The standard empowered the company to rebound quickly post-pandemic and grow its local and international partnerships for a more successful comeback.
Safety boats on patrol in one of Orange Room’s open water swim events in Singapore.
About the Company
Founded in Singapore in 2008, Orange Room specialises in professional mass participation sporting events. Its house brand event is TriFactor, a triathlon series comprising swimming, biking and running that has since been expanded to seven countries in Asia, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and China.
“Safety Is Our DNA” – Adopting SS 681
In 2023, Orange Room adopted SS 681:2022 – Code of Practice for Sport Safety, a standard that improves sport safety across diverse settings, from competitive and school sports to recreational and fitness activities.
Elvin Ting, founder of Orange Room, says, “Safety is our DNA. SS 681 validated and strengthened the safety protocols we’ve relied on for years, ensuring we leave no stone unturned when it comes to sport safety.”
For example, the company enhanced its heat stress management with SS 681: it introduced more comprehensive heat awareness during pre-participation screenings and strengthened heat acclimatisation in its training programmes. It also improved procedures for monitoring real-time weather conditions, including heat and adverse weather, by putting in place predefined action plans to modify race conditions or delay events, ensuring the safety of participants.1.
These improvements led to Orange Room reducing heat injuries from nine incidents a year to two.
Business Benefits of Adopting SS 681
1. Enhance Business Resilience
Orange Room embraced SS 681 at a pivotal time. The world was emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, a time when many events were regaining their footing. With SS 681, Orange Room now had a comprehensive sport safety framework on hand, which covered all aspects of a sporting event – from event risks and participant safety to medical needs and training – in one structured document. This allowed Orange Room to perform safety management in a more systematic and holistic manner, where the company also took the opportunity to streamline its safety processes, enabling faster event implementation compared to pre-pandemic times.
Mr Ting says, “Before the pandemic, we ran TriFactor across seven countries. SS 681 contributed in our bouncing back in 2023 and resuming operations swiftly in six countries, which helped our business recovery.”
2. Enable Business Scaling
Orange Room aims to bring its community of followers to new parts of the world through its sport events, prioritising safety in every environment. “We’ve recently ventured into Cambodia and areas of China, where conditions like open water, climate and terrain vary greatly,” says Mr Ting. “SS 681 has been instrumental in allowing us to assess overseas risks systematically. For example, different open water conditions in different countries carry different risks. We perform open water hazard checks based on SS 681, which covers aspects such as currents, tidal flows, artificial structures, marine life and more. These robust checks not only assure our overseas partner; they’ve also impressed them! Our sport safety measures, boosted by SS 681, eventually supported us in expanding successfully into new locations.”
Leveraging SS 681 also strengthens Orange Room’s long-term partnerships with local businesses to co-organise events. Recently, it partnered with Singlife and CapitaLand. “They absolutely want to ensure our sport safety measures meet global standards or surpass them,” adds Mr Ting.
In 2023, Orange Room organised five major events. By 2024, this number had grown to eight, resulting in a 40% increase in revenue compared to pre-pandemic levels – all while prioritising safety with SS 681 as its foundation.
An open water event in Vietnam.
3. Align Partners
In every event, numerous partners, including stakeholder organisations, venue owners, medical service providers and volunteers, are involved. With SS 681, Orange Room can communicate more effectively with each of them on risk assessment, ensuring everyone is on the same page. Mr Ting explains, “SS 681 serves as a baseline for all of us to reference when it comes to the proper risk assessment required for each event and venue. This makes our risk mitigation planning more productive.”
4. Strengthen Company Reputation
Orange Room’s brand reputation is closely tied to delivering exceptional participant experiences, and the company is equally committed to broadening sports participation across diverse demographics, including children. Since adopting the standard, Orange Room has seen a 10% rise in overall participants. “Participants love our events because they’re well-organised, and SS 681 plays a vital role,” shares Mr Ting. “Its guidelines on hydration, heat management and medical aid are invaluable, while the pre-participation screening standards help us effectively assess participants’ suitability for various sports."
With strong safety measures in place, Orange Room is confident in expanding its events where more children can participate.
Industry Wide Adoption the Way to Go
Mr Ting acknowledges that adopting a standard involves an upfront cost, but he emphasises that the long-term benefits far outweigh it, especially for organisations aiming to sustain or scale. He says, “SS 681 isn’t just a safety guideline – it’s a game-changer for sports companies looking to operationalise quickly, safely and effectively.” He adds, “If the local industry adopts SS 681, we establish a unified sport safety standard in Singapore. This can foster more efficient collaboration and position Singapore as a trusted provider of reliable, world-class sporting events.”