New identity for cross association working group: Event Sector CTBIE

The Association of Event Venues (AEV) has announced a change of name for its MASA (multi association security awareness) cross association working group.

The group will now be referred to as ‘Event Sector Counter Terrorism Business Information Exchange (CTBIE) – A subgroup of National Counter-Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO)’ – in short, ‘Event Sector CTBIE’.

The purpose of the Event Sector CTBIE group is to represent the entire events industry enabling broader outreach of government guidance, particularly around counter-terrorism measures and intelligence. The group monitors the flow of information from authoritative agencies such as NaCTSO, the Home Office and Home Secretary and cascade updates to its members. The group will also use its membership with NaCTSO CTBIE to report back into the government, sector updates, changes and support requirements.

Alden Arnold, head of commercial and projects, AEV, added, “Aligning the name with other sector NaCTSO CTBIE groups strengthens credibility of the group and the work it does ensuring consistency in security approaches across the events industry.”

Membership of this group is made up of fifteen senior representatives from events industry associations and meets quarterly, one month after its representative attends the latest CTBIE meeting, allowing it to evaluate how the latest information affects the events industry and provide specific advice and warnings to all sectors, regions and event types.

Henry Havis, group security director, NEC, commented, “The group was established to reflect our shared responsibility as an industry to bring people together safely. This multi-association commitment plays a key role as a central channel for the timely sharing of consistent counter-terrorism information, evolving legislation, guidance, and security updates for the events industry. We hope to encourage additional association engagement and we look forward to more associations joining the group.”

Currently, CTBIE has the support of eight key organisations in the UK live event industry including AEV, Association of Event Organisers (AEO), Event Suppliers and Services Association (ESSA), Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), Association of Festival Organisers (AFO), National Arenas Association (NAA), NOEA (National Outdoor Events Association), UK Wedding Association and The UK Crowd Management Association (UKCMA).