Access All Areas October 2018 | Page 48

OCTOBER | NOEA COLUMN

Keeping Our Eye on the Ball

NOEA ’ s Susan Tanner whets industry appetites as a key association event approaches

Last year , at our annual convention and awards , one of the themes we looked at was collaboration , and although the theme is , from the outside , different , the idea of successful partnerships is once again one that will run through the whole event .

This year the NOEA Annual Convention is asking why so many event professionals still claim that ‘ It Could Never Happen to Me ’, and how we can bring together our members , and the wider events community to challenge organisers and producers to delve a little bit closer into this statement , face up to the very real threat that at an event , something always goes wrong , and look at ways to mitigate , plan and deal with it .
The programme is classic NOEA , and has already delighted our members as we return to what I always feel is the NOEA homeland ; helping event professionals create safe and quality events , before they make great events . To do this we need partnerships and none have been as productive as our Futures Supporter A . C . T ( National ) Ltd . As well as providing some very senior speakers to the programme – Phil Atkinson , the company ’ s managing director to name just one – we ’ ve used them as a sounding board on how best to create the right feel to the event .
We want to encourage a ‘ safe ’ environment within the convention , and we ’ re delighted to have industry greats from Dick Tee , Enteetainment , to Simon Hughes , industry consultant , and our own Becky Stevens , Hybred Events , all speaking about their own personal stories , and examples of how it happened to ‘ event ’ them . We ’ re also delighted to have A . C . T ( National ) Ltd , present Bev Osborne from Training 4 Resilience , to a run a workshop style session where delegates will be invited to join a live scenario of a specific major events issue , and to discuss
coping strategies . Within the session , delegates will focus on ‘ preparedness ’, be that everything from the preparation of teams , to testing event plans and finding out which improvements are required .
Bev is a specialist in training for emergency response at events , and developing and delivering training addressing the crisis management and emergency response needs of events and venues . She ’ s designed and delivered over 150 crisis management and emergency exercises across the outdoor events industry , and I personally couldn ’ t be more delighted that A . C . T ( National ) Ltd , have bought them to our delegation .
We ’ re also delighted to welcome Robin Clements , from our new Futures Supporter , Arnold Clark and our great friends at GL events UK , who will discuss the view of event suppliers and production support companies . These are people who have an amazing experience in delivering some of the biggest events on the planet , and have much to share with the room .
We also have representatives from Operation Gothic and the wider police force , who will both be presenting to the delegation and contributing to the many sessions we have . All the time , we ’ ll be punctuating the day with personal stories , some of which are eye wateringly funny , that shows that ‘ it ’ could really happen to anyone .
We hope to see many Access readers at the event as well , and will give you a warm welcome in Bath . The NOEA Convention & Awards will take place in Bath , 21st November , with the day convention taking place at The Guildhall , and the evening Awards in the Pump Rooms . Tickets to the event are still available from eventbrite . co . uk / e / noea-annual-convention-and-awards-dinner- 2018-tickets-40791348020 .
“ The programme is classic NOEA , and has already delighted our members ”
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