These resources were commissioned by Te Whatu Ora, and the NZ Drug Foundation helped the working group below share their expertise. Much thanks and appreciation to those who've contributed.
Andy Gollings
Andy Gollings has been involved in the event security industry for 27 years. Working extensively in large events and festival security, as a principle of Red Badge Group, he has developed a wide level of awareness regarding crowd management, safety management and guest experience delivery.
Ashley Quensell
Ashley is a current EVANZ Board Member representing Associate Members. His background in the major events industry spans 18 years+ where he has been directly involved in the strategic service delivery and venue security management of many high-profile events, festivals and concerts, as well as entertainment arenas and sporting stadiums in New Zealand, culminating in his current position as General Manager of National Operations at P4G (Platform 4 Group).
Brendan Hines
Brendan is currently the Director of Venues & Commercial at Live Nation New Zealand. Prior to this he was General Manager of Auckland’s Spark Arena, the country’s largest and busiest Indoor Arena. Brendan has been involved in the events and venues industry for close to 25 years starting work at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London in the mid 90’s and previous to the Arena role I was Financial Controller at International Manager Group (IMG).
Dan Turner
Dan is an Event Manager that is passionate about the customer experience and ensuring that patrons can enjoy themselves in a safe environment. From small 500pax gigs, to the largest 3x day music festival in NZ - he is part of a team of dedicated professionals who look to achieve a world-class standard in everything they do.
Glen Hoult
Glen Hoult has been with St John New Zealand for 20 years working as a clinician, and more recently as the event risk manager for St John Event Health Services, consulting with major event organisers and event venues to mitigate health risks, while ensuring adequate logistics and medical cover for large scale events, including developing strategies to reduce drug harm at festivals
Kieran Spillane
Kieran is the Chief Executive and Festival Director of Rhythm & Vines music Festival and Endeavour Live Presents. Kieran has been involved in the music industry for nearly 30 years across venues and festivals in the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand.
Mark Gosling
Mark is General Manager of Spark Arena and chairman of the Entertainment Venues Association of NZ. He has worked in entertainment his whole life, from band and tour management, to management of major events such as the Big Day Out and U2 at Mt Smart Stadium, to heading up stadium events for Regional Facilities Auckland.
Mark Lyne
Mark is the Principal Advisor Alcohol at Te Hiringa Hauora / Health Promotion Agency. For many years he has provided entertainment and sporting venues with advice and guidance on their management of alcohol to prevent alcohol harm. He is now delighted to be part of this team providing advice and guidance for drug management at events.
Simon Barnett
Simon is the Head of Event Health Services at St John, the largest health supplier to the events industry in Aotearoa. Prior to his current role he has held various senior ambulance management positions and worked as a frontline Intensive Care Paramedic in South Auckland.
Stella Donachie
Stella is an Event Operations Manager for Red Badge Security. She has a passion for events and for making them as enjoyable as possible. She currently works with event promoters and organizers to plan security and operational strategies to endure every patron gets home safely; whether it be from a small 200 person event to a large 50,000 person concert.
Wendy Allison
Wendy Allison is the Managing Director of KnowYourStuffNZ. She has been a part of the festival community for over 15 years, and started KnowYourStuffNZ in 2015 in response to seeing preventable drug harm happening at events, and realising that the current interventions at the time were having no effect. Seven years later, harm reduction is nationally recognised as an approach that works.
Etienne Marais
With support from staff at the New Zealand Drug Foundation.
Ben Birks Ang
Ben is the Deputy Executive Director, Programmes at NZ Drug Foundation. He has worked in the alcohol and other drug sector for almost 20 years. He has extensive experience co-designing and managing prevention, harm reduction, and treatment interventions. Ben is a registered addictions practitioner and accredited clinical supervisor and is the Chair of the professional association that oversees the competence and ethics of the addiction workforce in New Zealand.
Emily Hughes
Emily is a Programme Lead at NZ Drug Foundation. She works primarily in the acute drug harm, drug checking and drug science spaces. Emily has experience from Senior Management in Public Health, and work in Primary Care, Behavioural Intervention and Health Psychology research. Emily has a MSc in Psychology and has most recently worked in a leadership role for the COVID-19 Public Health Response.
Hayden Eastmond Mein
Hayden Eastmond-Mein is the Communications and Marketing Director at NZ Drug Foundation. He is a communications and marketing all-rounder, with experience across political campaigning, local government, the union movement and the arts. Most recently he was Head of Communications at NZEI Te Riu Roa.
Melanie Saxton
Melanie started with the NZ Drug Foundation in 2017 as an Office Administrator and is now a Programme Lead. She has a background in working for a drug and homeless charity in Scotland and helped to provide harm-reduction based support. Melanie helps coordinate the NZ Drug Foundation’s communities of practice and leads some of the Tūturu project work, with a focus on encouraging student-led action. A strong advocate for harm reduction, she is involved with content development for online and printed health resources.
Philip Glaser
Phil is a Programme Lead at NZ Drug foundation, and brings 10 years of experience in the mental health and addictions field. Prior to coming to NZ Drug Foundation, Phil worked as a youth AOD practitioner and currently maintains his DAPAANZ registration. Phil currently works on using innovative solutions to reduce harm from alcohol and other drugs in New Zealand, including the development of NZ Drug Foundations harm reduction website, The Level.
These resources have been created for event organisers, by event organisers. They were commissioned by Health Promotion, Health New Zealand -Te Whatu Ora, and the NZ Drug Foundation helped the working group share their expertise. Much thanks and appreciation to those who've contributed.