The Barefoot Event Professor

Tag: event-management

  • Crowds Are the Worst-Case Scenario: An Event Professional’s Guide to Finding Good Risk Information

    Crowds Are the Worst-Case Scenario: An Event Professional’s Guide to Finding Good Risk Information

    I’m back, as promised, with another installment of risk management for event professionals.  This time we will be talking about crowd management, specifically where to find information (more about that below).  Get comfy this is going to be more than one blog; I promised I wouldn’t do the “7 Easy Steps …”.  This topic has become my latest obsession within the risk management field.  And it is thanks to an Events Risk Management class I taught 3 years ago at Endicott College.  It was a small class, which allows me the opportunity to tailor the content.  I asked what they were interested in and they wanted to know more about crowd management.  This interest came out of discussions and case studies of events where crowd surges had happened, and there are a lot of them.  I was also teaching a hybrid version of a Masters class and these students were also interested in crowd management.  I had an opportunity to research, so I was in my happiest of happy places.

    As usual it didn’t take me long to dive into a rabbit hole.  The more I looked into crowd management, the more I was fascinated.  There is a lot of information about crowd management out there and so much of it is great and exciting.  There are some problems, let’s dig in and see if we can sort through some of the more prominent ones.

    Why Crowd Management?

    Before we go further, I want to be upfront about something: this post isn’t actually going to teach you how to manage a crowd.  As I’ve mentioned before, a risk management frame of mind is something that takes time to develop.  So I have decided to start our journey with a walk through the obstacles we face when learning about crowd management.  Crowd management, specifically a lack of crowd management is a scary thing and is one of the biggest issues facing our industry.

    Crowd management sits at the intersection of every issue I’m about to complain about. When disasters happen they make headlines and bring our wonderful industry into question. It’s studied by academics who focus on Olympics and terrorism, and by practitioners who are running a 200-person volunteer 5K (the “can I even use this information” problem). It’s regulated by whatever county, state, or country you happen to be standing in, with wildly different definitions of things as basic as “capacity”. And it’s the single easiest place for a client to say “nothing bad has ever happened”, because crowds “usually” behave, right up until the moment they don’t.

    So if I can show you how tangled it gets to find, trust, and apply good information about crowd management, I’ve basically shown you how tangled it gets for everything else in this field too. Crowds are just the clearest example. Consider this post a stress test of the whole information problem, using the topic where the stress shows up the most.

    Where Is The Information?

    This has been the bane of my existence since I started studying risk management 30 years ago, finding information.  Don’t get me wrong there is a lot of information; but you have to be prepared to go looking.  As an industry we are not great at having a single location to collect and share information with consistency.  This is not a bad thing; each type of event and each professional has different and unique requirements and concerns and a risk management plan MUST, MUST, MUST be customized to the event and the professional.  What it does mean is that it is difficult, and time consuming, to find help.

    As I said, there is a lot of great information out there, and I’ll give you some suggestions at the end of the blog; however, once you find it, you need to make sense of it.  During my PhD I was reading a lot of academic articles, you should definitely feel sorry for me, they’re hard and I read over 200 of them ☹.  What I discovered was that most of these articles focused on what is called “low probability/high consequence” disasters (terrorism and natural disasters) for large events (Olympics).  These are absolutely important related to crowd management and I learned a lot from them.  The issue I had was being able to think about them in terms of events with an infrastructure that relied on volunteers.

    I had an amazing PhD advisor, shout-out to Dr. Stephen L.J. Smith from the University of Waterloo (go Warriors).   He encouraged me to look at industry resources to broaden my perspective; this is not usually done by academics as we tend to stay in the academic realm.  I started reading event industry articles, which further frustrated me and made me realize the degree of fragmentation within the events industry.  People tend to work and share information within siloes, so the information we are getting is limited and difficult to find.  This leads to the next problem …

    Is It Going To Work?

    Great, we’ve found the information, now what do we do.  Well we have to put it together, which can be time consuming and hard.  The information is in the form of advice, criticism and conjecture; also known as “Monday morning quarterback”.  Disasters attract what is called “sensationalism”, you’ve heard the phrase “if it bleeds, it leads”.  In an era when everyone is a reporter, recording and publishing disasters in real-time, it is overwhelming to sort through what actually happened.  Let’s take a look at the Astroworld Tragedy; I use this because I was asked to comment on it in various forums, including 2 interviews on News Nation Prime (very exciting for me).  The media coverage was everywhere, which is a good thing as it gives us the opportunity to use it as a case study to learn; one of the things I love most about my job is that I’m encouraged to do study and learn.  If you’re interested in what I found, there are 2 “soapbox” blogs on this site.

    What isn’t as easy to find is the results of the investigation.  There are some reports that new safety measures were implemented by the county and state, where other reports are these are recommendations.  If you do a Google search on recommendations from the Astroworld Tragedy, what you find are articles about what went wrong, survivor testimonials, task forces, and calls for change.  Again, a lot of information is provided, that you have to sort through and make sense of yourself.

    What Do I Do Here?

    Now that you’ve spent time finding and making sense of the information, we’re going to add another twist.  Crowd management laws, standards, and requirements can differ widely depending on where you go.  This includes things like the way capacity is calculated, the requirements for staffing, the requirements for official policing/first responder agencies, and differing permits/licenses to name a few.

