. These notifications included the latest travel information such as rail or road closures, live traffic and parking updates, weather news, and any emergency alerts that required immediate action. Had the Brazilian authorities had a critical communications platform at its disposal when the riots broke out, they could have aggregated geo-location data from the platform to send out an emergency notification to everyone in the area warning of the danger and providing actions to guide them to safety. At the same time, the platform could have notified on-duty security staff of the incident and ensured that securing the area and minimising any immediate danger became top priority.
The emergency notifications would have been delivered via one of the many routes available—such as SMS, email, voice-to-text, social media alerts and app notifications—and would have continued to be sent until an acknowledgement was received. Responses to the notifications would have provided emergency services and security officials with clear visibility of the incident, streamlining the process of understanding which people are at risk and what resources are available to manage the crisis.
Importance of multi-modal notifications
Ensuring precise messages can be sent out quickly, reliably and through multiple contact paths means two-way communication between organisers and spectators remains effective in an emergency situation. The problem for organisers is that no single delivery path is ever 100% reliable, 100% of the time. To increase delivery and response success, emergency notifications must be multi-modal, utilising every available contact path until delivery is acknowledged. The fact that critical communications platforms can automate this time-intensive process means that resources can be deployed more effectively and efficiently than before, ensuring that the safety of everyone involved is better protected.
As the attention of organising bodies and security enforcement staff turns to upcoming major sporting events—such as Tokyo 2020 and the FIFA World Cup in Russia—new strategies are needed to improve the safety and security of everyone attending. The implementation of a secure critical communications platform is surely a priority. By providing security officials with the latest technology to help ensure the protection and safety of attendees, the Olympics and other major sporting events will remain a great spectacle that everyone can enjoy safely.
