Mick Upton Brightest & Best Award

 As part of the launch of the Alliance, the GCMA® Board are very pleased to announce the creation of the Mick Upton Brightest & Best Award. 

The award will be given on an annual basis to an early career ‘bright star’ within the global crowd management industry.  They will be recognised for both the potential they have displayed and the contributions they have made to the industry so far.

This is an opportunity to honor and celebrate the life and work of Mick Upton. Mick supported so many of us, directly and indirectly, through his work and we hold his memory dear when we plan safely.

The first award will be given at the GCMA® Annual General Meeting in March 2023. Look out for further announcements about nominations in March 2022.

About Mick Upton

Mick Upton was the founder of the Centre for Crowd Management & Security Studies at Buckinghamshire New University and was also a key figure in the events industry and crowd safety management community.

Following military service in the fifties, Mick began working as a close protection bodyguard for a wide range of VIP clients. During the mid-sixties he began to specialise in celebrity protection when he accepted work with the Beatles and then the Rolling Stones. Subsequently, as Head of Security at Artistes Services Ltd, he worked with celebrity clients that ranged from ABBA to Led Zeppelin. From 1974 on he took a keen interest in crowd safety management following the death of a young woman at a David Cassidy concert he was working at.

In 1982 Mick formed ShowSec International Ltd, a company that specialises in celebrity protection and event crowd management at international level. He also took a keen interest in the design and delivery of training for the private security industry. This led to him acting as a consultant to Bramshill Police Staff College and he moved on to design and deliver crowd safety training for UK police services, local authorities and foreign agencies. He also acted as consultant for the UK official published guidance on concert event crowd management. In addition he served on government sponsored Lead Bodies set up to introduce NVQ qualifications for events, door supervisors and VIP protection.

Mick Upton was the recipient of numerous awards recognising his contribution to crowd safety management. Following his retirement from ShowSec in 2000, he worked on the development of the first ever Foundation Degree course at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (now Buckinghamshire New University). 

In 2005 Mick was awarded a Doctorate for his work and he was appointed as the first Head of the Centre for Crowd Management & Security Studies at BNU. He retired from that position in December 2007.

In 2009 Mick acted as liaison between UK Special Forces and BNU to successfully establish civilian qualifications for military close protection training.