    Something I have noticed since moving to the US, is the tendency to apply the laws/regulations we are familiar with to other locations.  A perfect example of this is the Americans with Disabilities Act.  In my first year teaching I assigned students to identify risks for an event that was being held in Canada.  One group identified a lack of ADA standards.  When I questioned why this was a problem, they stated that ADA needed to be included.  It wasn’t until I specified the first “A” stood for “Americans” and that it didn’t cross borders that we all realized how easy it can be to fall into patterns.  Having come from planning international events, it had become second nature to me to look into these issues; that’s not the case for everyone.

    This connects right back to our first problem. It’s not just that information is scattered across siloes, it’s scattered across a map, and that map is a lot bigger than most of us think about day to day. What works as your risk management plan in one location may not even be legal in another, and there’s no central place, anywhere in the world, that tells you that in advance.

    How Do We Explain It?

    As always, our final piece is communication and education of the client.  You’d think doing more than the minimum would be a good thing, and it is.  Our issue is explaining/educating the client on the costs for security, medical staff, or a stricter capacity limit than what’s technically required.  Here’s where you will most likely hear “nothing bad has ever happened”.  It’s a terrible phrase, makes me want to scream, and always results in sarcasm.

    I have been fortunate over the years, where the amount of pushback I’ve received has been limited.  It’s definitely a combination of my relationship with my bosses and my stubbornness.  Where I have had to offer explanations is with the events my students run.  There have been times when I have explained that we don’t do outdoor events without a registration process.  They don’t understand that capacity applies to outdoor spaces as well as indoor ones.  I’ve had to explain a location is not the best choice because of the public traffic; they don’t understand that you need to consider the people walking through an area in the overall plan as you are responsible for them as well.

    Here’s the thing: the law is a baseline, it is the minimum and is based on research from a variety of reliable sources.  It considers elements that commonly occur in the space; however, the people who make these determinations are not familiar with the nuances of events and specifically your event and your attendees.  Most hotel function space is broken into capacity based on traditional room set-ups; however, it does not consider the extras you are including like décor or the way you want the attendees to move through the space.

    Where Can I Find Help?

    Don’t lose hope, there are a lot of things that you can do.  I have to warn you it is going to take time, as anything worth while doing should.  I have highlighted there is a lot of information out there, it’s a great thing, it means you have a lot to choose from.  The fact that you need to make sense of it is also a good thing.  It means you will be able to create something that works for you.  No one knows you or your events better than you, you are the expert in the room and you have earned that title.

    Our industry has some amazing resources, one of my favourites is the Events Industry Council (www.eventscouncil.org).  It is focused more on the corporate events side and includes information on more than risk management and crowd control; however, there is a lot of great information.  You also have to be prepared to put the information together yourself into something you can use.

    The Event Safety Alliance (www.eventsafetyalliance.org) is my new favourite association.  I’ve been a member for 2 years and there is so much value in it.  It is an international association with very active members who are looking to share their hard-earned wisdom.  There are monthly virtual meetings, podcasts, and links to a variety of international sources.  Totally worth the membership.

    You know I’m going to plug all the events industry chapters; they are a wealth of information.  One of the best things about these chapters is they are desperate to hear what you as a member want to learn about, and are thrilled when you recommend a speaker.

    Last, but not least, there’s me.  I love to talk about all things risk management.  My book “The Robson Risk Management Model” discusses what to create an action plan.  An action plan is used to prepare for potential crowd issues.  It identifies triggers (behaviours that indicate something is going to happen), and responses.  What I provide is a guide for creating an action plan that is specific to your event and your team.

    Next up we’re going to dive more deeply into crowd management, introducing the idea of crowd psychology.

  • People Are Stupid: An Event Professional’s Guide to Risk

    People Are Stupid: An Event Professional’s Guide to Risk

    My soap box is getting a lot of use, I guess this is what happens when I don’t post regularly 😊. 

    This time I want to talk about the “short cut” articles.  You know the ones I mean, “7 Steps to …” fill in the blank.  It drives me crazy when people market these articles as how to get started in the events industry, how to get promoted and most of all for me, risk management.  It belittles our industry and the skills, knowledge and experience that takes years to develop.  The best event professionals never stop learning, even when they have reached the pinnacle of their career.  They constantly push themselves and do not believe they can learn something quickly.

    What specifically set me off was an article about the risks that all event professionals need to consider, the number was under 10.  Not only is this ludicrous, it is dangerous; we all know there are WAY more than 10 risks that need to be considered.  It is the idea of applying a very basic knowledge to risks.  I have spent 30 years of my life studying risk management, so to infer that you can be an expert by reading and following the advice of an article makes me furious.  To put my money where my mouth is, I want to dedicate this blog to giving some introductory information on risk management, starting with people.

    There’s No Such Thing as “Risk-Free”

    Before diving into people, we need to remember there is no such thing as a “risk-free” event.  We all know that perfect events don’t exist, but we tend to forget that risk free events are an impossibility as well.  During my speaking engagements I typically ask the question, “why is there no such thing as a risk-free event”.  It never takes long for someone to offer that there are people at the event and they are unpredictable.  When we talk further about that, what comes up is the “people” we are discussing are the attendees.  Attendees are the focus of events, so it makes perfect sense that they are the first thing we think of related to the cause of risks.  The reason that attendees are so unpredictable lies in the event itself.  There is no agreement on a single definition for events, instead there are a lot of definitions. The common thread is “events are a gathering of people for a purpose, outside their normal routine”.  This means that people suspend their reality when attending an event.  They also assume the space is safe, also reasonable.  Added to these assumptions is the structure/activity of the event, basically what they are expected to do during the event.  Group psychology tells us that a person is smart, but people are stupid (interestingly quoted in The Men in Black movie).  Then we add alcohol into the mix and we reach levels of stupid that are astounding.

