Should stewards and event security officers be allowed to do the splits and back-flips? Heather McGill says so.
Some might frown on security staff doing impromptu dances on duty, as taking their minds off the job, of providing safety and security. Heather McGill, the head of spectator experience at London 2012, played a video of a mascot at a sports stadium, doing a dance pitchside to the piped music. The mascot went beside one of the young black polo-shirted stewards standing facing the spectators, and challenged the steward to dance too. He did no more than break out into a dance routine, including doing the splits and a back flip. The mascot and the spectators applauded; the steward went back to his static duty. Heather McGill now works for a company, Experience 360, that designs events. “Your future contracts are going to depend on this,” she told a conference in March by eResponse Crowd Safety Training.
By that she meant that sporting clubs – and she has worked for rugby ones including Harlequins and Wasps for example – may expect security staff that can add to the ‘customer experience’ and certainly not take away from it, whether at the ‘mag and bag’ check at the perimeter or when standing beside the pitch to prevent invasion. While she was not saying that event security people or stewards ought to break into a dance if they can’t, she was in favour of them being allowed to if they can, to add to the fun. She went through some of her ‘least favourite excuses; such as that too much can’t be expected of temporary staff; or that venues do not lend themselves to great customer service. Now of the event producer and consultancy Experience 360, she drew on her experience at London 2012, and how Disney plan and run their theme parks.
More in the May print issue of Professional Security magazine.
Pictured left to right (in the first tea break of the day at the National Motorcycle Museum) are Dr Mick Upton, the authority on crowd safety – he was a founder of the contract event security company Showsec – and Andy Hollinson of eResponse. Mick described to the event his first experience with mass crowd events; the free concert by the Rolling Stones in 1969 in Hyde Park in central London that drew hundreds of thousands and was (infamously) stewarded front of stage by Hells Angels.
His message was of how far the event security sector had come: “I never thought we would reach this point,” while also speaking of how far it had to go still.
Other speakers at the event included Robbie Naish of eResponse, who gave an introduction to crowd science, and afternoon talks on event security after the terror attacks in Paris in November 2015. Event compere was the former athlete Kriss Akabusi, who got the audience to stand and take part in some PT exercises. He also asked one of the audience, Martin Girvan, an inspector at the Sports Grounds Safety Authority, to stand up and take a bow, as a fellow Olympian at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Words and photo by Mark Rowe.
