10 Tips to Increase Corporate Event Security

August 16, 2019

It’s unfortunate but true that too many people think of security for a corporate event as something that comes after everything else has been planned. Security needs to be one of the first things considered.

When you’re organizing an important corporate event, you want your security team in on the ground floor. An experienced professional security company can help corporate event planners make good decisions that protect attendees and ensure a successful corporate event.

Whether your corporate event is a meeting only for your top executives, a retreat where employees may bring family or guests, or part of a larger conference, the safety and security of your attendees matter. Make choosing a corporate event security management team a priority before you make any major decisions about the event.

How to Know If Your Corporate Event Needs Security

Security is especially important at events that include top company executives who may discuss important proprietary information. Depending upon the form of corporate event, high-level guests like celebrities may also be in attendance.

Leaving planning for security for any corporate event until the last second is asking for trouble. If you select your security team first, you can make smarter decisions about other parts of planning such as venue, transportation arrangements and day-of-event security procedures for all your guests.

How to Improve Security for Large Corporate Events

The reality of the world is that a large corporate event can attract the wrong kind of attention from the wrong people. Whether it’s disgruntled former employees who want to make a scene, current staff who are agitating for an increase in wages, protesters who object to a company’s product or policies looking to disrupt a meeting for publicity, or even terrorists looking for soft targets, not having your security prepared for any possible event may result in harm to important personnel as well as damage to your company’s image that may take years to restore.

Learn More About Security For Corporate Events

Many companies do not have a risk management plan, or the employees don’t know if the company has one. Even if your company has a plan, employees may feel the plans are ineffective in light of recent global events that featured attacks on large gatherings of people.

If you are planning a corporate event any time soon, there are steps you can take to help minimize your risk:

1. CHOOSE A PROFESSIONAL SECURITY COMPANY TO WORK WITH FIRST

Experienced event planners know that selecting a professional, experienced security team is one of the best ways to ensure a corporate event is both successful and safe. When you work with a company like Vigilant Tiger Security, they coordinate with event organizers to make every major decision with security and safety in mind.

2. DETERMINE YOUR EVENT’S RISKS

Although it may seem counterintuitive, one of the first steps in planning a corporate event is to think about everything that can go wrong. When you work with an experienced professional security team, they can help you create a list of possible situations that could arise during your event. This then allows you to create a response plan for each potential problem. In most cases, you will never need to use these plans. But it’s much better to have a plan in place to deal with a potential crisis than to find yourself scrambling for a solution.

3. HAVE A PLAN FOR PROTESTERS

The possibility of a protest during your corporate event increases if your company makes a controversial product, has controversial corporate policies or if you’ve invited a controversial speaker to make a presentation. Often protest groups will try to disrupt meetings to embarrass the company or the speaker and gain media attention to publicize their cause.

When you work with a professional security company beforehand, they help you identify protesters who might try to interrupt the event. This will enable them to create the proper level of security. For instance, if the security team knows that the controversial speaker will be making a presentation on a particular day, they can ensure that there’s extra security for that event.

4. CONTROL ACCESS TO THE EVENT

This is probably one of the most critical functions of any security team. During the actual event, the security team will ensure no uninvited guests enter. Depending upon the venue, your security team will handle tasks as simple as checking IDs for your top corporate executives and their guests to keeping entry points limited and guarded.

In a closed venue, such as an office building or a hotel, your security provider will have created a plan well in advance. In a more open setting, such as you might have when your corporate event is a retreat, your security team will limit access to the venue itself and create an event safety and security plan that includes the surrounding area and has members of their team posted at appropriate places.

5. KEEP IT SIMPLE

On the day of the event, there will be a lot of balls in the air. The planning that you and the security team that you have chosen will go a long way to ensuring the success of your event. Even so, there may be questions or situations that require attention during the event. The last thing you want to deal with is multiple people giving different answers about how to deal with these issues.

The way to handle this is to designate a point person for both your corporate team and your security team. If your security team has a question, their point person can contact the corporate point person. This ensures that important questions will be answered quickly and possibly complicated scenarios can be resolved with minimum fuss and attention.

Event Security Tips

The five topics mentioned above provide you with a basic guide on how to handle security at your corporate event. These are the five areas you must consider at the minimum. Other important considerations, however, also exist. Here are some tips on ways you can improve security at your corporate event to make it both successful and safe.

1. DETERMINE THE SECURITY NEEDS OF YOUR LOCATION

Every venue requires its own strategy for security. Effective security is not a “one size fits all” solution. An event held at in an indoor venue like a hotel or a business office will require different security measures than one held at a retreat or an outdoor event. When you choose your security team early in your decision-making process, they can help you make the correct decisions to ensure you have a safe and successful event regardless of where it is held.

2. UNIFORM VS STREET CLOTHES

It may seem like a small detail, but it can be an important one. Sometimes you want security at your event to be as invisible as possible. You want your top-level executives to know that they are being protected, but you may not want them to be aware of it at the moment.

In other cases, where a venue may be more open, you want to have security personnel in easily identifiable uniforms that provide a visible deterrence factor. You want people to know your event has security which may make them think twice about trying anything disruptive.

