eGuide Working Group meeting, October 1 2015

The Association of Event Venues eGuide Working Group had its final meeting of the year at The Crystal, London, on Thursday 01st October 2015.  After the welcomes, apologies and approval of the last meeting's minutes,  Sîan Richards of Olympia, who served as interim chair, kicked off the meetings agenda with the discussion of changes to the eGuide proposed for several sections.

Firstly the group considered two revisions currently planned for the eGuide, namely weapons and drones, and agreed to review the circulated text on weapons, and compile their submissions for the next meeting on amendments concerning drones.

The discussion then moved to CDM and how venues were applying and dealing with the new regulations. Members reported that CDM has helped to highlight the responsibilities of the organisers, and that the larger organisers seemed fully engaged with issues surrounding induction processes, welfare and vehicle movement, but that smaller organisers were less familiar with the requirements of CDM. The group noted that  venues had been sending out the associations CDM resource pack to organisers to use as guidance.

The next topic under discussion was the issue of stages, both public access and purpose built, and how they are defined. The current eGuide states that stages and platforms over 600mm in height, and all stages with public access are categorised as complex constructions and subject to specific guidance. The group recognised that there is no documentation supporting this directive and resolved to find the source information that gave rise to this section in the eGuide.

Sîan Richards then notified the group that following the departure of Chloe Bachelor from ACC Liverpool, there existed vacancies for one or two volunteers from the group to join the eGuide Sub-Committee.

After round table news and general venue updates were deferred to the next meeting, the group announced the dates of the next eGuide Working Group meetings would be on 11 May 2016 and 13 October 2016