summer hospitality 49 Top tips for a successful event
Whilst it may be impossible to secure good weather for your event this summer, there are many other steps you can take to guarantee a successful event. Whether you are a business entertaining clients, or an entrepreneur planning to hold your first music festival, it will be important to take steps to protect your event and to make it stand out from competitors
Pitmans has experience of advising in relation to events of all levels from pop-up restaurants, and roof top cinemas to some of the UK’s most well known and prestigious events. Based on this experience we have compiled some tips to assist you in holding an event this summer.
1 Name/branding
A unique name and branding will allow your event to stand out from others, and assist you in income generating activities such as sponsorship. Registered trademark protection will assist you in stopping others make unauthorised use of your name. However, you should ensure that the name is free to use and to avoid any claims being made against you by conducting trademark searches.
You should ensure that you own any branding created to promote your event and ensure that it is not copied. It will also be important to secure permission or licence any images, photographs or text that you wish to use. A written agreement with your design agency is recommended to ensure that you own the branding created for your event, and to reduce the risk that it has been copied.
2 Venues and licensing
You need to pick the right venue. Considerations should not be limited to location and size. For example, some locations may not have an alcohol licence, or may have particular restrictions on the type of activities to be carried on at the location which may curtail your ambition for the event. Always check with the location owner and seek to enter into a venue hire licence. Holding the event on your own premises, does not mean that it will be without restrictions.
It may also be necessary to secure particular licences if you plan to play any music, show a film or broadcast a live event. This is frequently overlooked and should be researched carefully.
3 Security
While you may want to ensure you have security at your event to keep out any unwelcome and unruly guests, the security of the information you hold about your guests could be just as critical.
Where you collect and store personal information of your guests, you are under a duty to ensure that the data you hold is used only for a specific purpose, use in relation to this purpose is not excessive and that permissions are sought for other uses. The law also imposes a duty to take appropriate technical and organisational measures to prevent that data being lost or
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2012
subject to unauthorised access. Failing to keep personal data secure (especially sensitive data) can mean an organisation can be liable for up to fines of £500,000.
The data you hold may be valuable to others, and you should ensure you have necessary security systems and internal processes in place to protect it.
4 Insurance/health and safety
There are numerous laws that impose duties upon organisers of events. Following any serious accident the law enforcement agencies, including the police, the health and safety executive and environmental health officers of the local authority would immediately commence investigations and could close the event if they suspected there was a likelihood of reoccurrence.
Where there are suspected breaches of health and safety law, criminal prosecutions could follow against the organisers of the event and/ or against the directors or senior officers if their gross negligence caused the incident. Successful prosecutions could, in the most serious cases, lead to unlimited fines for the business and even imprisonment for the directors or senior officers of the company if their gross negligence caused the incident. There could also be a civil claim for damages by the injured individual and resulting bad publicity.
You should check your insurance cover to ensure that it is wide enough to cover all eventualities and put appropriate procedures in place to ensure that the risk of any issue is minimised.
5 Ticketing
In the UK tickets for events other than the Olympics and football can be freely resold. As a result, the market for ticket re-sale is significant. Not only this, but counterfeit ticket sales are a significant issue.
A loss of control of ticket sales, and turning away individuals who have travelled a significant distance to visit your event with a counterfeit ticket can lead to bad publicity. Counterfeit tickets can also lead to issues with licensing and health and safety if the amount of permitted attendees is exceeded. You should carefully consider the terms and conditions provided on your tickets.
The tips provided above are just some of the considerations you will have when holding an event and we would urge anyone thinking of holding an event to seek specialist advice.
If you would like any advice on holding your event, please see details.
www.businessmag.co.uk
Alan Davies, defendant insurance partner and member of Pitmans’ hospitality team
Details: Sally Britton
sbritton@pitmans.com 020-7634-4623
or
Alan Davies
alandavies@pitmans.com 0118-9570300
Sally Britton, intellectual property partner and member of Pitmans’ hospitality team
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