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Keeping up to date with legislation and current regulations is extremely challenging because there are so many different regulations and standards and codes of practice that affect events and at this point they don’t live in one central location, so it’s unrealistic to expect an Event Manager to know all of them in detail. However, you do need to know how they impact on the event that you’re about to deliver so my advice would be as an Event Manager that you do need to rely to some extent on the venue that you’re going to be using for your event or you should first and foremost be aware of the consent authority, the main consent authority. That may be your local council, it may be the venue owner, in some instances it may be the local police.

It’s also important to remember that regulations and requirements vary from state to state so if you’re moving between states it’s important to be up to date or to double-check within that state what’s going on.

Within the Office of Protocol and Special Events there is an area that looks specifically at policy and legislation, so I guess my team and I are quite lucky in that we have someone centrally who is keeping their finger on the pulse, so to speak. Within our event delivery team we also have a dedicated person whose focus is keeping up to date with particularly risk and safety, occupational health and safety, and we make a commitment to regular training and making sure that we have the appropriate qualifications required to deliver events. Most people within our team have done a range of event management courses but also things as far reaching as traffic controlling certificates with the RTA, getting their white card in terms of OH&S practices, so we’re keeping up to date with the more practical application of those legislations and regulations.

I would also recommend that I think professional associations are a way to keep up to date with information and current trends. Within Sydney and NSW certainly the International Special Events Society holds monthly forums and educationals and will often focus on changes in planning requirements.

Within NSW currently planning laws are under review which will actually have implications for live music venues and you find that that often appears in the newspaper, so I think it’s important to just keep in touch with media, there are event management websites, there are arts-based information sites, so I think keeping in touch with your industry certainly will keep you up to date.

Within NSW the government maintains a website, www.events.nsw.gov.au. At this site you can download an Events Starter Guide. It’s very much geared towards an event starter and someone learning the skills of event management but it certainly has some good checklists and pointers as to the areas to think about and what to look at. Within NSW out of the Office of Protocol and Special Events we’re current developing a resource about compliance that will bring together all the rules and regulations that apply to events, and this should help streamline interaction between event managers and the appropriate government agencies.

Within the Office of Protocol and Special Events when we’re engaging event suppliers we very much ensure that our suppliers are appropriately qualified and reputable…a good supplier knows exactly what requirements they have to meet, essentially, so if you’re working with good suppliers your suppliers should be able to give you appropriate advice regarding regulations or requirements specific to the infrastructure that they’re giving you within your event plan.