ACCREDITATION

I wanted to make some points about accreditation. I will say that currently I am an observer, who in previous times had close involvement. I have been involved in the design and implementation of accreditation systems and have therefore seen how things work and how they do not. In my current role as a touring Production Manager I am now happily not involved….so with the disclaimer out of the way…the following are some thoughts about how positive it is when once again we think about things that are more indirectly concerned with a topic rather than just our own immediate needs and wants.

Why do we use accreditation? People have found ways to identify themselves to other people for thousands of years. From jewelry and tattoos to the first passport and then onto identification numbers and ID cards, and now biometrics. Some decades ago the music industry gave us the backstage pass which has had a history all of its own. You will have heard the stories and even the songs about the mystical Access All Areas pass. Normal people seem to change when they have one and it seems that generally people do indeed covet them. We crew types know that they are just a badge that gets us into work.

We use accreditation to identify the different people who are at our shows. The touring entourage has the top pass; the aforementioned AAA. Then there are working passes, passes for VIPs, passes for the support act, photographers, local promoters, guests etc etc.

We issue people with passes for 3 reasons

1.    To give the person with the pass un ticketed access to the venue

2.    To give the person with the pass access to the parts of the venue we want them to be in

3.    To identify the various people. That is we want to know if you are a photographer or a local worker, or a member of the touring entourage.

The first point is self explanatory. The second point is about securing the venue appropriately. Pass Boards are used to indicate what passes are allowed where and we station local security guards at each ‘checkpoint’. The venue is layered and each layer has a different level of access.

Lastly we have to separate the different roles so we can tell the followspot operator from the venue manager, and then with the pass boards and checkpoints we make sure that the follow spot operators can access their workspace but maybe not the dressing rooms. All fairly straightforward.

Now we arrive at a venue on our tour and start throwing passes at people, and think we are doing our job. But the job is not to issue the passes. The job is to make the venue and the production secure. That sounds important right? Well yes it is. So why do we so often just hand out passes like candy?

I would say that we are degrading our overall security when we don’t adhere to a strict system. I can hear so many great venue security managers clapping in agreement right now. We spend a huge effort in time and no small amount of money to design a system and then make the passes. We employ experienced security personnel to implement and manage the accreditation system, and then we just break it.

Here follows an opinion. The top pass is for one set of people only. The touring party. End of story. If you aint on the tour you don’t need a tour pass.

That said, there are still a load of people who are involved with any tour who are not on the road, and they need accreditation too. And they may well be very important, and so need to have full and unrestricted access. So….make two passes…simple right?

We tried this one time and made a ‘STAGE’ pass that was for the touring staff ONLY. Then we gave out AAAs to the rest. They were happy (for obvious reasons) and our tour was more secure (for equally obvious reasons). It took a long time for anyone to work it out…

I bet you thought I was going to bash venue security managers in this post…huh? Not so fast. I have had the honor to work alongside some of the best security operators our business has ever seen and so often have seen their frustration when some manager or tour manager or production manager or other just completely trashes the integrity of the system….why?…because they simply do not understand how important that integrity actually is. It is like a kid who drives his car too fast and doesn’t think there will be a problem. Until he crashes for the first time. Tours go on and on with out a single crash…but the system is not just designed for access, it is also designed for identification. If things get dangerous the security personnel need to know who is who. If you roll things forward and you suddenly are expecting your security team to secure a situation; if everyone is wearing a AAA pass then their job become exponentially harder. So, think about this when next you want to hassle your security about giving you 15 AAA passes for some people who are not on your tour. If you don’t want security then don’t hire them but if you do, then please let them do their job.

Whilst we are on this subject, another thing to think about is the actual design of the pass. Don’t design passes that need close examination to understand. Remember that the person who is your first line of contact (and therefore, defence) is more than likely a local perimeter or gate guard who has been shown the pass briefly and therefore has had relatively no time to get to know it or the system. Give them a hand to help make your production secure. Simple colors and shapes work well. Got to be easy to understand.