    The Supplier Partners

    Moving away from attendees, it is important to remember the numerous other people that are involved in the planning and execution of an event.  We rely on so many people to help bring the client’s vision to life; even the best have off days, it’s called being human.  How we counter that is to make sure to build relationships and check credentials; it’s not a matter of trust, it’s a matter of liability.  We need to think about timing, specifically how long we have to put things together.  Typically, the installation is scheduled with time buffers so that adjustments can be made to still meet deadlines.  Where the danger can lie is the tear down; it happens quickly and after long hours.  This means people are tired and not necessarily thinking things through.  Short cuts are common, like standing on a chair to take something down.  We’ve all done it.

    The Client

    Let’s move on to the client.  If we’re really lucky they understand the events industry; doesn’t happen a lot.  If we’re lucky they trust us to guide them through the process.  It’s common to deal with people who don’t understand the events industry and the work that goes into creating a safe and secure environment that meets their vision.  During the planning process the client could want changes that either cannot be done in the allotted time, are outside the scope of the event parameters, and/or are dangerous.  They also may not understand some of the risk management elements that you include in the event, which is usually when we hear “but nothing bad has ever happened” (don’t you love that phrase).  I mentioned this in my post on August 12 “Learning to Say “No”:  You’re Allowed to Draw the Line”, it is our job to educate the client.  To make sure they understand what can, cannot and should not be done.  On-site is a whole other issue with the client.  During my career I had numerous times when the client wanted things on-site which were not a good idea.  The one that sticks out most is when the client wanted to buy several rounds of drinks for attendees.  It’s fun to have a logical discussion with someone who is intoxicated.

    The Uninvited

    A piece of the people puzzle that we frequently forget are those dumb-dumbs that are not part of the event and wander through it.  How many times have you had to stand guard over a food station because some stranger believes it is for them?  Or had people wander into a room during set-up or the event, when they don’t belong there?  We’re responsible to secure the area, which means keeping everyone as safe as possible, including people who shouldn’t be there.

    The Event Team

    Let’s not forget the event team; the people you rely on to execute the event.  The team can be made up of a combination of paid and unpaid people.  Some have event experience and training, and some do not.  Some have a grasp of the overall picture, and some do not.  Some we know and some we do not.  This means we are working with a lot of unknowns.  We have to think about their schedules (breaks), making sure they are being looked after (F&B), that they are capable of the responsibilities we have assigned them, and that they are getting value from the experience.

    You

    Last, but not least, there is you.  As event professionals we are great at thinking about other people, but we don’t always look after ourselves.  Things like resting and eating get put aside until we take care of “one more thing”.  We tend not to delegate and will jump into any situation that needs help.  We can become a risk if we are not careful to look after ourselves.

    So What Does This Mean?

    So what does all this mean?  It means we have to spend time really thinking about the people who are involved in the event.  We need to break down the characteristics and personalities of who is there.  Quite often we have demographic information (age, gender, education, job) on the attendees, which is a great starting point.  But we need to go further, and apply it to all the people we come into contact with.  We need to understand the “why” and the “what”; why are they coming to the event, what will they be doing, and what do they want from it.

    Okay, getting off my soapbox for now. Never fear, I will be back with more risk management information using my Robson Risk Management Model as a guide.

  • Learning to Say “No”: You’re Allowed to Draw the Line.

    Learning to Say “No”: You’re Allowed to Draw the Line.

    It’s been a while, but I’m back and I’m pulling out my soapbox again.  This time it’s about customer service, so buckle up.

    We’ve all heard the phrase “the customer is always right” and we know it’s a load of crap. Sometimes the customer is so wrong we can’t even understand them; but we have been trained to accommodate them.  We suck it up, smile and do what they asked because we believe this is the way to make them happy.  Not an unreasonable thought, we are in the service industry.  Let’s examine this idea a little more.

    To be clear, I think this is a ridiculous expectation of service professionals.  It makes us feel demoralized when we are doing our best.  So where did this come from?  Of course I put on my research hat, I love an excuse to research, and dove into the origins.

    The phrase is most often attributed to Harry Selfridge in 1905 and Cesar Ritz in 1908, department store and hotel magnates, respectively. Back then, businesses operated under “caveat emptor” (buyer beware). Businesses made what they wanted and marketed it however they liked, misleading claims included, leaving customers to fend for themselves. Selfridge and Ritz’s phrase was revolutionary because it broke from that; it gave customers some power with the intention of improving the relationship.

    Sounds great, right?  So how did we get to a point where customers are taking advantage of the idea?  We got here because we moved from being customer centric to customer obedient.  Customer centric is based in market research and considers the entire target market and industry.  Customer obedient is based in satisfying individuals, without considering the impact on employees, service level, or profits.

    There are a lot of articles written on the idea of “the customer is always right”; most of which agree that it has gone too far.  The main problems with the current execution of this phrase is the creation of entitled customers, the potential impact on profits and the effect on employees.  We have all heard customers use the phrase, or variations of it, to get what they want.  There is an expectation that if something is wrong with the service, they will get something to offset it, usually free.  A great example of this is in restaurants, it is common for food to be comped when a service failure has occurred and when it isn’t customers get mad, usually posting negative reviews on social media. 

