The International Standards Organisation (ISO) is developing a new International Standard for major events.

The ISO provides advice and best practice in a huge number of fields and industries worldwide. ISO 20121 – Event sustainability management systems – is already the international standard for venues and organisers who want their events to be green-certified.

Now the ISO is developing ISO 22379, Security and resilience – Guidelines for hosting and organising large citywide events. It aims to provide guidelines and expertise on how to manage risks, public safety and service continuity during a wide-scale event.

The new standard will bring together the knowledge of experts involved in hosting major events such as the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Ivar K. Lunde, convenor of the working group that developed the standard, commented: “Attracting international events is seen by many cities as a key way of promoting themselves on the global stage, but doing it successfully is a huge affair.

“What often happens currently is that each city starts its planning from scratch, without the benefit of the shared expertise and best practice of others. This standard will bring together such learning for everyone to benefit from.”

The use of ISO 22379 will not only improve the success of large-scale events, but also enable cities to host them in a way that also contributes to many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.