Inclusive Event Planning: Protect everyone by planning for everyone

At Halo, we like to say: let’s protect everyone.

And we mean everyone.

That mission comes from our belief that the tools, expertise and processes used to improve safety and security operations should be accessible to every type of organisation responsible for protecting people. Stadiums, venues, festivals, campuses, transport hubs, community events, major public gatherings — whatever the setting, safety should never be treated as a privilege.

But tools and processes alone are not enough.

To truly protect everyone, event organisers, security teams and venue managers need to make sure the systems they put in place are accessible, visible, easy to use and trusted by the people they are designed to protect.

Because safer events are not created by operations teams working in isolation behind a control room door. They are created when staff, suppliers, partners and attendees all have a clear role in helping people stay safe. That doesn’t mean asking fans or guests to “do the job” of trained safety professionals… Nobody is suggesting Dave in Block C should be managing your egress plan. But it does mean making it easier for people to report concerns, find help, understand information, access support and trust that they will be taken seriously when something doesn’t feel right.

Done well, inclusive event planning can:

• improve incident reporting;
• increase operational visibility;
• support faster response;
• reduce pressure on frontline teams;
• strengthen welfare and safeguarding;
• improve accessibility;
• build attendee confidence;
• enhance the overall fan or guest experience.

Discover how inclusive event planning can support safer, smoother and more effective safety and security operations, with practical tips for embedding inclusive practice into your planning, staff briefings, public reporting routes and Halo System setup.

What inclusive event planning actually means

Inclusive event planning means designing safety, security and crowd management operations around the real people who will use them.

That includes people with different access needs, communication preferences, confidence levels, vulnerabilities, past experiences, languages, ages, disabilities, cultural backgrounds and levels of trust in authority.

Some attendees will feel comfortable approaching a steward, police officer, welfare volunteer or security officer. Others will not.

Some people will report harassment, discrimination, suspicious behaviour, accessibility issues or welfare concerns straight away. Others may hesitate because they are unsure whether they will be believed, understood, supported or taken seriously.

From an operational perspective, this matters because accurate reporting = visibility.

If people feel confident reporting concerns, teams receive better information earlier. If teams receive better information earlier, control rooms get a clearer picture. If control rooms get a clearer picture, decisions improve.

Inclusive event planning helps close the gap between what is happening on the ground and what the control room can see.

Here are some of the key areas event organisers, venue teams and safety and security professionals can review when building more inclusive event planning into their operations.

1. Engage your public in their own welfare

Good public reporting starts with a very simple question: Would an attendee know what to do if they felt unsafe?

Not after reading page 47 of the event terms and conditions but in the actual moment, while surrounded by noise, crowds, queues, signage, flashing screens, friends wandering off and someone asking where the nearest toilet is.

Reporting routes should be easy to find, easy to understand and easy to use.

That could include:

• clear signage around welfare and help points;
• QR codes linking to public reporting forms;
• event app reporting options;
• visible welfare staff;
• stewards briefed to receive concerns;
• customer service points linked to the safety operation;
• public messaging before and during the event;
• reporting information on tickets, maps, websites and event emails.

The key is to make reporting feel normal, not dramatic.

Many people will not report something if they think they are “making a fuss”. Clear, calm messaging helps people understand that reporting concerns is part of keeping the event safe.

Useful wording might include:

“If something does not feel right, tell us.”

“Need help or want to report a concern? Speak to any steward or visit a welfare point.”

“Report safety, welfare or accessibility concerns using the QR code below.”

“Your report helps our teams respond quickly and keep the event safe for everyone.”

Keep it simple. Nobody needs a twelve-line paragraph when they are trying to report something from a crowded concourse.

How to support this in Halo

HaloEngage allows you to create custom link and QR code report forms which can give attendees, staff or external partners a simple route to report concerns into the operation.

These reports can be configured to capture the information your team needs, such as:

• location;
• concern type;
• description;
• urgency;
• whether assistance is needed;
• contact details if appropriate;
• whether the person wants follow-up.

From there, reports can feed into the Halo System so control room teams can review, triage, assign and track the response. The goal is not just to collect more information. It is to make useful information visible to the people who need it.

2. Build trust before people need help

People are more likely to use safety systems when they understand them before they are in a difficult situation, meaning inclusive event planning starts before the gates open.

Pre-event communication can help set expectations, reduce anxiety and improve attendee confidence. It can also reduce pressure on frontline staff because fewer people arrive confused, unsure or already annoyed.

Pre-event information should clearly explain:

• how to get to the event;
• where to enter;
• what to expect at search and ticket checks;
• accessibility arrangements;
• welfare provision;
• medical support;
• prohibited items;
• how to report a concern;
• where to find help;
• what to do in an emergency;
• transport and dispersal information.