    Giving customers comped items can affect profit margins.  I’m not saying businesses should never comp things; I’m saying that businesses need to create a policy that outlines situations when this should happen and what can be offered.  A lot of times a genuine apology is enough to satisfy customers.

    The effect on employees is the most problematic issue, it can be demoralizing.  I’ve been in situations where the customer is complaining about, or asking for, something that is not warranted and had to give it to them.  Once I had an attendee show up at a conference that had not pre-paid.  I quoted the on-site registration fee and he got furious saying that I had to give him the early bird rate.  I explained that rate had closed a month prior and that he needed to pay the on-site fee.  He accused me of cheating him and demanded to see my boss, which is absolutely his right.  My boss came out and the attendee explained that he didn’t want to pay the on-site registration, instead he wanted the early bird fee.  My boss agreed, the attendee gave me a smug look, and I executed the transaction.  I was so mad at my boss for undercutting me, so I reminded myself it wasn’t my event and that I had done my job with the attendee.  I now needed to do my job with my boss.  I explained to him giving the attendee the lower rate was going to impact our profits because the fee was $200 lower.  He told me that wasn’t that bad, so I continued to explain the loss of the fee was significant because now I had to make changes to the event that were not covered in the original contract and would cost us money.  I also told him that by not backing me up he had given the impression that I didn’t have authority to make decisions and could be challenged.  He did apologize and going forward we had a very strict policy on registration fees.  I was lucky that I had a strong relationship with my boss and could have this conversation.  There are businesses that do not want to have the conversation.  For example, one of my first jobs was at McDonalds where “the customer is always right” was sacrosanct.  I had so many customers return food that had a “problem” and we were to apologize and give them a replacement right away.  That also frustrated me because customers would return burgers that had 1-2 bites left and get a new one.  It frustrated me because it was clear they were taking advantage of the policy.  Sometimes they would be polite, but more often they were rude, which is always difficult to deal with.  When employees must do something they know isn’t right, it becomes demoralizing.  This can lead to burnout, turnover, lower service quality, and more service failures; all of which is not good for business as it leads to higher personnel costs.

    Here’s the thing, we haven’t actually retired “the customer is always right”. We’ve just rebranded it. In a lot of workplaces now it shows up wearing a different outfit: “yes, and” instead of “no”.

    You can watch both versions collide in real time if you rewatch the Fyre Festival documentaries (and I know most of you have, and got as mad as I did). The vendors weren’t just being customer-obedient to Billy McFarland’s every demand, they were also operating inside a “yes, and” culture that never left room for anyone to say “this cannot be done”. One of my favourite parts is when the “event professionals” (I use the quotation marks because they clearly were not professionals) complained about not getting paid. My opinion is that some of them shouldn’t have been paid, they should have said “no, this cannot be done” instead.

    “Yes, and” comes from improv theatre, and on its own it’s a genuinely great idea. I LOVE this concept and have used it a lot in my classes and with myself to really explore ideas. I also think it can be used very effectively in the events industry; it can lead to wonderful ideas and solutions as well as collaboration amongst teams. Where I think we drop the ball is believing we can never say “no”. Sometimes an idea is a bad one, and shouldn’t be done. I see this most with risk management, there are times when the answer is “no”. We should offer the reason behind the decision and listen to ideas, but we should also be prepared to stand our ground. If you’re in a situation where someone is in danger, or where the ask is against compliance or law, you should say “no”.

    High-quality service and genuinely happy customers happen when boundaries are set, not when every demand is met. My boss and I could have avoided that whole registration mess with one clear “no” and a policy to back it up. The Fyre Festival vendors could have avoided a documentary’s worth of humiliation with the same word. Employees and customers both do better when they know what to expect.

    So learn to say “no”. Your team, your service quality, and honestly your own sanity will thank you. Okay, I’m getting off my soapbox. Thank you for listening.

  • Beyond the Pandemic: 4 Permanent Shifts Reshaping the Events Industry

    Beyond the Pandemic: 4 Permanent Shifts Reshaping the Events Industry

    I’m not sure how others feel, but I am tired of hearing about Covid.  It’s likely because my students bring it up constantly when doing assignments.  They point to it as the reason for whatever they have identified as “wrong” or a “challenge” to events and hospitality.  Covid devastated our industry, no question. But dwelling on what we lost isn’t helping anyone.  In this posting, I want to offer what it transformed—and how we adapt moving forward.

    The first change that I noticed is who works in events. So many people had to leave the industry, according to a report from the Events Industry Council, over 1.6 million jobs were lost between 2020-2023.  When restrictions were lifted and I started going to association meetings again, this loss was very evident in that I didn’t know a lot of people who were there.  My Facebook and LinkedIn feeds were full of people announcing their new jobs outside events.  This exodus created a labour shortage that’s being filled by a new generation. Individuals entering the industry are younger (typically early 20s), nearly all college-educated, but with limited industry experience—internships and jobs weren’t available.  Several event professionals I have spoken to have talked about changing their expectations for new hires.  They realize they will have to spend more time and money on training these new hires. The good news is that the majority of new hires are college graduates, bringing educational experience in risk management, financial analysis, and data collection—skills that were often learned by trial and error in previous generations. They’re also digital natives, positioned to aid the technological transformation the industry has undergone. I’ll talk more about this later.

