FIVE MINUTES WITH… TOM CLEMENTS, UK PRESIDENT, NATIONAL OUTDOOR EVENTS ASSOCIATION (NOEA)
From managing security at Glastonbury to writing the first professional guide to crowd management, Tom Clements, UK president, National Outdoor Events Association and director of Specialized Security, has led a rich and varied career and with his new role represents Scotland at the top table in UK events.
Recent past: I’ve been in crowd management for 30 years and prior to November I was vice president of NOEA, before being elected as UK president. During my time as vice president in the last five years I have worked very hard in the Scottish and UK events market to represent the interests of our members. Our members are very diverse: we represent land owners, venue owners, event suppliers, production companies, local authorities and many more. And we continue to welcome organisations that play an active role in the hosting, stag- ing and management of events. As president I now head up a team of office bearers and I will continue to advance the fight the corner of our members, whether that’s advocacy in Parliament or coordinating activities with other events industry groups as part of the Event Industry Forum (EIF), which gives us a much more pow- erful voice.
Before that: Going way back, I remember it well. It was the 1st of January, 1990, or ‘day one’. Special-
ized Security came about because we felt there was a different way of doing security at events, which we felt was too much like the old-fash- ioned pub doorman approach. Te first gig we did was Glastonbury in 1990 and the front stage bar- rier was tube scaffolding with ply board. Nobody really had any idea about the management of crowds at that time. Sadly, it took a tragic incident to change all of that but as an industry there was a lot of learn- ing whereby we instigated new policies, did professional training and commissioned research. We were the first company in the UK to have a training manual on event stewarding and we have continued in that manner ever since.
Vision: Te industry will continue to grow. A lot of events will prob- ably amalgamate to become bigger events. Te UK and Scottish govern- ments seem keen to bring events to the country and go chasing things, like the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup. Tat can only help the events industry, and new buds will always need to grow where old ones die away. But I think
there’s a healthy appetite for events in this country, as evidenced by the continued growth of the big arena gigs at the likes of the Hydro and now also TECA in Aberdeen. Out- door events can only really be done in the summer but I predict the overall size of the £3.5bn industry will only grow.
Best moment: Tis is a difficult one, and it’s hard to pin down one specific events, as there have been so many. But I can tell you my big- gest regret, which is that we never had a chance to do Queen as we came along just after they stopped touring and Freddie Mercury sadly passed on. I’ve been involved in so many events and every time people leave and say ‘thank you very much’ and ‘goodbye’ to our staff, it gives you a wee lump in you throat.
Is Scotland the ‘perfect stage’? It most certainly is. I should say that as I was involved in putting that booklet together! But I think we have a tremendous events market up here and the more we do, the better it will be. n
74 | EVENTSBASE | SPRING 2020
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