1705 Consultancy

14/09/2026

This weekend’s event management job was a little different.

Mermaids, knights, goblins, fairies and a full Renaissance Fayre. Safe to say, no two events are ever quite the same.

But behind the costumes and entertainment, the fundamentals of delivering a safe and successful event remain exactly the same.

Planning. Risk assessments. Emergency plans. Event safety. Security. CQC registered medical provision. Martyn’s Law preparedness. Event control. Incident management. Business continuity.

We can support from the very first planning meeting, through the build and live event, right through to breakdown, debrief and any lessons identified afterwards.

More importantly, we can bring those elements together as one team.

One point of contact. One joined up plan. One team that understands how the whole event needs to work rather than multiple suppliers operating in isolation.

Whether it involves mermaids and knights, thousands of festival goers, a Christmas event, fireworks display, scare maze, corporate event or something we haven’t encountered yet, we are happy to have the conversation.

We are now taking bookings for 2027 events as well as Christmas 2026, fireworks events and scare maze season.

If you are planning an event and want practical support without the red tape and jargon, get in touch with 1705 Consultancy.

We can do as much or as little as you need. From a single risk assessment or emergency plan through to a complete one stop event safety, security and medical solution.

📞 0333 360 1705

12/09/2026

Radio communications. Probably one of the simplest skills in event management and yet one of the easiest to get badly wrong.

I’ve noticed it at far too many events this year. People are handed a radio but have never really been taught how to use one properly.

Is the message about a blocked toilet? A suspicious person in the foyer? A medical emergency? Or are we about to order an urgent evacuation?

The person receiving that transmission needs to understand quickly what is happening, where it is happening and what is actually required of them.

Long transmissions, people talking over each other, unclear locations, unnecessary information and sometimes no acknowledgement at all. Under normal circumstances it is frustrating. When something serious happens it can become a real operational problem.

Using a radio properly is a simple skill. But like most simple skills it needs to be taught and practised before you need it under pressure.

That is why radio communications form one of the core practical exercises on our Bronze Commander for Events course. Delegates do not just talk about communications. We put radios in their hands and make them manage developing incidents using them.

Because when an incident starts, that really isn’t the time to work out which button to press.

If you manage events or have staff who may find themselves taking control when something goes wrong, get in touch about our next Bronze Commander for Events course.

📞 0333 360 1705

11/09/2026

25 years.

It is difficult to comprehend that a quarter of a century has passed since 11 September 2001.

Most of us can still remember exactly where we were when we first saw those images. The confusion. The disbelief. Then the realisation that we were watching something that would change the world.

Today though, I don’t think the numbers, the politics or everything that followed should be the first thing we remember.

We should remember people.

People who went to work that morning and never came home. People who boarded a flight expecting an ordinary journey. Firefighters, police officers and paramedics who ran towards something when every instinct must have told them to run the other way.

Families who have now lived 25 years with an empty chair, a missing voice and somebody permanently absent from the photographs that followed.

For those of us who have spent our lives around emergency services, security and public safety, there are events that fundamentally change the way we think about protecting people. 9/11 was one of them.

A generation has now grown up knowing it only as history.

For many others, it still feels anything but historical.

Today is simply a day to remember them.

The 2,977 lives taken.

The countless lives changed.

And the courage of ordinary people on an unimaginable day.

25 years on, we remember.

11 September 2001.

08/09/2026

When something goes wrong, the easiest thing in the world is to find someone to blame.

The harder and far more valuable thing is to understand why it happened and what needs to change.

This tragic incident in Miami is still at the very early stages of investigation. The flight data and cockpit voice recorders have now been recovered and investigators will start piecing together exactly what happened.

Aviation has always been particularly good at this.

It is one of the themes behind Black Box Thinking. Accidents, near misses and mistakes are investigated, evidence is gathered, decisions are examined and importantly the learning is fed back into the system.

There is a lesson there for events, venues and organisations generally.

A serious incident does not have to involve fatalities to warrant a proper review.

A show stop. An evacuation that did not go as planned. A security failure. An injury. A medical incident. A communications breakdown. A near miss. Even a decision that simply did not feel right afterwards.

The question should not just be “who got it wrong?”

It should be “what can we learn from it?”

Independent post incident reviews and debriefs are something we can provide at 1705 Consultancy. Looking at the planning, decisions, actions and available evidence. Identifying what worked as well as what did not and producing a clear report with practical recommendations.

Not to apportion blame.

To provide confidence, context and learning going forward.