    This leads to the second change, event industry education.  Historically event professionals have “fallen” into the industry; they didn’t go to school for events or hospitality.  Instead, they got their education from associations. During Covid, a lot of associations offered online courses, typically free to their members and for a fee to non-members.  These consisted of stand-alone courses (project management, anti-trafficking and communication) and certificate courses (AI, emergency preparedness, and data analysis).  This has created two distinct education pathways: professionals with hands-on experience and association credentials, and college graduates with formal academic training. Does this create challenges in evaluating qualifications? Absolutely. The great news is that professional development has become an expectation, with associations offering online education, colleges with event management programs, and companies budgeting for training.  While we may not have standardization yet, we have agreed that we need to move away from ‘figure it out as you go’.  This is a huge step toward being seen as a profession.

    The third change in the industry is the increased use of technology.  For years, the events industry was very slow in adopting technology—most professionals relied on Word, Excel, and maybe Cvent for registration. While floor planning software (AllSeated, Social Tables) and additional registration platforms (Eventbrite, Bizzabo) existed, adoption was spotty at best.  Covid shut down the world and resulted in a forced adoption of technology platforms like Zoom and Google Meet. Technology companies flourished, expanding services to include virtual platforms with avatars, venue sourcing, registration management, and collaborative planning tools.  When restrictions lifted, the technology didn’t disappear. Event professionals recognized its value beyond crisis mode. Virtual and hybrid events became a tool for professionals to offer clients, noting its expanded reach while reducing costs and environmental impact. Cloud-based collaboration made planning more efficient and dynamic. 3D floor planning tools (Prismm, Social Tables) now let professionals share designs with clients through integrated vendor offerings connecting venues, rental companies, and caterers.  So, what does that mean for the future?  In short, events are able to be more global by removing travel barriers, clients can be shown designs, and team collaboration is significantly more effective.  Virtual technology offers sustainable, cost-effective options for a variety of events.  Additionally, this technology is aiding marketing capabilities and data analytics, which allow more personalized experiences for attendees; more on this in the next section. The use of technology is connected to the increase in data analytics, the fourth change.  Prior to use of this new technology, we relied primarily on experience, conversations with other professionals, observation and survey that provided limited results.  Programs like Cvent give us the ability to collect so much data.  We can get information on which session had the highest attendance, and satisfaction ratings.  This data gives information about which formats and topics are attendee favourites. This helps with our overall education, increasing our ability to provide high quality events, and allows for changes to be made in real-time, both financially and logistically.  Specifically, we are using this data to develop budgets that are making the best use of funds, including when to pursue sponsorship opportunities.  As mentioned previously event design is getting a boost by allowing us to work side-by-side with clients to create layouts.  Additionally, we are using this technology to enhance the flow of people, which not only increases the comfort of attendees, it also improves safety if people need to be moved in case of an emergency.  The use of technology to encourage attendee engagement is significant.  This is done through real-time surveys, that can be done on smart phones throughout the event instead of at the conclusion.  This makes it easy for us to make changes to improve attendees’ experiences.  Gamification is another powerful use of technology, both for us and attendees.  It allows attendees to engage with us and other attendees before, during and after events.  Not only does this increase engagement, it also adds a social element that can appeal to people who are more introverted.  What this means is greater personalization not only for attendees but for us as well.  We can create marketing that directly speaks to attendees, including sessions and potential connections that will increase their ROI.  For us it means that we have the ability to find technology that is tailored to our needs, versus having one program to choose.  We can learn about attendees in order to make more informed recommendations to our clients on session topics, networking options and overall layout.  This is just the beginning, as AI and predictive analytics advance, we will be able to anticipate trends, optimize pricing, and design experiences that adapt in real-time to attendee behavior. This is another area where upcoming event professionals can shine, they bring analytical skills and data literacy that previous generations often developed late in their careers, if at all. Data fluency is now as essential as project management skills.

  • When Not Everyone Speaks “Event”: Lessons in Patience and Perspective

    When Not Everyone Speaks “Event”: Lessons in Patience and Perspective

    It’s been a while since I’ve posted. The beginning of the semester is always busy, but this year has been more so than others. I’ve taken on a new position, Faculty Lead, and one of my responsibilities is a new course titled “First Year Experience”. This course is for all the first-time Freshmen in the School of Business, there are 202 of them. It is the brainchild of my esteemed colleague Kristine Kelley, and is aimed at helping Freshmen acclimatize to the College environment. The course runs one hour a week for 15 weeks and covers topics like professionalism, time management, self-awareness and mindfulness.

    Why am I telling you about this course? The course is set up like 14 weekly events, which is my wheelhouse. It has been quite a learning experience for me in that it’s been quite some time since I worked with non-event professionals or students. I waiver between wanting to handhold my colleagues through the process, like I would with students, or expecting them to know what needs to be done. Neither of these approaches is productive, leading to frustration on my part and likely on my colleagues as well.

