FOR CONVENTION CENTERS, BOSTON SERVES AS SAFETY ACT TEMPLATE
With the worst days of the coronavirus pandemic receding, more convention centers are expected to seek U.S. Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act awards, and in the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, the first convention center to achieve the designation, they have a template for navigating the process.
The SAFETY acronym stands for “Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies” and the act went into effect in 2007. It gives facilities the opportunity to limit their liability in the event of a terror attack, as long as specific risk mitigation measures are taken and documented.
Officials with the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which owns and oversees the operation of the BCEC, had originally sought to achieve SAFETY Act awards for all five of the venues in its purview, which in addition to the MassMutual Center in Springfield, also includes Boston’s John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center, The Lawn on D outdoor event space, and the Boston Common Garage, a 1,000-space underground lot that Nate Little, the MCCA’s director of communications and external relations, says kept operations afloat amid the COVID shutdown.
