Pictured: Harrier MD Andy Smith (L) and Cobb Associates MD James Cobb (R)
After years of working closely together, health and safety specialists Harrier UK and Cobb Associates have finalised a strategic partnership that will create an alliance both hope will be a vanguard of the events industry.
Harrier UK, a Derbyshire-based Health & Safety consultancy, was formed in 2010 by Andy Smith and specialises in three distinct areas – the H&S for large-scale events, H&S management for SMEs and specialist H&S training. In 2015 Harrier was heavily involved in delivering health, safety and crowd management expertise for the First European Games held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Consequently, Harrier was jointly awarded an International Safety Award by the British Safety Council in 2016. In 2016 alone, Harrier was integral in providing health and safety for almost ¼ million people at various events around the UK.
The Harrier team enjoyed a successful 2017, working at large music concerts at both Wembley and Twickenham stadiums and the Nottingham and Leicester Carnivals. Andy has also taken his expertise worldwide, including working at last season’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Over the last 10 years, Cobb Associates has provided event management and event safety consultancy for diverse projects including corporate events, music festivals, air shows, and product launches. Regular clients have included the Capital Summertime Ball at Wembley and the Sundown Festival in Norwich.
Principal consultant James Cobb is a graduate member of IOSH, an associate member of the IEMA, and a past Chair of the Production Services Association. More recently he founded Surrey-based Crowd Connected which provides real-time crowd insight and analytics to events and venues across the world.
James Cobb will become Harrier’s Innovation and Technology Director and remain active within the events industry, both delivering event safety consultancy as part of Harrier UK, and as CEO of Crowd Connected.
Harrier MD Andy Smith explains:
“At Harrier UK, we pride ourselves on providing effective health and safety expertise in a number of sectors including events and we help thousands of people enjoy their chosen activities in a safe environment every year. Increasingly, we’re being asked to work on events overseas as well as in the UK.
“By drawing upon James’s expertise with Cobb Associates, we’ve taken Harrier to the next level. The partnership has opened the door to new opportunities for us and has allowed us to incorporate new services for our customers. We’ve increased our ability and knowledge, which enables us to provide a more comprehensive and inventive service to both current and future customers and existing stakeholders. We also feel the union with James and his new venture Crowd Connected will enable both companies to make the most of their specialisms and offer a unified and comprehensive service.
“We are looking forward to building on the excellent existing relationships with Cobb Associate’s clients and we feel that this new relationship will be of ongoing benefit to Harrier, Crowd Connected and the wider events industry.”
Cobb Associates MD James Cobb comments:
“Cobb Associates has been operating very successfully within the live events market for the last decade and is in the perfect position to move into new areas of the events industry. This new strategic partnership Harrier is an excellent opportunity to capitalise on the synergies of Cobb Associates and Harrier UK, an outstanding international H&S firm, and become an even greater force in the events sector. It will also allow me to continue developing Crowd Connected, my other award-winning enterprise, whilst ensuring continued first class service to Cobb Associates’ long-standing customers.”
Author: Adam Parry
Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.
