The Importance of Crowd Management - Assignment Example

The importance of crowd management and crowd control at music festivals: An events industry perspective Introduction Billy Joel says “Music in itself is healing. Its an explosive expression of humanity. Its something we are all touched by. No matter what culture were from, everyone loves music.” (Music for the Soul). Music brings us all together. In a disoriented world, music is what unites people across the world, across caste, across creed. Music lovers will tell you that there is something absolutely magical about the beautiful sounds that come out of instruments and that the people that can play them are their gods! Consider this. There is a huge rock band in town. Beloved by all. people travel from different parts of the country to watch them. Some even follow them from different countries. When these people get on the stage, and pick up their instruments, there will be people in the audience who want to get a closer look of their gods. There will be a piece of the audience that wants to take pictures. There will be a section of the audience that wants to get on stage and take pictures with these people. Most importantly, when these people start playing, their fans will be hypnotised. They will do anything to be able to get closer to the bands. And in all this craze, bad things can happen. There can be a stampede, a fight may break out, causing damage to people and property. Disaster could strike – say there’s a fire, and it will be next to impossible to get the crowd to safety. This is the whole point of crowd management – a way to keep people and property safe. This paper will go through the elements of crowd management, and discuss its importance in greater detail, and give an outline for a research amongst various event managers about what they feel is the importance for crowd management and control. (Crowd Safe) Objective The primary objective of this paper is to understand the importance of crowd management and control from the perspective of an event manager. We know that it is essential to keep the crowd in control, but how deep does it go for an event manager? That is what we wish to learn through this research. The secondary objective of this research is to try and understand if there is a need for specialist crowd management agencies in UK. It is known that the event agencies make arrangements for their crew to handle the crowd in music concerts. But, if available, would there be a need for a specialist agency that did nothing more than devise strategies to keep the crowd happy? Research Technique There are various steps involved in carrying out a research. These, when done in the right order and the right medium, ensure that we get the right or optimal result. Following are the steps involved in research, along with the application of these steps to this research. i) Formation of topic: The importance of crowd management and crowd control at music festivals: An events industry perspective ii) Hypothesis: Is there a space in the UK Event Management Industry for agencies that specialize in Crowd management and control? iii) Conceptual definition: Crowd Management is basically the ‘protection of the patrons from unforeseeable risk of harm from other individuals or the actual facility itself’ (thesportjournal.org) iv) Operational definition: This research focuses on the music festivals and event management agencies in UK – to find out what their take is on Crowd Management and to understand the need for a Crowd Management Agency in the country. The research will try to understand if event managers will welcome such an agency or will consider it as a threat to their success. v) Data collection: In order to successfully conduct this research, we will need to speak with a host of event managers who especially conduct musical concerts, while also speaking with those that don’t in order to understand if Crowd Control is the biggest issue that is stopping them from being a part of the musical revolution. The various methods of Data collection have been discussed in the following sections in greater detail. vi) Analysis: Once the data is collected, it will be essential to gather all the data in one place and understand the responses of our respondents. Only then can we come to the conclusion if there is a need for Crowd Management agencies in the country. vii) Testing: If the research is successful to point out that UK has a need for Crowd Management agencies, this will give us an opportunity to test the market. Therefore, we can possibly take up the crowd management aspect of a music concert and try to work in harmony with the event agency to understand where we stand. It will also give us a chance to prove ourselves in the market. viii) Conclusion: The research conclusion will be what we learn from the testing. If we find out that there is a need for crowd management agencies and that we are able to gel well with the event agencies, then our research will have been successful and will have given us a great opportunity for a new business. Research Approach There are two basic approaches to research – Quantitative and Qualitative. Quantitative Research deals with collecting facts and figures and provides answers that are more numerical. This format is based on a statistical approach to understanding the need for a certain change. A qualitative approach however, takes a more emotional route, by speaking to various people and understanding what they feel about a problem and the most optimal solution. For our research, we will use a more Qualitative approach and speak to our target audience to dig out what they need from us. Statistics may be a more scientific approach, but events are not mainly about numbers. Thus, the Qualitative approach will be more apt and more useful in our research. (Alzheimer Europe.org) Methods of Data Collection To achieve the objective of this research, we will need to interact personally with various event managers and professionals from the field. They will need to be asked various questions that will help us understand what their stance is on the need and importance of crowd control in music concerts. For this, I suggest the following methods of data collection. (FAO) a) Questionnaires: Questionnaires are a very basic form of data collection. Simply put, they ask questions and usually have a multiple-choice format for answers. Each answer is there for a reason and helps us understand a different perspective for the question. Questionnaires can be sent out to wide sample. They can be distributed physically, sent by mail or even sent out online via various websites like surveymonkey.com that specialize in questionnaires. The minus point of a questionnaire however, is that people tend to fill it out without putting much thought into it, if they even bother filling it out. For many of them, they just fill it out to get it over with. b) Focus Group Discussion: A focus group discussion is one in which a small sample of people is chosen and asked to meet up at a particular