Event code of conduct template for a paid public event

You've booked the venue, put tickets on sale and started confirming the programme. Then someone asks where they can read your event's code of conduct. You could copy a policy from another event, change the name and publish it. But would your team actually be able to follow what it promises?

A useful event code of conduct explains how people should behave, where the rules apply, how someone can ask for help and what your team may do when a rule is broken. For a paid public event, it also needs to work with your ticket terms, supplier agreements and venue arrangements. Otherwise, the attendee reads one promise while the person at the door follows another.

The template below gives you wording to adapt, followed by the decisions you need to make before publishing it. It's a starting point for review with your venue and appropriate local advisers. Your location, audience and activities determine the legal requirements. Publishing a policy doesn't guarantee safety or replace the people and procedures needed to act on it.

A code of conduct template you can adapt

Replace the bracketed details, remove options your event doesn't offer and have the finished version checked before use. The template starts with "Our event" and ends with the review contact. Everything after that explains how to adapt and operate it.

Our event and who these rules cover

Our event, [event name], is organised by [organiser name] at [venue and location] on [event dates]. We want people to enjoy the programme, take part in discussions and use the venue without threatening, discriminatory or unwanted behaviour from others.

This code applies to attendees, speakers, performers, exhibitors, sponsors, staff, volunteers and contractors while taking part in the event activities we organise. Those activities include [list the event sessions, official receptions, event transport and other organised activities covered]. It also applies to [name the official online spaces] that our team manages.

The venue's safety rules and our published ticket terms also apply. Activities independently arranged by other people are outside the event activities listed here. You can still tell us about behaviour that affects your participation or safety at our event, and we will explain what help or action is available within our responsibilities.

How we expect people to behave

Respect other people's personal space, access needs and choices about taking part. Ask before touching someone, including when offering assistance. Let people leave a conversation or activity without following them or demanding an explanation. Accept a refusal without repeatedly asking.

Discuss ideas without directing abuse at people. Follow instructions from authorised event and venue staff about access, queues, restricted areas and safety. Keep entrances, exits and accessible routes clear. If you disagree with a staff instruction, ask for the duty manager when it is safe to do so.

Follow the event's published photography and recording rules at [policy location]. Do not photograph, film or share identifying information about someone to intimidate, sexualise or humiliate them. Stop directing personal photography or recording at someone who asks you to stop, subject to the separate arrangements explained for official event coverage.

Behaviour we do not accept

We do not accept violence, threats, intimidation, discriminatory abuse, sexual harassment, stalking, unwanted sexual attention or unwanted touching. Repeatedly approaching or contacting someone after they have declined is unacceptable. So is pressuring someone to join an activity, share contact details or accept physical contact.

Do not deliberately obstruct a person's access to facilities or assistance, interfere with mobility or communication equipment, or target someone because of disability or another personal characteristic. Do not expose another person's private information to encourage harassment. Event participation does not give anyone permission to demand personal access to another attendee, performer or member of staff.

Do not threaten, punish or pressure someone for raising a concern, helping another person report, or participating in a review. Disagreement about a decision should use the review route below. It must not become direct pressure on the person who raised the concern.

Getting help or reporting a concern

During [staffed dates and hours], ask for the conduct lead at [accessible staffed help location], or contact [monitored event contact and method]. Staff at [other staffed locations] can help you reach the lead. You may raise a concern about your own experience or something you witnessed, even if you are unsure whether it breaks this code.

For written reports, use [dedicated email address or reporting page]. We monitor this channel [actual monitoring arrangements]. Outside those times, it is not an immediate assistance service. After the event, reports can be sent to [post-event contact], and we aim to acknowledge them within [realistic acknowledgement period].

If the concern involves the conduct lead or another person who would normally handle it, contact [independent alternative name or role and contact method]. Tell us if you need another way to communicate or assistance reaching the help location. We will discuss suitable arrangements with you.

If someone is in immediate danger or needs urgent medical help, contact [verified local emergency route] or alert [onsite emergency assistance point]. Follow emergency instructions from authorised staff. Do not wait for a written conduct report to receive a reply before seeking urgent help.

What happens when you raise a concern

Our first priority is understanding whether anyone needs immediate assistance. Depending on the situation, our team may arrange support, involve the venue's authorised staff or take temporary measures to reduce further contact while the concern is assessed. Temporary arrangements do not, by themselves, establish that someone has broken this code.

We will explain the next steps we can take and ask about your immediate needs. We may need further information from the people involved. We cannot promise a particular outcome or require everyone to take part in the same conversation. You do not have to confront another participant to ask us for help.

We restrict access to report information to people who need it for an appropriate purpose. We cannot promise complete secrecy. Limited information may need to be shared to provide assistance, assess the concern, carry out a fair process or meet legal obligations. Our privacy information at [privacy notice location] explains how we handle personal information.

