Marathon Safety & Security Best Practices Guide Announced

During the first annual National Marathon Safety and Security Summit on December 16-18, 2014, over one hundred of the nation’s leading marathon governing bodies, organizers, directors and administrators, medical practitioners and public safety personnel gathered at the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety & Security (NCS4) in Hattiesburg, MS. The goal of the summit was to elicit safety & security ‘Best Practices’ for marathon events of various distances, sizes (from several hundred to 60,000 plus), staffs (from 10s to hundreds), varying weather conditions and threats.

The attendees, though moderated groups, addressed the following six key safety and security topical areas challenging marathon event managers:

• Event Day Plan: Public/Private Collaboration

• Crowd Dynamics/Management

• Emergency Action Planning

• Risk and Threat Assessment/Vulnerabilities and Planning

• Staff Performance and Training

• Technology Use/Implementation and Innovation

“The Marathon Summit enabled us to talk about how we put our events on, how we can better connect, and how to build relationships with the city agencies that are critical to our events to help provide a secure and safe environment,” said attendee Mike Nishi with the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. “NCS4 has created a document we don’t currently have in the industry, and this is a great start to creating a safer environment.”

With support from imATHLETE, Esri, and summit participants, NCS4 is excited to present the first edition of the Marathon Safety and Security ‘Best Practices’ Guide. This information will be organized into; best practices, the issue the practice addresses, and scaled implementation strategies for each practice.

The introduction of the guide will occur on July 6 at the National Marathon Symposium. The Symposium will take place during the 2015 National Sports Safety and Security Conference and Exhibition at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The conference is hosted annual by NCS4 and will attract over 500 safety and security professionals representing marathons, colleges/universities, high schools, and professional sports leagues.

The Marathon Symposium will highlight the top safety and security best practices and be lead by industry leaders including:

Peter Ciaccia, TCS New York City Marathon

John Bertsch, IRONMAN World Championship Events

Wade Morehead, Chevron Houston Marathon

Josh Nemzer, BAA Boston Marathon

Be one of the first to receive a copy of the Marathon Safety and Security ‘Best Practices’ Guide during the National Sports Safety and Security Conference on July 6-9, 2015 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

To register for the conference, visit www.ncs4.com/conference. The early bird registration rate of $375 ends after May 15^th.