The Event Safety Podcast

Event Safety Alliance
  • 4.6 (29)
  • Performing Arts
  • Updated Monthly

Welcome to the Event Safety Podcast, your source for ideas, discussions, and news from the world of live event safety. Produced by Event Safety Alliance.

  1. 1d ago

    Episode 123: Part One:15 Years On - The Indiana State Fair Stage Collapse

    To mark the 15th anniversary of the Indiana State Fair stage collapse that killed seven people and injured 58 others, Danielle shares Part One of an ESA presentation commemorating the event, and how it inspired us to change to safety at live events, work that continues to this day. The panel, led by ESA founder and immediate past president Jim Digby, traces ESA's founding: the conference calls that grew from a handful of concerned industry professionals to dozens, the Event Safety Guide, and an early meeting with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels that persuaded state officials to let the industry self-regulate. Topics also cover the 13 ANSI standards now available free through ESTA's Technical Standards Program, the insurance sector's role in rewriting weather cancellation policies to address wind and lightning rather than rain accumulation, and evidence of safety culture taking hold on show sites worldwide.  Guests: Jim Digby, Don Cooper, Scott Carroll, Sue McGuirl, Jacob Worek Show Notes: Event Safety Alliance ESTA Technical Standards Program

  2. Jul 28

    Episode 122 - Safety Check Round-up 2026

    Danielle reconvenes the 2nd annual current events roundtable, joined by event safety friends, Jacob Worek, John Badcock, and Doug Bruce to review the incidents, trends, and conversations that shaped the first half of 2026 for live events. Weather was a major theme, also, the FIFA 2026 World Cup, audience behavior and safety messaging, technology and surveillance at events, nightclub fires and more.   Lots of lessons learned, as well as considerations of pathways forward for these challenges. Show Notes: ASTM F38 Drone Shows Committee Contact Danielle | podcast@eventsafetyalliance.org Guests: Jacob Worek | SMP John Badcock | Event Operations & Safety Director, SXSW Doug Bruce | Creative Safety Hosts: Danielle Hernandez (host)

  3. Jul 14

    Episode 121 - Leadership, Safety and Safety Leadership

    What separates safety training from safety culture? Danielle and co-host Anna Glover sit down with Jen Ruggerio, founder of Rugged Training Group and author of Uncorporate Leadership, to dig into that question. Safety training without leadership support is box-checking.  The conversation examines common leadership models that do not translate to environments where the stakes are lives rather than quarterly numbers. This episode builds a case for shared leadership as an alternative to top-down hierarchy, positioning safety accountability as something every crew member holds rather than something that flows from a title. Practical threads include heat illness in new workers, how to speak up when you are day labor, why imposter syndrome is evidence of growth, and how the fresh eyes of a first-week worker are an asset most companies fail to use. Guests: Jen Ruggerio | Founder, Rugged Training Group  Jen Ruggerio | LinkedIn Hosts: Danielle Hernandez (host)       Anna Glover (co-host) Show Notes: Uncorporate Leadership (Amazon) Rugged Training Group Contact Danielle: podcast@eventsafetyalliance.org

  4. Jun 30

    Episode 120 - The Pyro Pod

    It is fireworks season! Danielle sits down with Ryan Abel, a fireworks and FX designer and pyrotechnic specialist. This in-depth chat covers pyro from design to operations, including budget, AHJs, permits and safety protocols. Site selection, weather, and show-stop criteria each get real-world treatment, including stopping a show mid-performance when winds spiked unexpectedly.  The discussion goes into the reputational stakes when incidents go viral, performer and audience clearances in entertainment pyro settings, the role of spotters, and the early-stage challenges of combining drone shows with fireworks. Guests: Ryan Abel | Fireworks and FX Designer, Pyrotechnic Specialist Hosts: Danielle Hernandez (host) Show Notes: NFPA 1123 (outdoor displays) | https://www.nfpa.org NFPA 1126 (proximate pyrotechnics) | https://www.nfpa.org Contact Danielle | podcast@eventsafetyalliance.org

  5. Jun 16

    Episode 119 - Pink Bows Safe Space

    Pink Bows Foundation grew out of tragedy. After ten people, including Madison Dubiski, lost their lives at Astroworld in 2021, her family channeled an outpouring of community grief into an organization committed to making live events safer for everyone. The foundation's work runs on three pillars: a philanthropy program honoring Madison's commitment to community service, a Showstop procedure course that has trained over 700 event professionals worldwide, and the Safe Space itself.   Danielle and co-host Tami Richter sit down with Ashleigh LaBure and Kyrah Lowe from Pink Bows to talk about their Safe Space initiative and how it is finding its way to large events across Texas and beyond. The bright pink tent structure has become a recognizable beacon at festivals — a cool-down spot, a safe refuge, a rally point for separated groups, and a welcoming environment for attendees managing anxiety, overstimulation, or heat.  Events interested in hosting Safe Space can connect through the Pink Bows website. Guests: Ashleigh LaBure, Senior VP of Operations Pink Bows Foundation Kyrah Lowe | Volunteer & Community Outreach Coordinator, Pink Bows Foundation Show Notes: Pink Bows Foundation info@pinkbowsfoundation.org Hosts: Danielle Hernandez (host) & Tami Richter (co-host)