Possible action and review

Our response depends on the behaviour, the information available and the risk of further harm. Action may include an instruction to stop, a warning, restrictions on participation or removal from the event. Serious or continuing concerns may require immediate action without an earlier warning. Authorised venue or security staff carry out physical safety interventions within their responsibilities.

We apply these expectations regardless of someone's ticket type, commercial relationship or prominence. Complaints about staff or suppliers may also require action through their employer or contractual arrangements. We will explain the decisions we can share without disclosing another person's private information.

Any decision about ticket cancellation or a refund will follow the applicable ticket terms and law. This code does not remove statutory rights. To request a review of a conduct decision, contact [review contact and method] within [review request period]. Explain which decision you want reviewed and any relevant information. The review will be handled by [suitable person or role without a relevant conflict of interest].

Decide exactly where the policy applies

The template makes you list the activities you control because "at our event" can become surprisingly unclear. Imagine you sell a conference ticket that includes an evening reception in a nearby bar. The reception needs the same published conduct expectations, an available contact and an agreement about who can act there. The daytime venue manager may have no authority at the bar.

Now imagine attendees arrange their own drinks after the reception ends. You probably can't promise to manage that gathering as though it were your programme. You can still receive information that affects participation in the following day's sessions. Explain the distinction in the policy and discuss what your team can do with the venue and advisers.

Be equally precise online. Name the discussion group or event chat you moderate. A rule applying to every conversation anywhere on the internet is a commitment your team cannot realistically administer. A report about threatening messages may still matter to onsite safety, but your ability to remove messages depends on who controls the service.

The Python Software Foundation's event code of conduct guidance recommends stating scope, expected behaviour, unacceptable behaviour and possible consequences, alongside reporting arrangements. That's a useful test for completeness. Your event still needs its own wording, contacts and authority, especially where paying customers and contracted participants are involved.

Include setup and breakdown where relevant to the people working on your event. Contractors can experience unacceptable behaviour before a ticket holder enters the building. Your public policy should explain who it covers, while the relevant agreements tell employers and suppliers how concerns involving their teams will be handled.

Make the rules concrete enough to use

"Be respectful" sounds reasonable until two people disagree about what respect means. Your policy needs examples of behaviour a participant can recognise. Someone declining a conversation, another person following them through the venue, and repeated unwanted messages are more useful reference points than a paragraph about creating positive experiences.

Avoid trying to write an exhaustive catalogue. A long list can suggest that anything omitted is acceptable, and it becomes difficult to read on a phone. Describe the main behaviours your event needs to address, then test the wording against situations the programme and venue make plausible.

For a dance workshop, explain the rules about partner changes, physical contact and opting out of an exercise. For a business conference, consider persistent sales approaches, photographing badges and pressure to share contact details. A comedy performance may include difficult material, but that doesn't settle how the audience may treat a staff member at the bar.

Write about conduct without treating disability, appearance or communication style as evidence of wrongdoing. Someone needing extra time to respond is different from someone threatening a steward. If a rule uses a vague description such as "acting strangely", rewrite it around the action that creates the problem. Ask the people responsible for accessibility to review the examples.

Your event accessibility checklist should also cover the practical arrangements behind the policy. An attendee who cannot reach the reporting location or read the published document has less access to help, even when the policy says everyone is welcome.

Check what the ticket terms actually allow

A conduct policy can describe removal as a possible response, but the commercial details need a separate review. Who can cancel a ticket? What happens to access to the next day? Who considers a refund request? Decide how those questions connect to your terms before your team has to answer them during an incident.

Be careful with copied clauses saying anyone removed will never receive a refund under any circumstances. Your preferred outcome doesn't determine whether a term is fair or enforceable. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority's unfair contract terms guidance explains the need for fair, transparent consumer terms and notices. Get advice relevant to where you sell and run the event.

The template deliberately leaves refund decisions subject to applicable terms and law. That doesn't tell you to refund every removal. It prevents a general blog template from making a legal decision for your business. Have the person reviewing your ticket terms check the conduct wording at the same time.

Consider a group booking as well. If one person bought several tickets, the other attendees need access to the policy before arriving. The buyer may be your payment contact, but they shouldn't become the person responsible for receiving sensitive information about every member of the group. Keep ordinary booking administration separate from handling a conduct concern.

Show the policy where a buyer can read it before purchase. Your legal reviewer can advise how it should connect to the purchase agreement and how acknowledgement should work. A link added only to an arrival email may help people find reporting contacts, but it doesn't answer every contractual question about when they received the terms.

