The event welcomed 950 live music promoters, agents and managers to London’s celebrated Royal Garden Hotel to discuss the myriad issues affecting live music and events (including secondary ticketing, audience safety and emerging markets).
“Live music promoters understand the responsibilities and challenges of providing top quality crowd management stewarding and security,” explained Showsec’s managing director Mark Harding (who’s also the current chairman of the UK Crowd Management Association). “As a company, we are increasingly being asked to work in a management capacity on international events including Bestival in Romania, Desert Storm in Dubai and the MTV Europe Awards. We found ILMC 2008 an invaluable showcase for extending our worldwide presence.”
Verifying passes, checking emergency procedures
The four-day event earlier this month saw Showsec’s trained, uniformed and SIA-licensed teams ensuring participants’ safety and comfort by verifying passes, directing delegates and understanding the venue’s emergency procedures.
Speaking about the event, Martin Hopewell (of Primary Talent, the organiser of ILMC) said: “One of the toughest jobs in the business must be covering the security at an event where the audience consists of the people who usually hire the security companies. Not only do Showsec manage to do that successfully every year at the ILMC, but they also do so with a level of diplomacy that is quite amazing.”