place. These people are asked various questions about the given topic and they discuss it to arrive at a certain result. These discussions are usually presided over by a Moderator who directs the discussion by asking questions and bringing out opinions. These discussions are usually recorded, for future reference. While these discussions are very lively and interesting, sometimes opinions of one tend to direct the entire discussion to a whole different place. c) Personal Interviews: Personal interviews combine the benefits of questionnaires and focus group discussions. It is basically a method in which we meet with event managers on a one-on-one basis and have a discussion with them. The agenda for the discussion is pre-set and the interviewer directs the discussion to lead to the answers he requires. These are also usually recorded in order to refer back to them at a later date. The only problem with Personal Interviews is that it is very time consuming, and after a point it may get too monotonous for the interviewer. Designing the Data Collection I. Questionnaire: Following is the questionnaire that will be circulated among event managers in order to understand the need for a Crowd Management Agency. Name: _______________________________________________ Event Agency: _________________________________________ Designation: ___________________________________________ 1. What kind of events does your agency most focus on? a. Music concerts b. MICE events (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) c. Parties d. Other (please specify) 2. What do you feel are some of the biggest issues you face as an event manager at these events? a. Crowd control b. Maintaining the even schedule c. Security d. Production e. Other (please specify) 3. In your opinion, how important is Crowd Management and Control at an event? a. Very Important b. Important c. Not so important 4. What do you for Crowd Control at these events? a. Manage is yourself b. Have a special team to do so c. Other (please specify) 5. Do you feel that there is a need for agencies that specialize in Crowd Management and Control in UK? a. Yes b. No c. Maybe 6. What are your reasons for picking the option in question 5? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. If there was a special agency that took care of all your Crowd Management and Control needs, would you work with them for your concerts? a. Yes b. No c. Maybe II. Focus Group Discussion The Focus Group Discussion for our research will be moderated by a moderator, who would use the following talking points in order to gather the information required by us to understand the target audience and its needs better. a) Introduction: Ask the participants where they are from, what they do, which agency they work with, what kind of events they do, what is their favourite type of event and so on. Basically things to put them at ease. b) Discuss problems that happen at events. Ask participants to talk about what kind of problems they face most at events, especially music concerts. If the participants are not really talking about Crowd Management and Control, direct them towards the topic by asking them if they heard about a fiasco at a concert that took place and what they thought should have been done in order to prevent this. Ask them if perhaps better crowd management should have been in place. c) Crowd Management: Speak to the people about the importance of crowd management. Ask them where crowd management and control rates in their list of event dos and don’ts. d) Introduce or define the need for a crowd management agency: From the discussion till now, figure out if there is need for a crowd management and control agency in the country. Ask them what kind of functions they would expect this agency to deliver. e) Close the discussion by thanking all the people for showing up and giving us valuable input. Take contact details and wish everyone luck for all their events. III. Personal Interviews The personal interview with people will give us an opportunity to find out what someone really thinks about this topic. It will not be directed by what the others have to say and will be a person’s original opinions. The personal interviews can be conducted by various interviewers simultaneously to save time. It can also be conducted over the phone, although that method is not really preferred. Following are some talking points to direct the personal interview. a) Introduction: Allow the person to give a proper introduction. Where they have studied, where they work, what kind of events they do, why they got into event management, and so on. b) Ask what kind of problems they mostly encounter at events and what they believe are the solutions. c) Introduce crowd management and control. Ask them what is their opinion about crowd management, how important it is in their event design and where would it rate on going wrong. d) Find out what they do for crowd management, and introduce if there is a need for a crowd management and control agency in UK. Ask if they feel that there would be lesser problems at events if there was an agency that focused solely on crowd management and control. e) Ask what kind of functions they would expect this agency to deliver and if it did, would they use such an agency only for big concerts or even smaller ones. f) Wind up by thanking them for showing up, spending time and giving valuable input. Wish them luck on further events, and collect contact details so that we may contact them in future for crowd management in their concerts. Conclusion: These are the various steps we could follow in order to most understand the necessity for Crowd Management and Control in UK. It would help us to design the agency that delivers the same functions in a better manner and also aid us to work out proper Crowd Management plans. It would give us a proper insight into the minds of Event Managers and learn what they exactly require from such agencies. And most of all, it will give us exactly what the event managers want, need and require, so that we can stop second guessing and avoid making errors in judgment in designing our functions. References Alzheimer Europe.org., 2009. Types of Research, [Online] Available at http://www.alzheimer-europe.org/Research/Understanding-dementia- research/Types-of-research/The-four-main-approaches(Accessed on April 23, 2012) Crowd Safe.com, Successful Crowd Management Techniques, [Online] Available at http://www.crowdsafe.com/taskrpt/chpt6.html(Accessed on April 23, 2012) Doukas, SG., 2006. Crowd Management: Past and Contemporary issues, [Online] Available at http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/crowd-management-past-and- contemporary-issues(Accessed on April 23, 2012) FAO.org., 2009. Data Collection Methods, [Online] Available at http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/X2465E/x2465e09.htm(Accessed on April 23, 2012) Music for the Soul.com. Quotes about the language of music, [Online] Available at http://www.musicforthesoul.org/quotes.html(Accessed on April 23, 2012) Read More