K. Campbell, CPP, sat down with us to discuss his upcoming webinar about the three primary safety and security objectives of any concert or special event. To learn more about the webinar on 11 June or register now, go here.
Q: How did you become interested in concert and special event security?
A: I became interested in concert and special event security during my college days as the head of concert security at my alma mater. All our events were nationally and world-famous artists, including comedians and speakers. I wrote the university’s concert and special event manual. My subsequent career as an intelligence officer reinforced the importance of risk intelligence and protective intelligence for events.
Q: What advice would you give security professionals interested in event security?
A: One piece of advice is to remember that it’s the simple stuff that often bites us. My “3Ps” is somewhat of a very simple checklist for event security. Checklists are important and mitigate against us missing the simple stuff. Many of the unfortunate examples I discuss were the result of security professionals and others neglecting to do the simple stuff.
Q: Why should security professionals have event security on their radar?
A: One trend security professionals should have on their radar is the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather due to climate change. People have died at events because of extreme and even not so extreme weather, so I would keep an eye on extreme weather trends when planning and executing events.
Domestic extremism has been a rising trend in the U.S. and in some other countries, which can lead to unfortunate incidents during events. The near-fatal attack on Salman Rushdie at a New York event in early 2023—a failure of one of my “3Ps”—is one such example.
K. Campbell, CPP, is a principal at Blue Glacier Security & Intelligence LLC in Washington, D.C. He has been an ASIS member for close to a decade and currently serves as the chair for the National Capital Chapter.
