Crowd Dynamics Ltd - What people say about us

Keywords: simulating people, simulating crowds, simulating crowd dynamics, workshops

Many thanks for such a delightful and effective presentation on crowd dynamics and control - the way you reinforced the key messages with the verbal, text, visual and anecdotal formats was just fab!

It will certainly stay in people's minds and ensure that they do not forget this crucial element of Health and Safety when planning their events.

People had been told how good you were, so it was good that you lived up to expectations!

This has been an excellent course amongst the best i have attended at the epc. The content strikes the right balance of theory with practical experience for case studies. I would definitely recommend it to others involved in events planning.

Outstanding

Extremely focussed and enjoyable course. Really gives you the confidence to support challenges based on mathematics and modify techniques. Many thanks to you both.

The course was very interesting and i will be taking the information and models away to be used in the workplace.

An excellent course facilitated well by experts in this area of work.

Very worthwhile for my area of business.

A very informative enjoyable course. Thank you.

Excellent trainers.

An excellent understanding of subjects put in simple terms and made easy to apply practically

Keith is fascinating and great to listen to.

Some of the exercises were difficult due to lack of time.

I would like more time understanding maths.

Very knowledgeable tutors.

Clear and concise lecturing.

Good interpersonal skills.

As someone who is maths averse the inclusion of a considerable amount of maths and equations would have been useful to have known and be prepared for pre course. A little more crowd psychology would have been useful

From the Cabinet Office Advanced Crowd Dynamics Workshop October 2007 (first Advanced Workshop)

Excellent

This is a must attend course for those making critical event decisions

The modelling enabled me to identify and prioritise significant management issues

Needs to be longer course and behaviour movement in venues in more detail

Expand on media modelling crowd psychology and how the various stealth techniques apply to crowd control and behaviour

Excellent course taking our knowledge of crowd dynamics to the next level. Primarily enabling us to challenge experts in the field.

I would like to have seen more time spent on the mathematical aspects of the formulas to cover them in more detail

Helped gain much greater confidence in providing constructive advice using model techniques. But more importantly challenge where necessary professional documentation of events

All goals achieved and thank you both very much

Possibility of review and update courses

Excellent presentation of course material using relevant case material and experiences. Made this course more focused on getting decision making more important

For a first course this was well constructed and scheduled. There were times that felt a little rushed but no doubt this will become smoother. Really enjoyed the course. Well done

Excellent course

Excellent progression from crowd dynamics course.

I would have liked more time to work on various case studies. However working on others gave me lots to think about and apply to my own. Others ideas were very valuable.

Number of delegates was optimum. Chance to talk to all delegates and get some learning from each case study.

Being a practical person working on and understanding solutions was excellent.

Further course program will confirm and elaborate (booked on the Advanced Course)

I really enjoyed the course and found it really informative

Keith could you just slow down on your delivery a touch to allow the brain time to register the info and process as go along. Thanks! (Just want the fully absorb your wealth of experience!)

Thought course was excellent.

Struggled with the maths initially but it soon became clear

This was the most useful course I have done as it was very practical and hands on and contained some very precise methods for calculating crowd density etc.

The tutors were both very professional and interesting speakers

The Matthew St. Case study had highly complex issues and I would have benefitted from a less complicated case study to reinforce the points learnt during the course.

An excellent course with many useful options explored.

Very relevant was the crowd flow ingress/egress and the concept of modelling.

All very relevant to planning operations and events.

There is potential for introduction to APOC programme

Excellent

I found Keith and Ron's help with mapping and tech invaluable.

Found the course both useful and informative.

Because of course time not enough time for in depth discussion and referral time, offset by the ability to contact providers for lock up info!

I would have liked time to go into things in more detail.

My second visit to the college and each time i feel that the course raise public officers like myself to a much higher level of knowledge and understanding. Thank you. (5* facilitators - extremely height level of knowledge and information being put forward) trainers really do not come better than this. Tremendous knowledge base delivered professionally - allow participation throughout the course (5***** performance and well done)

Excellent course. Pulls higher the aspects of the courses and provides the basis to look at a situation as a whole.

Excellent presentation by both trainers - best course so far of the three of the events set and would really appreciate further courses for event organisers

The course and facilities are fantastic. Your needs well attended to. Group work well and experiences discussed in complete confidence

Excellent presentation - now understand the relationship between density and crowd flow and the importance of applying the use of (flow simulation tools) towards good planning

I still need to go away and practice the modelling an the sums until it becomes more of a natural process

The whole course / workshop was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed it, learnt a hell of a lot and would recommend this to anyone involved in organising an event in the county. Thank you Keith, excellent.

I would of appreciated a short debrief after each session of the workshop sessions as I was sometimes left not knowing whether the conclusions we reached were accurate.

Keith was very informative throughout the course, took time out to answer any questions.

Fascinating subject - will hopefully apply the theory to the situation when I'm back at work.

Objectives met well. The maths was fine, but could have skipped the formulas (for me) a bit confusing, but probably because I've never liked Pythagoras!

The objective were clear and precise. Additional help and assistance were available from the tutors for the more challenging sections was appreciated.

