When it comes to incident management and safety at events, the flow of information is vital. According to Lloyd Major, CEO and Founder of Halo Solutions, speed, accuracy and efficiency are key. “Moving information around is the biggest challenge,” he told TPiMEA, referencing what he refers to as ‘the 90-90-90 principle’. “How communications are handled in the first 90 seconds of any incident affects the next 90 minutes, which in turn has an impact on the next 90 days and beyond.”
A former police officer with almost 20 years of experience on the force in the UK, including several on the National Counter Terrorism Police Operations Centre (NCTPOC) in London, Major knows a thing or two about what it takes to keep the public safe. He recalled how Halo was born when he was looking for an incident management system to champion in his work with the police but didn’t find any that delivered everything he was looking for. “We found several passable systems, but none could do everything we wanted. I saw a gap, and once I’d seen that gap, I couldn’t unsee it.”
Unable to ignore the gap in the market, in 2018, Major launched the Halo System – a universal incident management platform that can be implemented across the globe. Designed to be easily set up to match the requirements of any processes for any specialised events or locations, from festivals and sports to universities and train stations, wherever the public gather, Halo aims to help event teams with a simple-to-use app, connected to a powerful digitised control centre that allows for complete shared situational awareness across stakeholders, and real-time management of the entire event from within the platform.
The solution was an immediate success, and after gaining a strong foothold in the UK events industry, Halo Solutions soon looked further afield, with the Middle East proving to be a fruitful territory, thanks to its consistent investment in the live events sector and rapid speed of development. “The sports and events market in Saudi Arabia and UAE is established and growing tremendously with investment across the region. Countries like Qatar, now with an established infrastructure due to the investments around the FIFA World Cup, just showcase the incredible things happening in the region and it’s a privilege for Halo to play a small part in that and learn from these mega events, infrastructure and construction projects,” Major stated.
“Given the size and complexity of events in the region, the Halo System is a great proposition for event organisers, security companies, construction projects or transport hubs who want to be able to apply a best practice approach to managing their security and safety operations while getting the most from their available resources and mitigating the risks associated with any large-scale public event or location where the public gather,” he added.
“Building strong and effective relationships with our partners in the region is key to the successful delivery of our global strategic plan. The combination of the power of the Halo system with the local knowledge and expertise of our partners means we have a compelling proposition to jointly maximise the growing opportunity we see.”
The company’s approach in the Middle East involves working with carefully selected partners who are already well established in the region and regularly deliver some of the Middle East’s biggest and highest-profile events. “Having partners in country is a crucial first step in assessing market viability and building a sustainable revenue stream so that we can build a foundation that secures the second step of investment in country and employ local people,” Major explained. “In the MEA region, across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, Halo has shown it can deliver fantastic support to some of the largest events in the world.”
Two of those partners in the Middle East are Safe Events Global and JAM Events Services – both of which tick all the boxes for Halo. “They understand the local market, how events are set up and managed in the region and are familiar with any specific regulations or security requirements,” Major commented. “Working with specialist providers in the Middle East creates an ideal solution for end user customers. They benefit from the power of the Halo System to help them keep their own customers safe and the knowledge and experience of our local partners to implement the Halo solution in the best possible way for their needs and the local market requirements.”
Halo has been working with both Safe Events Global and JAM Event Services for several years and has successfully supported them at numerous high-profile events across entertainment and sport, including Formula 1 in Jeddah, Noor Riyadh and MDLBEAST Soundstorm.
In February 2024, Halo opened a public investment opportunity with Crowdcube and both Safe Events Global and JAM Event Services – as well as 188 other private individuals and businesses – decided to invest in the company as part of that initiative. The investment gives Halo the capital it requires to deliver against its strategic product roadmap. “This will help us add even more powerful capabilities to Halo,” Major said of the crowdfunding effort. “It will also help us to increase our marketing efforts, which will support our partners in the region in developing their target markets further.”
“We are honoured to partner with Halo Solutions on this,” commented JAM’s James Mistry. “We have watched their spectacular growth across the past few years, and we know that Lloyd and his team share the same passion and drive JAM holds for the flawless delivery of the safest, world-leading events across the region.”
Safe Events Gobal’s Mark Breen added: “At Safe Events Global, we are all about people and process. I met Lloyd at an industry conference over seven years ago; he introduced me to V1 of their Halo platform, and I saw huge potential in it. We began working with Halo almost immediately, both because of the system (process) and Lloyd himself (people). Fast forward to 2024 and we’ve deployed Halo all around the world for clients and Lloyd has become a friend as well as a superb industry colleague.
Breen stated that the company’s decision to invest a six-figure sum in Halo was “a natural progression”. He added: “We use the system. It helps us keep people safe across pretty much all our events for clients around the globe. We feel we can hopefully have a tiny input into Halo’s continued and growing success. We share the Halo team’s vision, and we are excited for what’s to come with the platform.”
Looking ahead, Major plans to develop Halo’s presence in the MEA region, taking the company’s market-leading position in the UK and growing across the Middle East and Africa in safety operations technology for the events industry and many others. “We aim to achieve this by working closely with our partners to identify market growth opportunities and supporting them with the tools they need to effectively position the Halo Solution and eventually business registration as well as employment and investment in local people and local economies,” he commented.
“We want to set ourselves apart from other tech companies by employing local people and getting involved in projects for good, investing in educations and sustainability programmes to support people around the world to become developers,” Major concluded. “We’ve always been about people. People are at the heart of our products, central to our mission and at the heart of everything we want to do.”
Photos: Halo Solutions, MDLBEAST
