If you’ve been working in live events the last few years you may have noticed that things have shifted.

Not in a dramatic, attention grabbing way, but in the quieter expectations that sit behind every brief, every planning meeting, every conversation with a venue or local authority. By the end of 2025, it felt as though the sector had entered new territory. Safety and security were no longer supporting functions that sat politely behind the creative. They had moved right into the centre of how events are conceived, discussed and delivered.

As we head through 2026, organisers are operating in an environment where responsibility feels heavier, scrutiny is sharper and tolerance for uncertainty is much lower. Audiences still want joy, scale and spectacle, but they also expect to feel safe without ever having to think about why. That balance has become one of the defining challenges of modern event delivery.

Part of this shift is regulatory. The introduction of Protect Duty has understandably focused minds. Safety is no longer something you evidence at the end of a process, it shapes decisions from the very beginning, influencing site layouts, crowd flows, staffing models, communications and the technology chosen to support it all. 

What’s interesting is that when you speak to clients across venues, festivals and major events, their concerns are rarely framed in legal language. They talk instead about confidence. Confidence that plans will hold up under pressure. Confidence that teams know what they’re doing. Confidence that when something unexpected happens, and it always does, the response will be calm, proportionate and effective.

There’s also a growing realism about technology. Most organisers are not chasing innovation for its own sake anymore. They’ve seen enough shiny tools to know that novelty wears thin very quickly on a live site. What they want now is visibility that helps people make better decisions in real time, and systems that work at 10pm in the rain just as well as they did in a dry rehearsal. If technology doesn’t reduce friction or improve clarity, it becomes another thing to manage rather than a solution.

Alongside this sits the ongoing challenge of having the right people on the ground. Recruitment and retention have become strategic conversations, not operational afterthoughts. Clients are asking harder questions about who is actually on site, how they’ve been trained, and whether they understand the environments they’re stepping into. Flexibility still matters, but reliability and judgement matter more.

Experience plays a quiet but important role here. Supporting large scale events, whether stadium shows, festivals or broadcast moments, teaches you very quickly that no two days are ever the same. Crowd behaviour shifts, transport systems ripple, weather intervenes, and communication becomes as important as instruction.

When you’ve worked on events welcoming tens of thousands of people day after day, you learn that delivery isn’t about perfection. It’s about consistency. It’s about teams who understand pressure, know how to communicate clearly, and trust each other enough to adapt when the situation demands it. That kind of experience rarely announces itself. It simply results in calmer sites and fewer problems escalating.

Protect Duty has sharpened the focus on this reality. Compliance is now the baseline, not the differentiator. The real question for clients is what sits above that line? How risks are interpreted rather than just listed. How plans are translated into behaviour on site. How people are trained to make decisions, not just follow instructions.

This is where training and culture will come into their own. In live environments, frontline staff are often the first and most important line of response. Although training needs to communicate the correct procedure, it’s also about judgement, confidence and communication. People need to understand not only what to do, but why they’re doing it, and how their role fits into the wider picture. Teams who feel informed and supported tend to spot issues earlier, communicate more effectively and adapt more easily when plans change. In many cases, culture is the difference between a situation escalating and one being resolved quietly before most people even notice.

And supporting the people needs to be the right technology. Real time data and digital tools can add enormous value, but only when they support people rather than overwhelm them. The most effective systems are the ones that integrate smoothly into existing workflows and help experienced teams do what they already do, just with better visibility and confidence.

Looking ahead, the events and security sector in 2026 feels more mature than it did even a few years ago. There’s a growing acceptance that great events rely on far more than creativity alone. They are built on thoughtful planning, experienced people, clear communication and systems that support live delivery rather than complicate it. As expectations continue to rise, the value of partners who understand both the theory and the reality of live events becomes increasingly clear. Not because they promise flawless delivery, but because they know how to operate when it matters most.