This is especially helpful for disabled attendees, neurodivergent attendees, first-time visitors, families, young people, people attending alone, international guests and anyone who may feel anxious in busy public spaces.

The aim is not to over-explain every inch of the operation. It is to give people enough information to feel prepared. Because prepared people move more confidently. Confident people ask better questions. Better questions save frontline teams from having to decode panic, confusion and “I thought I read somewhere that maybe we enter over there?” at peak ingress.

What to think about for your next event

Before your next event, review your pre-event communication from the perspective of someone who has never been to your venue, never attended this type of event, has access needs, feels nervous in crowds or may need support but does not know what to ask for.

If the information still makes sense, you’re on the right track.

3. Brief staff on people, not just procedures

Staff briefing and training should do more than confirm timings, roles, radio channels and deployment positions. If you want inclusive planning to work in practice, staff need to understand who they are supporting and what barriers people may face when asking for help.

A useful briefing might include:

• expected audience profile;
• known access requirements;
• safeguarding considerations;
• welfare risks;
• local intelligence;
• likely pressure points;
• expected arrival and dispersal patterns;
• how to respond to harassment or discrimination;
• how to respond to spiking concerns;
• how to support someone who appears vulnerable;
• what should be logged;
• when to escalate;
• who to contact if unsure.

Frontline staff should know that concerns do not always arrive in neat categories. An attendee may not say “I would like to report a safeguarding concern.”

Instead, they may say:

• “That person keeps following me.”
• “My friend has disappeared.”
• “I think my drink has been spiked.”
• “I don’t feel safe walking back that way.”
• “The accessible route is blocked.”
• “Someone is making me uncomfortable.”
• “I don’t know if this is serious, but…”

These are operational signals. The response should be calm, consistent and easy for staff to follow.

What to think about for your next event

To ingrain this into your event planning, you could add a short “attendee needs and reporting barriers” section to your event briefing. It doesn’t need to be long, but it does need to be specific.

For example:

“Some attendees may not feel confident approaching security directly. If someone reports a concern to you, take it seriously, keep them calm, move them to a safe location if needed, and report it to control using the welfare/security concern incident type.”

How to support this in Halo

HaloTaskManager can be used to create incident follow up workflows which can be linked directly to incidents, issues and concerns as they are reported. During triage, control room operators can decipher the initial report, share it as needed and assign a checklist task with pre-determined actions that ensure a prepared and practice process is carried out to maximise public safety and most effectively respond to the incident or concern.

You can create different task checklists for different welfare issues and ensure task forms have relevant descriptions, form fields and directions for various inclusivity or accessibility provisions.

Task checklists and linked tasks-incidents can also help with:

• staff briefing completion;
• welfare point checks;
• accessibility route checks;
• signage checks;
• public reporting QR code checks;
• pre-event comms approval;
• control room readiness;
• post-event reporting and follow-up.

4. Make welfare visible and connected

Welfare provision is only useful if people can find it, understand it and feel comfortable using it.

At some events, welfare can feel like something hidden behind the scenes until a serious issue occurs which limits its value. Visible welfare provision can support people earlier and give the wider operation better insight into attendee needs.

This might include:

• clearly marked welfare points;
• welfare locations shown on maps;
• pre-event information about welfare support;
• roaming welfare staff;
• quiet spaces where appropriate;
• water access;
• phone charging;
• seating;
• links between welfare, medical, security and control room teams.

Welfare should also be connected into incident reporting.

If welfare teams are seeing repeated concerns in one area, control needs to know. If multiple people report feeling unsafe on a particular route, control needs to know. If accessibility issues are repeatedly raised at the same location, control needs to know.

What to think about for your next event

For each welfare point, define:

• what support is available;
• who is staffing it;
• how attendees find it;
• how welfare communicates with control;
• what gets logged;
• what gets escalated;
• how vulnerable people are supported when leaving site;
• how trends are reviewed after the event.

How to support this in Halo

Create welfare-specific incident forms in Halo using the custom form drag-and-drop builder, so reports can be logged consistently and reviewed properly.

Our custom forms allow you to collect as much information as needed to effectively triage the incident, including things like vulnerability checklists or open text fields for more nuanced information.

This gives teams better data during the event and better learning afterwards.

5. Treat accessibility as part of safety planning

Accessibility is not only a customer experience issue. It is a safety issue.

If accessible routes are unclear, blocked, overcrowded, poorly staffed or missing from emergency planning, people can be placed at unnecessary risk.

Accessible event planning should be considered across the full event journey from pre-event communications to arrival and parking, right through to emergency movement, egress and onward travel.

