To document through professional collaboration the establishment of a living guide, a collection of vetted “best practices” to assist those responsible for safety and security for events of all types and sizes as well as their attendant entities.

• A “best practice” is a technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has proven to reliably lead to a desired result.

• In practical analysis a “best” or “smart” practice is a clear and concrete behavior that solves a problem or achieves a goal under most conditions.

• A field-tested “best practice” is a program, activity or strategy that, when properly implemented, has been shown to work effectively and produce successful outcomes and is supported to some degree by subjective and objective data sources.

• Identify significant issues requiring solutions with input from steering committees and Conclave sessions.

• Discuss these issues in Conclave sessions to identify all aspects, lessons learned, voids and/or new issues.

• From sessions identify solutions and basis forming best practices.

• Review input, resolve details and collect additional information through literature reviews, research and contributions from subject matter experts.

• Send draft Best Practices Guide to Conclave attendees for vetting.

• Aggregate input from Conclave sessions, review, vet and follow up for best practices and formulation into The Essential Guide to Safety and Security: Best Practices for Meeting and Event Planning

Did you know that more than half of meeting and event organizers have no event-specific emergency plan in place? One reason for that is because up until now, no comprehensive set of safety and security best practices for meetings existed. This essential guide, with its nearly 400 reviewed and vetted recommendations of actions you can take, will be an important resource you can use to create emergency action, crisis response, and other safety and security plans for meetings and events.

You will not need every single best practice in this guide for each event, just as a painter never uses all the colors or brushes at her disposal for one single work of art. But, having access to the depth of information and variety of options that this guide offers will allow you to pick and choose what you need to customize your plans..

Think of this guide as a box of paints. Imagine each topical area is a different color on your palette. Each best practice is a unique shade within that color family. The size of your meeting will determine how you apply that best practice to the canvas of your event.

Always begin your safety and security event management process by reading and following the best practices in the first Topical Area of this guide: Risk, Threat and Vulnerability Assessment.

After you’ve identified the unique risks, potential threats and vulnerabilities inherent to the event you’re planning, the team you’re working with, the participants you are gathering together and the event destination, then refer to the Table of Contents (TOC) to look up the specific elements relevant to your event so you know how to build and flesh out your plans, train your staff, and increase the safety and security of the event at hand. Click on the topic of interest to get to that section. When you’re done, click on the link next to the page number to return to the TOC

Predicting and preventing every possible risk is something no one can ever achieve because threats continue to evolve. The existence of The Essential Guide to Safety and Security or your ability to use it does not mean that nothing will ever go wrong at your event. But this tool will help you be better prepared to proactively minimize and mitigate the risks that you can, effectively handle the ones that you could not, and help you with your impromptu planning process as the unexpected occurs.

As new threats evolve, we hope you become part of the process of updating this living guide so that it remains the most relevant and essential resource for our industry. Let us know your suggestions for future guides and give us feedback on this one by emailing mpiacademy@mpiweb.org.