Agree who can act before promising consequences

A sponsor representative ignores a request to stop approaching an attendee. Your duty lead believes they should leave, but the sponsorship manager says the contract guarantees access. This is exactly the sort of disagreement to resolve before the event. A public sentence about equal standards needs a workable agreement behind it.

Check speaker, performer, exhibitor and sponsor arrangements for the relevant conduct obligations and decision routes. Agree who speaks to the participant's representative, who can restrict access and who deals with the commercial consequences. Don't put a volunteer in the position of renegotiating a sponsor contract at the door.

Your event staffing plan needs to cover the conduct role while the rest of the event continues. If the only decision maker is also directing the show, someone must take over one of those responsibilities. Include an alternative for reports involving that decision maker or someone close to them.

A written procedure for staff can contain more detail than the public code. It should explain how to reach the lead, who can request security assistance and who records decisions. Staff need access to the current instructions during their shift. They don't all need access to the details of every report.

Also decide what a warning means. An instruction to stop approaching a particular person needs to reach the person expected to follow it, and the duty team needs to know who checks compliance. Recording that a warning happened is useful only if the next shift can understand the restriction without reading unnecessary personal details.

Keep emergencies outside the complaint queue

The public code must make it easy to recognise when someone should seek immediate assistance. A person who sees a serious threat shouldn't have to complete a form and wait for the conduct lead to check an inbox. Publish the actual emergency route agreed for the venue and event location.

The UK's Health and Safety Executive says an event emergency plan should be proportionate to the risks and identify clear emergency roles and responsibilities. Use that planning with your venue to decide what the public contact instructions should say. A conduct policy cannot take over the emergency plan's job.

For example, your written reporting address may be appropriate for describing repeated unwanted contact after the event. It isn't an appropriate promise of urgent medical assistance. If an onsite telephone number exists, confirm who carries the phone, whether it works throughout the venue and what happens when that person is already responding elsewhere.

Avoid copying another country's emergency number into your policy. Check the local arrangements, the venue's location information and any instructions emergency responders need to reach the right entrance. Put the agreed details into the template. Your staff briefing needs the same information, including what to do if the published channel fails.

Your event security plan should establish who manages access and carries out authorised interventions. Keep this policy connected to those decisions so a change of venue or programme triggers a review of the contacts and responsibilities, rather than leaving last year's arrangements online.

Offer help people can actually reach

Read the reporting section as someone standing in a loud foyer with a low phone battery. Can they find a member of staff? Is the named location open? Can they ask for help without explaining the entire situation within earshot of a queue? These practical details determine whether the published contact works.

Provide a route that doesn't depend on scanning a code. A written option can help someone who doesn't want to speak, while a staffed location gives another route when a device fails. Explain when each option is monitored. You can offer a modest service clearly; don't advertise constant monitoring if the team only checks messages between sessions.

For US events, the Department of Justice's effective communication guidance explains the responsibilities of covered organisations when communicating with people with communication disabilities. The appropriate assistance depends on the communication and the person's needs. Review the policy, reporting channels and staff preparation as part of meeting the duties that apply to your event.

Ask people what assistance would help them communicate. Don't assume every attendee can make a voice call or comfortably tell a sensitive story through a friend. Arrange appropriate assistance and a usable location with the people responsible for accessibility. This work belongs in your operating budget before ticket sales begin, alongside the other services you promise.

The independent contact needs the same practical attention. If the normal lead is the subject of a complaint, an address read by that same lead doesn't provide an alternative. Check who can see submissions and who has agreed to respond. A person's name should only appear in the published policy after they accept the role.

Say what you can promise about privacy

People need to know how you will handle a report before they share sensitive information. "Completely confidential" is an attractive promise and often the wrong one. The team may need to share limited details to arrange support, assess a concern fairly or meet a legal obligation. Your policy should explain those limits in ordinary language.

Keep the privacy notice and conduct policy consistent. Decide who receives reports, what information you need, where you store it and when access ends. Ask for advice about retention and any requirements that depend on the content of a report. Don't collect identity documents or extensive personal histories simply because a form allows attachments.

For UK organisations, the Information Commissioner's Office explains that criminal offence data can include allegations. That can bring additional requirements for handling the information. The ICO marks this guidance as under review following legislative changes, so confirm the current requirements with your data protection adviser before setting up the process.

A general staff messaging group is a poor default for detailed reports. People covering ticket checks, production and catering don't all need the same information. Work out what each person needs to do, then share the minimum detail needed for that responsibility through an appropriate restricted channel.

You can tell an attendee that their report has reached the right person without promising to reveal every decision about someone else. Similarly, a public explanation after an incident needs its own privacy and legal review. Publishing names or a detailed account is a separate decision, not an automatic consequence of receiving a complaint.