    As any event professional worth their salt, I am constantly evaluating the course and my approach.  So, what have I learned so far?  First creating an event for 200+ people that focuses on creating a community as well as helping them navigate their first year is difficult.  Endicott College prides itself on having small classes, which I love, but it means we are severely limited on the spaces we can use for this number of students.  The spaces we can use are either set up in theater-style, making interaction difficult, or very open, making it loud and difficult to hear.  Second, how do we keep 200+ 18-year-olds engaged for 50 minutes with a limited staff (16 people)?  The key component of this class is not to lecture at the students, instead we want to have an interactive experience.  Third, how do we provide content that is meaningful in an interactive way and assess them?  We need to be able to assess how effective the content is without giving them another paper to write.  Specifically, we want to give them something that encourages reflection and awareness.  At the moment I don’t have an answer to these questions, I would love to hear opinions.

    Personally, I have learned that I need to be clearer in my communication and expectations.  I also need to learn not to get frustrated when people question my decisions.  I have spent the better part of my life justifying my career choice as being substantive, which explains part of my frustration when working with non-event people.  In my class I harp on being open-minded and not taking offence to a client who micro-manages; it’s clear I need to heed my own advice.

    As the title states, I need to remind myself we are all on the same team even though we have different perspectives.  The hard part for me, I can hear my family laughing already, is patience.  It was pointed out to me long ago that I have no patience, instead I have discipline.  It’s time to start using it.

  • Boston and the World Cup: A Win or a Worry?

    Boston and the World Cup: A Win or a Worry?

    The FIFA World Cup is coming to Boston in summer of 2026.  Most of the information surrounding it focuses on its benefits.  I’ll admit I didn’t really know much about the FIFA World Cup previously, so of course I was excited to have a chance to do some research.

    I started by looking at the appeal of hosting the FIFA World Cup.  The organizing body promotes the World Cup as having dramatic economic and social impacts.  This is due to the international attraction of the sport; it’s a chance for a country to show off to the rest of the world.  They state on the Inside FIFA website that 3 million people attend the World Cup, which means opportunities to improve the country’s image as well as developing infrastructure, adding revenue and creating jobs.  Interestingly they do acknowledge there are negative impacts to hosting.  Specifically, increased use of the existing infrastructure, depletion of natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions.  They acknowledge these issues can negatively affect the people living in the host city.  With the exception of acknowledging the negatives, this information is very similar to what the organizing board of the Olympics uses, which made me suspicious about the actual impacts.

    I looked into the economics of FIFA; guess what, there is no consensus related to the revenue or the costs.  Some sources predict 6.5 million in attendance, which is significantly higher than the 3 million that FIFA predicts.  The cost of hosting previous World Cups ranges from $4-$11 billion.  This is dependent on what the country has to construct or renovate to meet FIFA standards.  For the 2026 World Cup, FIFA is predicting revenues of more than $10 billion.  When you also consider the number of visitors that will spend money hotels, transportation, food, and souvenirs, it makes the World Cup very attractive.

    This seemed too good to be true, I know I have trust issues.  It took some digging, but I found information that suggests the individual host cities for the 2026 World Cup will receive a net impact of between $90-$480 million.  The $480 million is based on 450,000 visitors attending.  The cost of hosting the World Cup in Boston is estimated between $75-$100 million.  This still looks positive, until I found an article about British Columbia, one of the Canadian cities involved, and they are predicting costs of $532-$624 million.  It makes me wonder if this could/is happening in other host cities and not being reported.  There were also a few articles about a request for $625 million from the federal government to cover security costs, which will be paid for by each host city.  Finally, any revenue from the World Cup will be split between the host cities as well as a large percentage that goes to FIFA.

    Okay, I’ve been throwing a lot of numbers at you.  It probably has your head spinning a little.  Let me look at the World Cup from another perspective, the allure of increased visitors.  While Mega Events definitely attract large numbers of people, there is some disagreement as to the benefit of this increase.  Some experts argue the impact of these visitors can be devastating to the daily lives of residents.  I live in Salem, which attracts roughly 1 million visitors throughout the month of October.  Like most Salem residents, I avoid the downtown area until the month is over.  Now consider three times that number of people in a 2-week period.  Everything will be overflowing, especially transportation.  We all know how bad traffic is in Boston; now picture what it’s going to be like with people travelling to Foxborough every day. 

    There are some researchers that suggest that a Mega Event can discourage people from traveling; they don’t want to deal with the large crowds so they pick somewhere else to go.  There is evidence that the number of visitors actually decreases when a Mega Event is held.

    Finally, I want to talk briefly about the job creation that is used as an incentive.  There will definitely be a need for more employees; however, this will be limited to the time of the event.  Likely people will be hired 1-2 months before the World Cup to accommodate training, work through the event, but with the drop off at the conclusion these people will be let go.

    While the World Cup is an exciting event, and offers global attention for Boston, I wonder if it’s really a win.

  • Dear Media:  Event Professionals Deserve Better

    Dear Media:  Event Professionals Deserve Better

    Now that I’ve gotten off my soapbox about Astroworld and risk management, I thought I would offer a rant on how others perceive the events industry.  This has been a constant source of aggravation in my adult life, and I know I’m not the only one.  Early in my career when I told people I was an event planner, I would get one of two responses: “what is that”; or, “that must be fun”.  I thought when I got my PhD it would change, and it did a little.  Now I get “you can get a degree in that”. 

    I’ve thought a lot about why people either don’t know about the industry or don’t understand it.  There are several reasons, but I think they can be boiled down to two primary reasons.  The first is that people who are familiar with events being a career it’s because they have known someone who has been involved in planning events.  This is usually through their job, where someone is responsible for planning events.  So, they know it is a job, but have no understanding of what goes into it.  I believe that is due to the fact that when they arrive at an event, they see the end result only.  They don’t see the months/years of work that goes into it.  Event professionals are experts at making things look flawless, even when things go wrong.