  6. Jun 9

    Episode 118 - Fire Safety Curtains, to be or not to be

    Danielle Hernandez is joined by guest co-host Fr. David Garretson along with guests Bill Conner and Dan Culhane for an in-depth discussion of the present, past and future of fire safety curtains and their place in both venues and codes.   For over a century, theaters have been required to provide either a fire curtain, a deluge system, or mechanical exhaust at the proscenium to separate the stage from the auditorium in the event of a fire. The forthcoming International Building Code (2027) will eliminate the longstanding requirement for proscenium opening protection in new theater construction.  Bill Conner, who worked this significant change through both IBC and parallel NFPA language, has found no evidence anywhere, including the UK and Europe, that fire curtains have ever saved a human life.  Note: This change applies to new construction only. Removing an existing fire curtain from an older theater would require buy-in from the local authority having jurisdiction, the insurer, and the fire marshal. NFPA is moving in the same direction, though without IBC's requirement to separate the stage and auditorium from the rest of the building.   Hosts: Danielle Hernandez (host) Fr. David Garretson (guest co-host) Guests: Bill Conner, FASTC, ETCP Certified (retired) Rigger - Theatre. Bill, a professional theatre consultant since 1982, provides facility planning and systems design for the performing arts. Among over 150 projects, notable projects include the Alley Theatre, the West Side Showroom, Cincinnati’s SCPA, Edgewood College’s The Stream, Willow Creek Church, Detroit Orchestra Hall, McFarland High School, and the Holden-Brownstone Performing Arts Center. Bill is the ASTC codes officer since 1987 and participates in the development of the national model codes as the senior member of the Assembly Occupancies committee for the NFPA Life Safety Code, serving since 1988, and participant in the ICC Code Development Process for many years. He is a member of the ICC A117.1 and ICC 300 committees. You can reach Bill at 708-983-5792 or bill@bcaworld.com Dan Culhane | Co-Chair, Stage Machinery Working Group and Technical Standards Council, ESTA Show Notes: ESTA Standards (free downloads) ANSI E1.22 Deadliest single building or complex fires and explosions in the U.S. Iroquois Theatre fire Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire Contact Danielle | podcast@eventsafetyalliance.org

  7. May 26

    Episode 117 - Uncertainty and Decisions

    Co-host Anna Glover joins Danielle Hernandez to explore a topic that sits at the heart of everything we do in live events: how do you make good decisions when you can't know the outcome? Their guest, Ben Cattaneo, is a risk and resilience professional, host of the Decision-Making Studio podcast, and co-author of "Decision Making in the Polycrisis Era". Ben opens by drawing a clear line between risk (where we can estimate probability) and uncertainty (where we genuinely can't) and argues that leaning into uncertainty as a frame produces better thinking than treating every scenario as a quantifiable risk. Risk matrices can create a false sense of security.   Using a FOCUS framework to help guide decision making, the discussion explores the process and tools available to make a decision, including knowing how impactful the result may be to live with, i.e., a hat (fully reversible), a haircut (you'll live with it for a while), or a tattoo (irreversible). What happens when the moment arrives and people get cold feet about the decision they already agreed to make? The answer, Ben says: document the how and the why before the pressure hits, so you can defend a difficult decision without having to reconstruct your reasoning under stress. The episode closes with Anna and Ben connecting all of it back to live events as an environment for building decision-making capability. Every show is a new data point, every load-in a chance to practice. Hosts: Danielle Hernandez (host) Anna Glover (co-host) Guests: Ben Cattaneo | Risk and Resilience Practice, PwC; Host, Decision Making Studio Podcast Show Notes: Decision Making Studio Podcast | https://thedecisionmaking.studio Decision Making in the Polycrisis Era (book) | Available on major book retailers FOCUS Decision-making Primer | https://thedecisionmaking.studio/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/FOCUS.pdf ESA Safer Events Series - Weather | https://eventsafetyalliance.org/safer-events-series Contact Danielle | podcast@eventsafetyalliance.org

  8. May 19

    Episode 116 - Survey Says... Weather with DTN! [Updated]

    Episode 116: Survey Says... Weather with DTN! ---------------------------------------- Weather is the leading disruptor of live events, and the industry's relationship with weather intelligence has matured significantly over the past decade. Danielle Hernandez and co-host Tami Richter sit down with Renny Vandewege, General Manager of Weather Intelligence at DTN, to dig into the results of a major industry survey DTN conducted on how event organizers are making weather-related decisions. Renny walks through DTN's approach, explaining how they've evolved from pure forecasting into what they call an operational decisioning platform. The conversation covers range rings, event-specific trigger thresholds, high-precision lightning and radar data, wet bulb globe temperature for heat safety, and the critical value of having a meteorologist in the loop. A static range ring only triggers after a lightning strike has occurred. A meteorologist can warn you before the first strike happens. The survey findings are illuminating. Most event weather decisions are made within 48 hours of the event, often in the moment, and decision makers frequently struggle to translate forecast data into action alone.    The industry has come a long way, but that the work is not finished and DTN's survey helps show the way forward. Hosts: Danielle Hernandez (host)   Tami Richter (co-host) Guest: Renny Vandewege | General Manager of Weather Intelligence, DTN  https://www.linkedin.com/in/renny-vandewege-8b0aa735/ Show Notes: DTN Outdoor Safety | https://www.dtn.com https://www.dtn.com/weather-risks-in-event-operations/ https://training.fema.gov/nims/ ESA Safer Events Series - Weather | https://eventsafetyalliance.org/safer-events-series Contact Danielle | podcast@eventsafetyalliance.org

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4.6
out of 5
29 Ratings

About

Welcome to the Event Safety Podcast, your source for ideas, discussions, and news from the world of live event safety. Produced by Event Safety Alliance.

Information

  • Creator
    Event Safety Alliance
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    123
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2019 - 2025 Event Safety Alliance
  • Show Website
    The Event Safety Podcast

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