Add event rules without hiding the conduct policy

You'll probably have other information to publish, such as prohibited items, age restrictions, alcohol rules or requirements for a physical activity. Keep that information easy to find and connect it to the appropriate terms. The code of conduct doesn't need to become a copy of every instruction issued by the venue.

A clear distinction helps staff answer questions. An attendee asking whether they can bring a bag needs the entry policy. An attendee describing repeated unwanted attention needs the conduct contact. Both may approach the same steward, but the steward should know which instructions and colleagues apply to each situation.

Photography deserves particular attention because events make different promises. A professional conference may photograph its audience for future promotion, while a workshop may limit recording to protect participants' privacy. Describe your actual arrangements before buying and arriving, including any available way to raise concerns about official coverage. Have privacy and legal advisers check the wording where needed.

Don't suggest that buying a ticket settles every question about consent, personal photography or use of someone's image. Equally, don't promise that staff can remove every photograph another attendee has already published. Decide what your team can enforce within the event, what participants should do when asked to stop and how someone can contact you afterwards.

If your audience includes children, seek appropriate safeguarding advice before using the template. You may need different reporting arrangements, parental information, staff preparation and legal reporting procedures. The same applies to activities involving close physical contact or other specific risks. Add suitable specialist arrangements before publishing the general policy, rather than asking a public code to cover them through vague language.

Use a short reminder alongside the full policy

Your arrival email doesn't need to reproduce the entire document. It should help a ticket holder find the policy and know where to ask for help. Adapt this reminder once the full wording and operating arrangements are agreed.

"Before you arrive, please read our event code of conduct at [policy link]. It explains the behaviour we expect and how our team handles concerns. During [staffed hours], you can ask for the conduct lead at [help location] or use [monitored contact]. For a concern involving that lead, use [independent contact]. Written reports outside those hours are checked [monitoring arrangement]. For urgent assistance at the venue, use [agreed emergency route]."

The reminder repeats practical information that someone might need while travelling or standing near the entrance. Keep the language consistent with the full document. A helpful sounding addition such as "contact us anytime for an immediate response" changes the promise if your reporting channel isn't continuously staffed.

Write a separate briefing for the person answering ordinary booking enquiries. They need to recognise a conduct message, forward it through the agreed restricted route and explain how to seek immediate assistance. They shouldn't improvise questions about the incident or copy a sensitive account into a general customer service conversation.

After the event, check whether automated replies still direct people to a staffed location that has closed. Update the current contact information without deleting the record of the policy used for that event. People who raise a concern later need a working route, and your team needs to know which arrangements were in place when the event happened.

Test the wording against awkward situations

Before you publish, run a short discussion with the people expected to use the code. Choose situations that expose decisions rather than invite agreement. "Would we take harassment seriously?" won't tell you much. Ask who receives a report halfway through a performance when the lead is already supporting another attendee.

Try a report about your highest paying sponsor, a concern involving a contractor during setup and an attendee who needs to communicate in writing. Then try an urgent safety situation. Each example should produce a named role, an available route and a next action that matches the public policy.

Check the consequences section against a disputed account. Your team may need a temporary restriction while gathering information, but they should avoid presenting that precaution as a completed finding. Decide how they explain the restriction, who authorises it and when it will be reviewed. A rehearsed explanation is easier to deliver calmly than one invented in front of a crowd.

Read the review clause carefully as well. Someone reviewing a decision needs enough independence and information to consider it fairly. A tiny team may need an external arrangement. Don't promise a review by a person who made the original decision, and don't imply that requesting one automatically removes an urgent safety restriction.

These exercises may reveal that the wording asks too much of the available team. Fix the staffing or narrow the promise honestly, then check whether the revised arrangement meets your responsibilities. Changing the sentence alone doesn't solve a missing service. For specialist cases, get appropriate help rather than expecting the template to answer every question.

Include your temporary staff in the exercise. They may only work this venue once, and they won't know which manager usually handles a difficult conversation. Ask them to explain the route back to you in their own words. If they have to guess, clarify the briefing before their first shift begins and test it again.

Publish one version and keep the contacts current

Once the wording is agreed, decide who owns it. Record the version and review date, and keep a copy of what buyers received. If you change important terms after sales open, get advice on how to communicate the change and handle existing bookings. Quietly replacing a page leaves your team unsure which version applied.

Link the policy from the event information people use before buying and before arriving. Repeat the reporting contacts in practical attendee communications and at staffed locations. Those reminders should point to the same current policy, rather than create shorter versions that accidentally promise different hours or different outcomes.

Brief your venue and suppliers using the finished wording. Ask the duty team to find the help contact on a phone and explain what happens if that contact is unavailable. Before each event, confirm that every named person still accepts the role and every channel still works. Publish only after those checks, so the policy describes help your audience can actually receive.