Because sometimes the most valuable part of an incident is what you make sure never happens again.

https://news.sky.com/share/13583023

The plane was returning to Miami when it overran the runway around 2pm (7pm UK time), breaking though a perimeter fence and striking vehicles.

04/09/2026

A significant report for anyone involved in planning or delivering public events.

HMICFRS has today published its inspection into the police role within Safety Advisory Groups and the wider arrangements for public safety at events. It makes 26 recommendations and importantly calls for a government review of the current arrangements for keeping people safe at public events.

It reinforces something we regularly see in practice. Good event safety is not about security working in one corner, medical provision in another and event management somewhere else. It is about having a joined up structure, clear responsibilities, proper risk assessment and people who understand how to make decisions when something starts to go wrong.

That is exactly the approach we take at 1705 Consultancy.

We can provide a single point of expert support for event organisers covering event safety and planning, security, medical provision, emergency and contingency planning, command and control, exercising and operational delivery.

From reviewing an event plan through to putting experienced people on the ground and into the control room, we can help build a proportionate and defensible safety structure rather than simply providing individual services.

We are also now offering our Bronze Commander for Events course, designed for those expected to take operational command responsibilities at events and understand how those decisions fit into the wider command, safety and multi agency structure.

The full HMICFRS report and its recommendations are well worth reading:

HMICFRS: An inspection of the police’s role in Safety Advisory Groups and planning for major public events⁠

If you are planning events for 2026/27 and want one experienced team supporting safety, security, medical and command arrangements, get in touch.

Plan together. Train together. Respond together.

28/08/2026

Calling a showstop is not a failure. Sometimes, not calling one is.

I’m working at an event this weekend and today we made the decision to call a showstop.

Lightning and increasingly heavy rain were creating conditions that we believed were becoming unsafe.

Nobody wants to stop an event. There are customers waiting, schedules to maintain and commercial implications. But none of those things should make someone afraid to say “Stop.”

A good showstop procedure cannot just be a paragraph buried in an Event Management Plan.

It needs to be solid, rehearsed, briefed and understood. People need to know who can call it, what happens when it is called and have the confidence to actually use it.

Today’s news from the Big Church Festival, where six people have reportedly been injured following a serious incident, is another reminder of why dynamic risk assessment at events matters.

But there is another important part.

Debrief every showstop.

Not to criticise the decision, but to learn from it.

Was it called early enough? Was communication clear? Did everyone respond as expected? What could we do better next time?

There is learning in every single call and that learning should go straight back into the plan.

At 1705 Consultancy Ltd we help organisations build this properly into their event arrangements, from risk assessments and Event Management Plans through to showstop procedures, emergency planning, briefings and exercises.

We are now taking bookings for the 2027 event season.

The objective is not more paperwork. It is making sure that when somebody needs to say STOP, everyone knows what happens next.

26/08/2026

The story matters. The mission matters. But getting your people home safely matters too.

Across the world right now, journalists, photographers, production crews, humanitarian workers, charity teams and emergency responders are deploying into increasingly complex environments.

Conflict. Civil unrest. Natural disasters. Infrastructure failure. Unfamiliar countries. Limited communications. Rapidly changing threats.

And the risks are very real.

Recent figures show that 350 humanitarian workers were killed during 2025, while attacks involving aid workers reached record levels. (Reuters⁠) Recent reporting has again highlighted the dangers faced by journalists and first responders operating in conflict environments. (AP News⁠)

Preparation before deployment can make a genuine difference.

1705 Consultancy is running our next SAFE / SAFE+ course at Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire.

📅 1st to 3rd September 2026
SAFE 3 day programme

📅 4th September
Optional additional day to complete SAFE+

This is practical training designed for people who may find themselves working or travelling where normal assumptions about safety no longer apply.

Ideal for media and press teams, journalists, photographers, charities, NGOs, humanitarian organisations, rescue teams, corporate travellers and anyone deploying overseas into challenging environments.

We have secured a special rate of just £1,500 + VAT for this course only, with special hotel rates also available.

There are only a few places remaining.

If your organisation sends people overseas, ask yourself a simple question:

Have we genuinely prepared them for what they could face when they arrive?

📞 0333 360 1705
📱 WhatsApp: 07736 310008
✉️ [email protected]
🌐 www.1705consultancy.co.uk

Message me directly to secure one of the remaining places or to discuss training for your own team.

23/08/2026

Friday marked the UK’s first National Day for Victims and Survivors of Terrorism.

Two days later and venues across the country are preparing for another huge week of events, festivals and public gatherings.