I started out wanting the answers as to how to stop overcrowding. I don't have these answers because there are no definitive answers, just processes by which to prevent, plan and manage it.

I cannot fault the facilitation of the topics presented. I failed to grasp the fine detail, because I needed a bit more time for the penny to drop in applying the mathematics. The final exercise puller it all together quite nicely for me

The course provided an excellent insight of how to plan and prepare for an event at which it is anticipated there will be large crowds. It highlighted possible problematic situations/pitfalls and explained well what measures should be implemented to either prevent these or how to deal with them.

Experience and insight from all the trainers was invaluable and helped clarify and illustrate complex issues..

This course sounds "dry" but has proved to be extremely interesting. A dynamic input by the course leaders generated a good working ethos in my group.

Very Helpful and gave attention to groups and individual that needed extra attention. Very accessible and cordial.

A good course I enjoyed the practical aspects and the course tutors too the time to explain and resolve problem areas

Together they (Keith and Ron) both made this a great course to attend - I'm now much more able to undertake my responsibilities. Thank you.

"Thank you very much for the workshop on Monday, I have had great feed-back from my colleagues who attended, they found it very helpful and we have already made changes to our plans for this Halloween and significant improvements to the quality of our signage for Bonfire Night." Christine Howard Senior Events Officer. Salford Civic Centre.

"Excellent course and well run. Excellent tutors. Information learned will enable more effective risk elimination in crowd management."

"An awful lot of material was covered. It thus provided an excellent introduction and overview to the subject. Some guidance in more detail may have been useful."

"Overall course gives an excellent insight into crowd modelling and its operational uses. Best course I have attended at EPC."

"An excellent course - especially for event planners who need to calculate for safety"

"This event covered a good number of topics within this subject highlighting areas that in the past have been overlooked"

"Modelling - How models can be used and simplified and illustrate their possible solutions"

"Crowd flow examples and modelling aspects giving me extra tools to tackle and plan an event."

"Keith's examples and photographs/film support - excellent communicator and Course Director."

"Network Analysis - learning different skills which will be needed to confront fire safety problems in the future."

Multi-Site Evacuation tools developed by Crowd Dynamics and deployed at the UK Financial District in Canary Wharf - co-ordinates the multi-site evacuation strategy.

"Canary Wharf is one of Europe's most vibrant, dynamic business districts and prides itself on the quality of environment and service available to its tenants. CWG contacted Crowd Dynamics to assist us in evaluating our public areas for crowd control in a wide range of situations. Crowd Dynamics has an international reputation for developing mathematical models and solutions for various public events. In this case, we wanted a tool to provide a common basis for occupants of the Canary Wharf estate to develop compatible responses to various security and safety related incidents. While the Canary Wharf estate currently has 60,000 staff employed in the development, a robust tool capable of dealing with crowds over 100,000 has been developed in conjunction with our major business tenants. We believe this innovative approach is another first for Canary Wharf and Crowd Dynamics." Anthony Partington (Canary Wharf Managing Director - March 2004)

"I want to express in writing my appreciation for all of the work you have undertaken to support the Chelsea Flower Show over the last 12 months. As your preliminary report from this year's event suggests, material gains have been made and the expertise and analytical approach you bought to the evaluation of the event was of great value". Eddie Farrell, Head of Commercial Operations, Royal Horticultural Society, 1 June 2004.

"I should like to personally extend my thanks to you for taking part in Exercise Revival at the Goodwood Racecourse. I know that Jonathan Barker and the senior management of Goodwood are very pleased with the outcome of the day and are very appreciative of you making the time to travel and present at the event. My team and I are most grateful for your time and effort in producing a presentation that added emphasis to the scenario and most certainly assisted to increase the overall effectiveness of the exercise for all Goodwood staff. Once again, my thanks for your very valuable contribution." Andrew Pritchard, Head of Emergency Planning, London Fire & Emergency Planning Authority, 17 May 2004

"Thank you very much for your assistance with all the route and safety issues. As an experienced team I believe that we can only benefit from your product." PS 1851 Des Connor, Public Order Planner, 13 October 2003

"I read your thesis and thought it was excellent, and a great contribution to the art. There should be many applications for your computer models....Wishing you great success with your endeavours. Sincerely, John Fruin" Dr. John J Fruin, Author of "Pedestrian planning and design" (8th May 2002)

"Dear Keith, A note to thank you for your input at the seminar last week. I really am very grateful to you for agreeing to come along and speak and extremely pleased with how the whole day went. The feedback we have received is really excellent with many very complimentary remarks about your own presentation. Its so refreshing to hear enthusiastic, well informed speakers talk and that is reflected in the comments that have been made...... an inspiration for us all! Believe me, achieving more than the odd 'exceeded expectations' on the feedback is really quite an achievement for a local government event!" Rebecca Ellis, Emergency Planning Officer, Surrey County Council Emergency Planning Unit (Feb 2003).