    The second reason is the way the events industry are portrayed in the media. The Netflix documentary Trainwreck. The Astroworld Tragedy, is the latest in a long history of the events industry being portrayed negatively.   When I say “media” I don’t just mean documentaries, but also news outlets and popular media (sitcoms).  Most news outlets today focus on sensational stories, the phrase “if it bleeds, it leads” is well earned.  This means that news stories focus on things like Astroworld, Woodstock 99, the Las Vegas shootings, and many more.  It is common when something bad at an event for media within the industry to reach out for my comments.  It is extremely uncommon for other news outlets to do the same.  The interview that I did with NewsNation Prime was the first time this happened.  When I watch coverage of these types of stories, I never see an event professional as someone that was included.  This leads to incorrect conclusions.  For example, there was a shooting at a Garlic Festival in California shortly after the Route 91 shooting in Las Vegas.  A man cut through a chain link fence to enter at the back of the festival and opened fire.  On-duty police, who were at the event, responded within a minute and ended the violence within 2 minutes.  This was horrific, but is it reasonable to plan for someone to cut through a fence?  I can confidently say it is not reasonable; which was my response to the question “what did organizers do wrong?”.  If someone is determined to do evil, they will find a way.  It is clear to me organizers had a strong plan in place based on the response time; this is a good thing.  This is not an isolated incident, when you look at any reporting of tragedies at events, there are a lot of judgments based on having the whole story.

    If the media isn’t portraying the events industry negatively, they are making fun of it.  Think about shows like Friends, or The Big Bang Theory, there are numerous references to being a “party planner”.  It is always in a dismissive way, suggesting that it is a joke, not a real job.  The movie The Wedding Planner put events on the map; I had so many students state that movie as the reason they wanted to be in events.  You have heard the sayings “any publicity is good publicity”, and “there’s no such thing as bad press”.  I wholeheartedly disagree with these statements because if the portrayal is wrong, which is the case, it’s even harder to correct people.

    I understand many people, including myself, “fell” into the industry.  That doesn’t mean we haven’t spent our careers learning our craft.  Anyone who is an event professional has spent hours in education through associations or courses, conversations with each other, and learning from their mistakes through deep evaluation.  Even when an event is successful these professionals will strive to find ways to be better.  I wish the media would focus on this side of the industry.

  • Astroworld Soapbox 2:  If I Had Planned It.

    Astroworld Soapbox 2:  If I Had Planned It.

    I’m back on my soapbox for Astroworld Part 2.

    The last post focused on what went horrifically wrong with Astroworld.  This post is going to focus on putting my money where my mouth is; I’m going to outline what I would have done in a few areas: contracts; layout; and, risk management plan.  There are a lot of other pieces that go into organizing any event, but I chose these areas as I believe they are the core of the problems that occurred.  Of course, there is a bias in what follows as I have the benefit of knowing what happened and having examined what was done.  The counter argument to that is that I am a responsible event professional who has done the work to learn how to keep events as safe as possible.

    Let’s start with Contracts.  When most people hear the word “contract” it makes them cringe.  I happen to love them, partially due to one of my mentors, Dr. Tyra Warner, who let me help her with research on contracts. 

    The first thing to do when signing contracts is to make sure the parties with whom I sign contracts were capable of assuming the responsibilities and liabilities.  This means researching the companies and asking for credentials, training processes, licenses, certifications, permits, and so on.  Specifically with a security company I want to see their license, how long they have been in business, the types of events they have done in the past, their training practices, and their hiring practices.

    The second thing about contracts is reading them carefully.  When a contract is signed it becomes binding, each party is expected to do what is outlined in the contract.  Saying that you didn’t see that in the contract is not an out.

    The third, and final part about contracts is negotiation.  Typically, a contract is provided by the supplier (security firm, venue, F&B vendors) and favours them, which is understandable.  Everything in a contract is negotiable and you should be making sure that contracts protect both parties and is equally fair.

    Next up, Layout.  The event needed a scale model, which includes all aspects of the events from the staging area (where attendees gather before coming in), to the vendors, the stage, the quadrants, medical tent and vehicles.  The layout should be in several formats, a master copy and close-ups of different areas, and is created in collaboration with everyone that will be on-site. 

    For Astroworld, the command center for Houston PD was set up in a parking lot a mile away from the stages, I would have insisted it be inside the gates.  That reduces the response time as well as removes the visibility of police which can be a deterrent for problems.

    The entrances were a nightmare.  They were clearly too small to accommodate the expected 50,000 people.  They also needed to consider the Covid protocols that were to be used.  The size of the entrances created a bottleneck, which lead to people pushing forward and breaking down the gates. 

    Along with making the entrances larger I would also have used a queuing system that lined people up with a switchback like you see in the airports.  Having a single, long line tends to make people anxious and more prone to pushing; using stanchions and switchbacks give the illusion of movement. 

    The stage, wow it was a bad idea to have 2 stages but only use 1 for the majority of the festival.  I would have advised using a single stage; it would have avoided people moving in the dark through the trees and coming into the quadrants from one side.  If 2 stages were required, I would have used corrals to direct people to the middle aisle so the areas would fill more equally; more on this in the section on the risk management plan. 

