Crucial to your planning for safety and security at your meetings and events is the creation of a thorough and specific Emergency Action Plan Develop (EAP). It is not something that can be written in a vacuum. Collaboration and coordination is key, and it should be developed in conjunction with all involved parties.
The EAP should include specific measures to cope with and respond to all potential incidents, and this response requires pre-planning, anticipation, coordination and training. The size and complexity of the written plan will be driven by your risk / vulnerabilities / threats assessment, the size and type of the event, number of attendees, history of prior events, etc. Many of incidents may be handled by public safety, but there still needs to be collaboration, coordination and recognition of everyone’s roles and responsibilities.
The EAP is Designed to Manage the Following Tasks
- Minimize injury and loss of life.
- Establish effective response.
- Stabilize the incident.
- Protect property and the environment.
- Minimize economic impact.
- Assist in brand protection and reduce legal liability.
The EAP will specify any persons to be notified and in the proper order of notification should an incident occur. Ensure the notification list remains current by updating when contact changes occur, and coordinate with local contacts to ensure that all concerned are involved in the planning process. Keep hard and electronic copies of your plan available.
For staffing, Consider the Following
- Create a plan for staffing according to your particular event and the assessed risks/threats.
- Determine roles, responsibilities and sufficient resources.
- Determine who will take charge of the specific incident. This may be organization-dependent.
- Ensure plans are protected from unauthorized disclosure. Not all parts of the plan should be open to everyone, especially tactical plans.
- Treat as law-enforcement sensitive, need to know.
- Conduct regular exercises and include updated information from previous trials.