"... keep us informed of future developments with Myriad and Simulex and keep up the good work with your very informative web pages." Dr Craig McPherson. Sinclair Knight Merz (Jan 2003)

"I have seen a recent presentation of yours and your amazing website. I very much hope we can work out a way for me to benefit from your experience." Dr Adrian Richardson. UK Centre for Events Management (Jan 2003)

"I would like to express our sincere gratitude for your kind assistance in the Jamarat Bridge Project. The professional level of performance, the clarity of presentation and the solid results supported by scientific evidence were the main element of the success of our undertaking. We also appreciate the time your gave us during your visit to Saudi Arabia to train our staff, a gesture which proved to be of great benefit to all those involved in the project. While we look forward to your next visit to Jeddah for phase III of the project, we wish you a very fruitful future, as we’ve seen how your techniques are capable of solving a great number of our planning problems, here in the Middle East, and especially in the Gulf area." Dr. Hisham A. S. Jomah GM Technical advisor for special projects. Urban Development Company, Saudi Arabia (4th November 2002)

"I appreciate the priority you gave the project in your schedule and the presentation you gave to the Constabulary’s needs. I would like to offer my sincere thanks for your assistance and assure you of Support in the future. We have already passes on your details to our colleagues in Dorset, who will be planning the Labour Party Conference next year." Superintendent Mark Bartlett, Operations Planning, Lancashire Constabulary Headquarters. (Nov 2002)

"On behalf of the Evacuation Working Group please accept our thanks for a really interesting presentation on crowd dynamics, I know the team found your presentation and the enthusiasm you have for the work very enlightening. Having been in a crowd myself and completely out of control of the situation, I know how important this work is to people's safety. I hope you enjoyed meeting the group and I am sure that we will continue a working relationship. Once again on behalf of the working group thank you." London Resilience team. Oct 2002.

"I have had a chance this weekend to review your report in detail. My review confirms my initial impression of the report and the other examples on the website: that Myriad is a major advance in spatial planning, in terms of its basic approach, graphic outputs to explain the results to other players, and the speed of response. " Colin Henson, Ove Arup, Australia. 12th October 2002

"I am really grateful for your concern and kind attention to this matter [modelling Jamarat Bridge]. The materials you are sending are most informative. I too will be looking forward to our next meeting here in Jeddah, Insha' allah. Meanwhile, please take care and impress the h… out of anyone you meet… since you have already achieved a great deal of that here." Dr. Hisham Jomah. GM Technical advisor for special projects. Urban Development Company, Saudi Arabia. (22nd Sept 2002)

"He needed to find a new kind of geometry, one that would represent not just what a crowd was doing at one instant, but it's entire history." Prof. Ian Stewart (extract from "The shadow of the cobweb" July 1998)

".........what he's [Keith Still] done is take the best research there is on how people react in fires and try and integrate this so that we can see all of these factors influencing peoples behaviour. And as far as I can tell he seems to have done that quite well.........." Dr Paula Beaver (Ove Arup) on BBC World Services in 1993...

"Many thanks indeed for coming to Buxton with your presentation, it was very much appreciated and people were talking about it through into the end of the conference on Sunday. You gave us all plenty to think about and lots of ideas on how to look after our customers." Steve Heap, General Secretary, the Association of Festival Organisers. July 2002

"Again I cannot thank you enough for the help you have given us so far. We certainly entered the meeting yesterday with a degree of confidence and some answers to the Police questions." Dave MacKay, NorthSound, Aberdeen. June 2002

"I just wanted to send you a thank you message for all the help you gave me with my little project. The model I built proved very useful and will no doubt be used again. I mentioned your contribution in all of my board reports, and have told all my friends about the helpful man at www.CrowdDynamics.com. Thanks again..." Rob Lounds, Iceland (retail stores). May 2002

"A very good workshop. One of the best." R. Parry - London Underground*

"Apprehensive for the first hour due to the maths involvements! However, this was soon overcome. Had a very enjoyable time." D. Hurley, Northumbria Police*

"Excellent course - good to share experiences and learn that no-one gets it right 100% of the time!" A. Miles, Borough Council of Wellingborough.*

"Very informative and enjoyable few days." J. Print, Coventry City Council*

* Comments from the March (2002) workshop at Easingwold - the Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College.

"To: Keith, who will make me keener than ever to avoid being crushed by a crowd, with best regards, Benoit Mandelbrot" Inscription in Mandelbrot's book (Fractal Scaling in Finance), written after a conference at which Keith demonstrated the dynamics of crowds in Financial Markets. February 2001.

"Still, who is doing a PhD on the mathematics of large scale interactive systems, exhibited at the Royal Society sparking off interest from both academia and industry." Sean Blair (Focus Magazine - "The secret life of crowds") June 1996

"In fact, the technique can be applied to any complex interactive system such as biological cells, currency markets, or ecosystems." Sheryl Canter PC Magazine (May 1996)

"Basic Orchid Fractals behave like a well-ordered crowd - one without the inherent confusion caused by people moving at different speeds, walking in the wrong direction or simply standing still." The Economist (Technology) April 13th 1997

"His intuition for subtle patterns of behaviour in complex data is impressive, the best I've ever seen." Prof. Ian Stewart (Fellow of the Royal Society).

"I know who you are......you're Hari Seldon...." Jack Cohen (co-author of "Collapse of Chaos")