Steven Coleman’s Post

David Dymitrow, Faris B, Ahmed Sow, Raoom Saber, Dominique Smith & Waleed Alhuthale were all in action again last night for the sold out Rehab show. MDLBEAST are delivering a run of 7 shows throughout consecutive weekends with International DJs performing at the Aft_R Game event in Riyadh. ESM Operations Ltd are providing the Security & Crowd Management oversight for the venue as well as the Control Room Management, Front of Stage barrier, Artist Areas, Production Stewards & the Artist Close Protection. Well done team.

And that's a wrap for my involvement in Stadium Concerts for 2024. I've had an amazing few weeks, working with some of the best in the industry. This year's routing, seen me travel across the UK to venues across Middlesbrough, Norwich, Plymouth, Swansea, Milton Keynes, Manchester, Southampton, Nottingham, Birmingham, Cardiff, Milton Keynes & Bristol. Working with some of the best Security & Crowd Management companies in the country, along with some experienced stadium safety officers. No event runs perfectly, we all have things we could / should have done better - both in planning and throughout event days but collectively we supported over 600,000 people to enjoy live music. There are so many parts to a tour that its hard to name them all but thanks to SJM Concerts for the opportunity to work with you again. Thanks to SES Group , Practical Event Solutions, Showsec & Sam Hodkin team at Nottingham Arena who all supported the BOH, Artist Areas and front of stage barrier operations across the shows making my life easier. Finished off with 40,000 Foo Fighters Fans in Villa Park last night.

60,000 Foo Fighters Fans at the Principality Stadium last night. The best concert venue & the most organised Security & Crowd Management operation I've witnessed across the whole summer. Superb co-operation between the venue, local council and emergency services - exactly how it should be done. SES Group were superb in delivering the Backstage, Artist Areas & Pit operations. Well done Glen Ball, Phil Garnett & Hadi Abdul Next up..... Birmingham.

I've had a number of people congratulate me recently on the success of ESM Operations Ltd. Whilst I'm very very proud of what we have all achieved, I've made some huge mistakes along the way. Here's a few....... 1. Company Name - I've changed the company name 3 times due to the business evolving & growing. Its taken me 5 years to understand that the brand / logo is the most important aspect & that should be your consistent. 2. Finance - I never structured a proper finance department and there comes a point when your business grows that this becomes an essential. The right finance team actually save you alot of money throughout the year & I wish I'd done it sooner. 3. Insurances & Legal - I've always had insurance and legal advice but in the last 12 months I've invested heavily in better insurance policies and legal teams for more protection. Find a good consultant or experienced individual to guide you through this. 4. Uniforms - again trail and error. Spent alot of money on kit that wasn't fit for purpose. Its worth time and effort seeking the right supplier & get the right quantity & quality - its worth the investment. 5. Marketing - I'm still useless at it but it absolutely needs investment as it does pay off. Give this proper consideration & investment. 6. Workforce - The best or most qualified people are not always the right fit for your business. It's taken me a few years to understand that personalities and staff morale are essential to a happy workforce. I try to find motivated people that we can train & educate who have the right personality & work ethic to fit into the team. 7. Industry colleagues - The amount of industry people that want to see you fail is unreal. I want to see everyone succeed, there is enough work & money out there for us all and people driven by greed or jealousy that actively go out of their way to damage personal or business reputations have no place in my life. 8. Cash Flow - This takes some getting used to. I'm a risk adverse individual as I'm petrified of not having enough money to pay my staff or bills so I have made some poor financial decisions and not invested into things when I should as I didn't want to take the risk. ESM would be double in size had I done it. 9. Family - I gave up large portions of my daughters childhood being away from home to build a business. Something I hugely regret and have worked hard to put right these last 12 months. It's essential you prioritise your time with family, friends etc Hopefully this helps anyone new to business or thinking of starting up. I'm absolutely no expert, I'm still learning everyday, these are just my own personal failings.

