Update: Love Parade

The organizers of the 2010 Love Parade music festival, where 21 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a human stampede last month, have created a website that seeks to analyze and explain how the catastrophe happened: "Just like the victims' families, the participants and the general public, we, too, must understand what happened on 24 July 2010. This website is an expression of the fact that we accept this responsibility."

An honest attempt at transparency? A pragmatic attempt to deflect blame or limit liability? Both? Neither? Regardless, the maps, documents, and videos that the Love Parade team makes available on the site offer interesting and valuable information about event staging, especially when it comes to how crowds move.

Thanks, once again, to the MeCo group for staying on top of this story.

The Love Parade: A Cautionary Tale

Meeting planning doesn't seem like a dangerous job, but it's easy to forget that you never quite know what's going to happen when you bring together a large group of people. In Duisburg, Germany, investigators are still trying to figure out what went wrong at the 2010 Love Parade music and dance festival, where 21 people were killed and more than 500 people were injured in a human stampede two weeks ago.

There seems to be a lot of blame to go around. On Wednesday, Spiegel Online reports, a law firm commissioned to review the tragedy released a report that points the finger at the Love Parade's organizers for violating security guidelines and ignoring the fact that they were expecting up to twice as many attendees as the 250,000 allowed by the venue's city permit. It's a terrible story on every level, and for our industry, the fact that bad event management could have played a role in 21 people being crushed to death is chilling.

Hat tip to the MeCo group for the Spiegel Online article.

Event Management 101: The Oscars

Cheryl Cecchetto, who for the last 21 years has produced the Governors Ball that follows the Academy Awards, has an approach to managing guests that will be familiar to any meeting professional who has faced crowds of hungry, thirsty, seat-sprung attendees. From the Los Angeles Times:

Starting with the basics, Cecchetto knows to get a drink in guests' hands right away because "they need to be doing something -- it makes them more comfortable." There should be quiet music in the background because complete quiet makes people uncomfortable. And the food should be immediately available for the hungry hordes who've been sitting at the award show for at least three hours, and very likely four. The party planner has commissioned 30 banquettes for the evening at which the expected 1,500 guests can gather and get conversations flowing.

I should stress: I do not think that meeting planning is just another form of party planning. But crowd control is crowd control. And tell me this doesn't bring to mind images of your general session letting out, or the cocktail reception before your awards dinner getting underway.