Photo Credit: Yann Simon – Our Business Developer

Travel

Given that Russia covers 1/8th of the world’s land mass, travelling from one stadium to the next could have been a huge barrier… especially for the World Cup with 12 stadiums based in different cities across the country. According to the Kalinin Guide, the shortest possible distance to travel would be 760km and the longest possible distance would be 4660km. This could really impact attendees in their decision on which matches to attend.

However, Russia took care of this quite effectively, thanks to low cost air and train fares. The FIFA Fan ID allowed supporters to move around with ease and safely. The volunteers helped the fans know where to go and ensuring people are properly welcomed and guided with a smile ?.The availability of free shuttles and public transport to fans upon their arrival, with numerous volunteers to help you out, made the transport issues almost non existent.

#Takeback

This shows us when planning large events, using one piece of access and ensuring movement is well directed, can help the organisation run much more smoothly.

Making transportation accessible, efficient and easy is what counts. It can be done ensuring event staff is available to help attendees, and also ease the movement. One best practice to take away : having a shuttle to pick up and drop off attendees.

Security & Attendee Management

Over a million people coming to Russia from all over the world, we see that managing them is a hard task. However, Russia successfully managed to do this by having a very rigorous team of over 17000 volunteers. The Russian organisation team really went above and beyond, as there was a large dispersion of people from St.Petersburg stadium to the Fisht Olympic stadium. This required a lot of training and drills before the event to ensure everything ran smoothly.

Attendee management was successful due to the Fan ID that was linked to the attendee’s passport and was the primary piece of identification that allowed you to move around Russia during the World Cup. Moreover, the 4 security checks needed to pass when going to the stadiums really showed the attention paid to ensuring attendees are safe. Just like a master badge, the fan ID truly helped the organisers manage the logistics and security of the event.

#Takeback

This shows us the importance of a badge for your event!

It is important to also have the adequate security and staff for large events as an event experience is like indirectly consuming a service. The customers should feel welcomed and well catered for.

Security is a huge issue for large scale events, so ensure that adequate security measures are taken. We recommend having drills and procedures on how to redirect and manage traffic between venues. It is important that volunteers are briefed and participate in drills regarding all security procedures.

Thinking about procedures and running carrying them out is very important to your event. It avoids problems and trains staff to be adequately prepared on D-day.

Photo Credit: Yann Simon – Our Business Developer

The event spirit

An event experience is best lived when there is an event spirit. This was something definitely present at the 2018 World Cup : not only psyched fans but also an atmosphere that Russian organisers created.

After the matches, fans were able to round up in fan zones and also on the street to celebrate. There was a great ambiance created for it. It is also important that the party doesn’t go too wild and the Russian police made sure of that! Things didn’t go as wild as they did when France went out into the streets when we won the World Cup! The ambiance in Russia was still kept civil.

#Takeback

It is always important to create an ambiance at your event. This can be done by bringing interactivity to them. Votes and quizzes allow you to test your audience and get them involved in your event. Even if it is an event with a big audience, polls are perfect for this!

Photo Credit: Yann Simon – Our Business Developer

To conclude

There you have it! Our take-backs for your next big event and what you need to look out for and the best practices that our Russian neighbors used to ensure the world cup turned out to be an amazing event.