There is an important connection between the two.

Remembering those affected by terrorism cannot just be about looking backwards. It must also be about learning, preparing and doing everything reasonably possible to protect people in the future.

The UK terrorism threat level remains SEVERE.

That doesn’t mean cancelling events or frightening the public.

It means asking some fairly simple questions.

If something happened today, would your staff know what to do?

Who makes the decision to evacuate, invacuate or lockdown?

How quickly can you communicate with hundreds or thousands of people?

Do your security, stewards, medical teams, front of house staff and management actually understand each other’s roles?

When was your emergency plan last tested rather than simply reviewed?

And perhaps most importantly…

Would it actually work at 3pm on a busy Saturday when something has gone badly wrong?

Protective security isn’t about producing another document for the shelf.

It’s about people making good decisions quickly when the circumstances are anything but normal.

That’s why at 1705 Consultancy Ltd our work goes beyond training courses.

We help organisations understand their terrorism risk, develop practical emergency plans, train their people and then test whether those arrangements actually work.

Risk assessments. Emergency planning. Exercises. Incident command. Counter terrorism training. Protective security consultancy.

If you are responsible for a venue, event or organisation and you’re not completely confident about the answers to those questions, perhaps it’s time for a conversation.

📩 Get in touch with 1705 Consultancy Ltd.

16/08/2026

The best events are rarely delivered by one team working alone.

As event season continues at full pace, it is a good reminder of just how many moving parts sit behind a successful event.

Safety. Security. Medical. Crowd management. Traffic. Stewarding. Emergency planning. Contractors. Training. Command and control.

Each discipline matters. But increasingly we are seeing that how those disciplines work together matters just as much.

One of the biggest lessons from our work across events is the value of bringing experienced people together early. People who understand their own responsibilities but also understand how their decisions affect everyone else.

A change to an entrance affects crowd flows.
A change to traffic management can affect emergency access.
A security decision can create a medical or evacuation consideration.
A change in attendance can alter almost every element of the plan.

That is why we increasingly approach events as one joined up operation rather than a collection of individual services.

At 1705 Consultancy we work alongside experienced teams and trusted partners across event safety, security, medical provision, crowd management, traffic management, emergency planning and command and control.

The aim is not to make event planning more complicated.

It is the opposite.

Get the right people around the table. Understand the risks. Build a workable plan. Make sure everyone understands it. Then have experienced people on the ground who can adapt when reality inevitably differs from the plan.

Good event management is not about producing paperwork that sits in a folder.

It is about creating a team and a plan that actually works when the gates open.

That is something we are seeing the value of again and again this event season.

14/08/2026

🎓 A FIRST FOR 1705 CONSULTANCY

This week we successfully delivered our first SFJ Awards Level 2 Award in Counter Terrorism Protective Security Awareness and another important addition to the training we can now offer organisations across the UK.

The Level 2 qualification is designed to give people a practical understanding of the terrorist threat and importantly what they can actually do about it.

It is particularly relevant for those working in hospitality, events, education, visitor attractions, retail, transport, security and front of house roles. The people who are often the eyes and ears of an organisation and who may be the first to notice that something is not quite right.

With the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, Martyn’s Law, changing the conversation around preparedness, there has arguably never been a better time to invest in giving staff the knowledge and confidence to play their part.

And Level 2 is just part of what we now deliver.

Through 1705 Consultancy we can support organisations with a growing range of accredited and specialist training including:

🎓 Level 2 Award in Counter Terrorism Protective Security Awareness

🎓 Level 3 Award in Counter Terrorism Protective Security & Preparedness

🎓 Level 4 Certificate for Protective Security Advisers

🎓 Level 4 Certificate in Operational Management

🌍 SAFE and HEAT hostile environment and overseas safety training

🚨 Incident command, JESIP and METHANE

🔐 Hostile reconnaissance, protective security and security awareness

🗣️ Conflict management, de escalation and crisis communication

🩹 First aid and emergency response training

But we also recognise that sometimes an off the shelf course simply doesn’t fit the problem.

That is why we can build bespoke training around your organisation, your people, your environment and your risks.

From a two hour awareness session through to full day workshops, tabletop exercises, command training and multi day programmes, we can take a problem or training requirement and turn it into something practical, relevant and engaging.

If there is something your team needs to be better prepared for, talk to us.

Tell us the problem. Tell us what you need your people to be able to do. We will help build the training around it.

📩 Get in touch with 1705 Consultancy to discuss individual places, closed courses, group bookings or a completely bespoke programme.