This includes physical accessibility, but it also includes communication accessibility. Can people find information easily? Is it written clearly? Are there visual supports? Is signage understandable? Are staff briefed? Are temporary changes communicated quickly?

Access issues often become operational issues when they have not been planned properly. A blocked accessible route is not just inconvenient, it can affect movement, dignity, welfare, emergency planning and crowd flow.

What to think about for your next event

Add accessibility checks into your event safety planning process.

Before opening, confirm:

• accessible routes are clear;
• accessible entrances are staffed;
• viewing areas are ready;
• accessible toilets are available and maintained;
• welfare and medical points are accessible;
• signage is in place;
• temporary changes are communicated;
• staff know escalation routes for access issues.

How to support this in Halo

Use custom task forms to assign and confirm accessibility checks before the event opens.

You can also create automated recurring patrol or inspection tasks for accessible routes, toilets, lifts, ramps, viewing platforms and welfare access points during the live phase.

If something becomes blocked, damaged or unavailable, teams can report it as incident or a blocked task, assign action and track resolution in real time.

6. Plan for the whole journey, not just the venue footprint

People do not experience events according to operational boundaries, they experience the event as a single, whole journey.

That includes travel, arrival, queues, entry, circulation, welfare, toilets, exits, dispersal, transport hubs, car parks, taxi ranks, nearby streets and the walk back to wherever they are going next.

For major events, festivals, stadia, city-centre venues, Pride events and late-night economy settings, some of the most important safety considerations sit outside the main event footprint.

This includes:

• queues extending into public space;
• transport delays;
• crowd build-up at stations;
• poor lighting;
• unsafe walking routes;
• pick-up and drop-off confusion;
• harassment or disorder during dispersal;
• accessibility barriers outside the venue;
• weather exposure;
• road crossings;
• neighbouring venues or businesses;
• unclear responsibility between stakeholders.

Inclusive event planning should be built into Zone Ex and surrounding public space planning. That means thinking about how different people may experience the journey, especially those who may feel vulnerable, unsafe, disoriented or less confident asking for help.

What to think about for your next event

Review arrival and dispersal from the attendee’s perspective.

Ask:

• Where might people feel unsafe?
• Where might they get confused?
• Where could crowd density build?
• Where are the poorly lit areas?
• Where do people wait for taxis or lifts?
• Where are accessible routes weakest?
• Where might welfare issues continue after people leave site?
• How do concerns outside the footprint get reported back into the operation?

A plan that works perfectly inside the venue but falls apart at the taxi rank still has work to do.

7. Use incident data to improve the next event

Inclusive event planning should improve over time, that means reviewing more than the obvious incidents. Major incidents need scrutiny, of course. But low-level reports, welfare logs, accessibility issues, staff feedback, public complaints and attendee feedback can reveal where the operation was carrying friction.

Useful post-event questions include:

• Were attendees unsure how to report concerns?
• Were welfare points easy to find?
• Did access issues appear in specific areas?
• Were certain teams unclear on escalation?
• Did reports cluster at particular times or locations?
• Did concerns increase during ingress, circulation, egress or dispersal?
• Were harassment, discrimination or welfare reports handled consistently?
• Did control have enough visibility across teams?
• Did public reporting routes work?
• What should change before the next event?

The aim is not to create a blame session, it’s to improve the next operation. Post-event learning should help teams refine their tools, systems, operation and staff training across all aspects of event planning, delivery and review.

How to support this in Halo

Halo gives teams a clear audit trail of incidents, tasks, actions and reports making post-event review easier because teams can analyse individual issues and trends covering what happened, where it happened, how it was handled and what needs to change.

Good data helps organisations move from “we think it went okay” to “here is what happened, here is what we learned, and here is what we are improving next time.”

Quick checklist: inclusive event planning in practice

Before your next event, ask:

1. Can attendees report concerns in more than one way?
2. Are reporting routes visible, simple and easy to use?
3. Do staff know how to respond to welfare, harassment, discrimination, spiking, accessibility and safeguarding concerns?
4. Are welfare points visible, accessible and connected to the wider operation?
5. Are accessible routes checked before and during the event?
6. Can the control room see reports from multiple teams and public reporting routes?
7. Are low-level concerns logged consistently?
8. Have you planned for arrival, dispersal and the surrounding public space?
9. Does your post-event review include welfare, accessibility and attendee experience?
10. Does your plan work for the people who may be least confident asking for help?

Inclusive event planning is not about making events softer.

It is about making safety sharper.

It gives teams better information, earlier warnings, clearer reporting, stronger trust and a more complete view of what is happening on the ground. That means safer events, better experiences and stronger operations.

Or, to put it the Halo way: it helps organisations protect everyone.