Ben Veenbrink keynote presenter & moderator at the annual EU-UEFA Conference
During the annual conference for all clubs participating in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, Ben Veenbrink delivered a keynote on Determining the Maximum Safe Stadium capacity. In addition he was one of the moderators during the pyrotechnics workshop later that day.
The annual conference, jointly organised by the EU Think Thank and UEFA, was attended by more than 250 club and police representatives from the participating teams in the 2011-2012 UEFA Champions and Europa Leagues.
As part of an impressive line up of speakers, which included UEFA ExCo members František Laurinec and Michael van Praag, Adviser to the UEFA President William Gaillard, UEFA Consultant Kenny Scott, Jo Vanhecke of the Council of Europe and Arsenal's John Beattie, Ben Veenbrink provided insight in the importance of regularly determining the maximum safe capacity of a stadium as well as the 4-step approach to determine the maximum safe stadium capacity.
Special attention was paid to the so-called P-factor or the Physical Condition of the Stadium. Arsenal's John Beattie continued by stressing the importance of safety management and assessing the quality of the safety management organisation, the so-called S-factor.
In the afternoon the conference continued with workshops focused around the themes Ticketless Fans, Public Disorder, Pyrotechnics and Political Protests, Racism and Other Hate Crime. Steve Thomas, Denys Movchan and Ben Veenbrink were responsible for moderating one of the pyrotechnics workshops.