3. HIGH- OR LOW-PROFILE EVENT

This is also potentially a venue question. If your corporate event is a meeting that takes place in a closed facility like business offices with a relatively few important attendees, you may not need as large a security presence as you would for a retreat or a corporate event that includes important VIP guests as well as any of your company’s C-suite personnel. A low-profile event like the former may not attract as much attention or possibilities for disruption, while the latter provides many more opportunities for troublemakers to cause a scene or worse.

Assess events according to who is in attendance, how many people will be attending, where the event will be held and the nature of the event itself.

When you work with a professional security company, they can help assess your event and advise you on the best way to ensure your event is both safe and successful.

4. SCREEN STAFF AND GUESTS

An experienced professional security company will have a solid working knowledge of your guest list. Often people trying to crash event will make every attempt to look as if they belong to fool security. A security team familiar with your guest list can more easily spot anyone who is trying to sneak in.

It’s also important to have your security team screen any vendors or third-party suppliers who may be working the corporate event such as caterers or waitstaff. Someone who wants to disrupt the event can try to evade security by seeking employment with a vendor they know works regularly with your company.

5. PROPER CREDENTIALS

Make sure everyone who is attending your event is properly credentialed, including security staff and any third-party vendors. Stress to your attendees the importance of having their credentials with them at all times if they are required. Often people who want to disrupt an event will try to excuse the lack of credentials by claiming they left it in their hotel room or their car.

If you use a security company with less experience security personnel, or perhaps only hotel security staff who may be part-time, there is a chance they might buy these excuses. But an experienced security team recognizes this ruse and will turn these individuals away.

Assigning clear credentials will mean that if any of your guests have a question, they will know who to approach.

6. GIVE LOTS OF ADVANCE WARNING

When you hold a corporate event in a large venue with many guests — such as a product launch or important policy announcement — make sure you give lots of advance warning to your attendees about what security features will be in place. For instance, guest invitations should include the warning that everyone may be subject to search and that they will need to show proper credentials. If people are not warned about these measures in advance, it can often result in delays at check-ins and unpleasant scenes.

This is particularly important for events where attendees must surrender their cell phones so they can’t take pictures or record conversations. People can get very upset about handing over their cell phones. If you plan to do this at your corporate event, make sure you let people know in advance.

7. ALWAYS HAVE EMERGENCY MEDICAL PERSONNEL ON STANDBY

While you may not need emergency medical personnel at a smaller corporate event, you should make sure at least one member of your security team is experienced in emergency medical procedures like CPR.

For large corporate events, an emergency medical team can work together with your security team to deal with any medical emergencies such as a slip and fall, a heart attack or any food allergy that affects one of your guests. Emergency medical personnel can also help if there is a disruption at your event and people are injured.

8. KNOW WHAT TO WATCH FOR

While an experienced security team knows how to spot someone looking to make trouble, you should have them brief your event team about what to watch for so they can notify security if they see any potential problems. Some of those signs include:

• Anyone who is constantly staring at the staff. People who are planning to disrupt an event are often watching to see where security personnel or even staff are situated.
• Anyone who lacks interest in what is taking place. People looking to disrupt an event aren’t interested in the event, and they show it.
• Anyone who seems to be surveying the layout of the venue. If you spot anyone who is continually checking for security cameras or possible unguarded entrances, alert the security team.
• Anyone who is taking notes about the venue and the layout. This is especially true if your corporate event extends for more than one day.

9. PRE-EVENT PUBLICITY

Work with your security team to assess the level of pre-event publicity your event requires. Small corporate events may only just minimum publicity, perhaps even only in-house notice. Larger corporate events that accompany product lunches or policy announcements may require greater publicity, but this also increases the chances that someone may try to disrupt the event.

Work with your security team and your media department to decide the appropriate level of pre-event publicity and the proper venues in which to publicize it. You may not need to publish an announcement in the paper, for instance, when publicizing it in a trade publication or via an email burst to appropriate parties may be the best option and limit your risks of attracting unwanted attention.

10. BUDGET FOR SECURITY

All too often, people who are planning important corporate events don’t budget for their security needs until after they have considered every other need. Don’t make this mistake. If you plan a corporate event in a fabulous location with lots of food for your guests and entertainment but can only afford a minimal security presence and some kind disruption happens in your event, all the money you spent on planning will not protect your guests or your company’s reputation.

A significant corporate event deserves top security measures. When you prepare your budget, make sure you allocate enough funds to hire a professional, experienced security company. It may mean that you serve fewer hors-d’oeuvres, but if your event is successful and safe and your top corporate executives are happy with the results, it will be money well spent.

Contact Vigilant Tiger Security for Corporate Event Security Services

When you hire Vigilant Tiger security, you’re working with trained security personnel. Our quality of service sets us apart from our competitors. We offer a price that will work with your budget and a service that will make your corporate event safe and successful. All our team of security professionals possesses military backgrounds, and most are combat veterans. They have all been trained to understand and implement the best security practices for your business.

Regardless of whether your hosting a large corporate event or a smaller gathering, we can provide you with the security you need. Call us today at 719-313-2950 or contact us online. We look forward to working with you!