North Shields music venue owner launches safety platform for live events industry
A North Shields health and safety expert has combined more than 20 years of experience with a passion for live music to launch an innovative digital platform.
Mark Elliott runs the grassroots live music venue The Engine Room in North Shields alongside his business partner.
By day, Mark works as a health and safety trainer, assessor and advisor. But outside work, music has always played a central part in his life.
“I realised years ago that a lot of touring bands were bypassing the North East, going from Manchester straight to Glasgow and missing Newcastle completely, so I started promoting gigs myself,” he said.
“That developed into some larger events and even small festivals, then came artist management and eventually opening a small grassroots music venue in North Shields.”
Through his involvement in live events, Mark began noticing gaps in how health and safety procedures were managed across the music and night-time economy sectors.
“When you look at live events properly, there are real risks involved. People are working at height, working with electricity, building stages and lighting rigs.
“A lot of the same principles from industries like oil and gas and construction apply, but the culture around safety in some live event spaces and the night-time economy hasn’t always kept pace.”
That experience led Mark to develop Gigsavvy – a digital compliance and training platform tailored specifically to the music, events and night-time industries.
The platform offers bitesize e-learning courses covering health and safety, security awareness, equality, diversity and inclusion, safeguarding and neurodiversity, alongside digital risk assessment tools, incident reporting, compliance monitoring and a verified directory of trained professionals.
“Gigsavvy brings together accredited training and compliance tools in one place so venues, event organisers and night-time businesses have everything they need to keep their people safe and demonstrate they’re taking it seriously.”
The platform is also designed to help businesses across the night-time economy navigate an increasingly complex regulatory landscape, including the forthcoming implementation of Martyn’s Law following the Manchester Arena bombing.
“Grassroots venues are the heartbeat of the live music industry. If Gigsavvy helps protect even a handful of them by making compliance less daunting and more accessible, that’s exactly what it’s here to do,” Mark added.