ESSMA Safety & Security Workshop: the Highlights

OPEL ARENA, home to 1. FSV Mainz 05, hosted this year’s ESSMA Safety & Security Workshop. Over 55 ESSMA Members from 18 countries joined us for two days of knowledge sharing and exchanging best practices regarding stewarding, crowd management, body searches, bag policies and facial recognition.

Day 1

The first topic of the day focused on crowd management with Marcel Altenburg from Manchester Metropolitan University explaining the theoretical approach and science regarding crowd safety, risk analysis and crowd density. Participants learned how to assess the capacity and density of an area and how to predict crowds based on live data including public transport. 

Following Mr. Altenburg’s presentation, Leo van der Vliet shared how his team at BV Vitesse deliver a safe GelreDome both for football and non-football events with the implementation of their smart surveillance project and predictive profiling of their spectators.

Before continuing with part two of the workshop, all participants were body searched by 1. FSV Mainz 05 stewards to experience how fans enter the stadium on matchday. This was the kick-off of Stephan Bandholz’ presentation on body searches and bag policies during which he shared the club’s main priorities regarding body searches, their extended list of permitted and prohibited items and their transparent and club-branded bag which all fans are allowed to take into the stadium.

In addition, Ken Scott - Head of Inspectorate at SGSA - focused on how to manage and design a queuing system, the impact of screening and zone Ex.

Day 1 concluded with an extended tour of the facilities of 1. FSV Mainz 05 and OPEL ARENA.

Day 2

To kick-off Day 2, Cyril de Greve presented ESSMA’s Stewarding Benchmark regarding training, retaining and attracting stewards as well as the challenges most European stadiums face. Furthermore, Dominique Gross shared the internal stewarding approach of 1. FSV Mainz 05 with insights on the benefits of their programme, how they educate their stewards and the challenges of having an internal stewarding system.

The final topic of our Safety & Security Workshop focused on facial recognition and video surveillance. Peter Kraus of the European Data Protection Board clarified the European Regulatory Framework and the most important guidelines for participants to follow. Lastly, Igor Pavlovich provided insights on FC Zenit’s facial recognition system to identify stadium offenders.

Go to our ESSMA Flickr account for more pictures.

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