Foo Fighters - Cardiff The Dream makers in action.

There has been some amazing industry related training carried out by ESM Operations Ltd recently throughout Saudi Arabia. ✅ Fellowship Programme - Health, Safety & Operations ✅ L5 Award - Crowd Safety Management (Riyadh) ✅ L5 Award - Crowd Safety Management (Jeddah) ✅ L3 Crowd Safety Supervisors (Riyadh) In addition to the above, we are supporting the General Entertainment Authority - GEA in delivering a number of short courses that give a learning platform across some vital operational event services. The courses are a mix of online & classroom based qualifications, and are all certified & funded by the General Entertainment Authority - GEA themselves. ✅ Crowd Safety - Level 1, 2 & 3 ✅ Traffic Management - Level 1, 2 & 3 ✅ Event Security - Level 1, 2 & 3 ✅ Health & Safety - Level 1, 2 & 3 ESM Operations Ltd has appointed a new Head of Training to manage this contract and will expand this dedicated training team to deliver these qualifications throughout the Middle East. By the end of 2024, ESM will have delivered industry related training to over 3,000 students and all will have been fully funded by our customers directly or by ESM Operations Ltd themselves. Something I'm very proud of.

Approaching the halfway point of 2024, myself and my team have been involved in some amazing events. ESM Operations Ltd supports our customers providing our 4 key services to sporting venues, live music and conference & exhibitions: ✅ Event Security Management ✅ Event Security Consultancy ✅ Crowd Consultancy ✅ Crowd Management Just a small number of the events and locations we have worked so far this year with a really busy next 6 months to come. ✅ Balad Beast - Jeddah ✅ World Defense Show - Riyadh ✅ Fury v Usyk - Riyadh ✅ F1 Concerts - Jeddah ✅ E1 - Jeddah ✅ E1 - Venice ✅ E1 - Puerto Banus ✅ Extreme E - Jeddah ✅ Take that UK Stadium tour ✅ Foo Fighters UK Tour ✅ Green Day - Manchester I'm really proud of the whole ESM Operations Ltd team for their hard work and support in delivering these events. Simon Heathershaw, David Dymitrow, Dominique Smith, Raoom Saber, Faris B, Waleed Alhuthale, Ahmed Sow, John O'Neill, Aimee Scott, Chris Cameron, Gavin Woolstencroft, Turki Alsherbi, Badri Otaibi, Kathryn Dymitrow

Green Day - Lancashire County Cricket Club A sold out (50,000) crowd attended my final Manchester based concert of 2024. Working with the SJM Concerts team as their Security & Crowd Consultant has been a real pleasure. They are extremely good at what they do & have a team of amazing professionals delivering concerts across the UK week in & week out. Now off to Cardiff & Birmingham for the remaining Foo Fighters shows. The weather was cracking flags in Manchester yesterday, but as is tradition, a light downpour a couple of songs in from the headline act made for a stunning rainbow.

Throughout this summer, I will have been involved in 26 stadium concerts. I think that's the most I've ever done in a summer period. Making venues multi-use and generating additional income throughout the closed season is becoming increasingly attractive for sporting venues to double up into live music venues. From the band / artist perspective, being able to perform in areas where large live music venues / arenas simply aren't accessible for the local population is also attractive as these areas often sell extremely well. Many of these venues are simply not designed for concerts or for having 10,000+ spectators access & egress from the pitch so there is a huge amount of planning that goes into these one off venues from alot of experienced industry professionals. Queue systems, early arrivals, toilets, accreditation, ticketing, concessions, truck holding areas, artist arrivals, medical provision, signage - the list goes on. There also needs to be consideration from the venues to bring in experienced 'live music' safety teams who understand the varying audience demographics & concert phases as these are so different to a game of football, cricket etc and an experienced 'live music' Safety Officer / Safety Team can make a huge operational difference to the success of the event. It's great to see so many live music events running in parallel to some major sporting events throughout the summer. What an industry to be involved in.