    The layout of 100-foot quadrants with partial corrals, was not thought out.  The metal corrals block access from all directions.  In the documentary you could clearly see that people were crushed against the corrals. 

    Another thing that surprised me was no designated mosh pit.  Travis Scott concerts are known to result in mosh pits, not having a designated area(s) meant they happened in the quadrants.  There was already not enough room, now we are adding people bouncing off each other to the mix.

    Finally, lighting, there needed to be a lot more.  There should have been lighting so that people could see where they were going and how crowded it was getting.  The lighting would have been dimmed during the performance so as to not interfere with the pyrotechnics, but could be turned up when problems started happening or to let people know the event was over and it was time to leave.

    Finally, Risk Management Plan. Astroworld had an emergency plan, but not a risk management plan.  An emergency plan is reactive to specific problems.  A well-done risk management plan is proactive, identifying potential risks before the event; allowing for modifications to be made that will reduce the potential for the risks to manifest. 

    To outline a full risk management plan for Astroworld is beyond what I can do here, so I will focus on the crowd movement, which was absent from the Astroworld emergency plan.  First step is to identify how you want the crowd to move through the space.  This is an ideal, but you need to keep in mind that people rarely do what you want.  That means considering all the ways they could move through the space.  A good friend of mine, Ed Slapik, calls this thinking about the lowest common denominator of stupid.  I refer to it as remembering groups of people are stupid and will follow without much thought.  In order to move people from the second stage to the main stage, in the dark, through trees, screams risk to me.  Add to that the 100-foot quadrants, with corrals, and general admission (no assigned seating).  If you talk to any responsible event professional the phrase “general admission” will make them faint of heart, it is known to cause pushing, which leads to crushing.  General admission makes people crazy, they rush to get the best spot because they can.

    If the quadrants and corrals were something that security and medical staff insisted on using, I would have enclosed the quadrant on all sides, widened the aisles, directed the people down the middle aisle and had staff at each entrance counting the number of people entering.  The corral would be closed when the capacity was reached.  There would be staff and signage directing people to different areas. 

    The access aisles needed to be much larger, allowing for vehicles to enter the area if needed.  When problems started occurring people were pulled into the access aisles, but not moved out of them.  Some people needed to be treated immediately, but after treatment there was no way to move them to the medical tents.  I recognize that even with wider access aisles vehicles may not have been able to safely enter the area, but at least there would be space to move people out of danger more easily.

    Individuals with medical training were woefully lacking at Astroworld.  A general rule is 32 individuals with medical training per 10,000 people, meaning there should have been approximately 1500 medical staff on-site.  This rule comes from the Medical Utilization Rate (MUR) or Patient Presentation Rate (PPR), and needs to also consider the specifics of the event to determine the appropriate number.  I found one article that mentioned the medical company hired by Astroworld had 70 people on-site.

    It is clear there was no communication plan for the event, even though communication is a crucial part the overall event, but especially for a risk management plan.  There needed to be identified staff with radios and headsets on a dedicated channel giving updates on a regular basis to the organizer, medical staff and Houston PD.  This staff’s only responsibility is to monitor the crowd looking for indications of problems so they could be dealt with quickly.

    I’m going to end with this thought:  there is no such thing as a risk-free event.  No matter how good someone is, things will go wrong even with a well thought out risk management plan.  While I cannot say definitively say that deaths and injuries were preventable at Astroworld;  I can say that implementing basic risk management protocols would have helped and it’s shameful that it didn’t happen.

    I’m going to get off my soapbox, for now.  You can bet I will bring it out again.

  • Soapbox Alert: What Astroworld Should Teach Every Event Professional

    Soapbox Alert: What Astroworld Should Teach Every Event Professional

    Fair warning—I’m getting out my soapbox.

    Some of you may have already watched the Netflix documentary Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy. If you haven’t, I highly recommend it—but be prepared to be angry. You should be angry, whether or not you work in events. There’s so much to unpack, I’m breaking this into two blog posts. This first one is focused on information you may not know—bear with me, it’s a lot, but it matters.

    The Start of the Spiral

    When the tragedy at Astroworld happened, I was interviewed by News Nation Prime. It was my first time being interviewed on national news and I was nervous. So I leaned into my superpower: research.

    It took less than a minute to find red flags.

    Let’s start at the beginning: there were no proper entrance procedures, and the entry points were far too narrow. In the documentary, you see people literally pushing down fences. Once that happened, any ability to control crowd numbers was gone. I was honestly shocked no one was seriously injured right then and there—although reports say a security guard and four attendees were treated for injuries.

    Want to know how they staffed security? At 6 a.m., someone posted on social media asking for more help; around 100 people volunteered. They were given a t-shirt, but no training. By 8 a.m., Houston PD had already requested riot gear.

    Meanwhile, the official Astroworld website promised COVID protocols, wristband checks, and full bag and body searches. None of that happened because of the surge through the gates. By 2 p.m., entrance protocols were completely abandoned. The headliner, Travis Scott, wasn’t even scheduled to go on until 8:45 p.m., but the problems had started 12 hours earlier.

    What You Didn’t See in the Documentary

    There’s confusion about the actual capacity of the venue. Some say 20,000; others say 200,000. Here’s what I found: the 20,000 is for the stadium (which wasn’t used for the festival). The outdoor venue was theoretically capable of holding 200,000 people—if there was nothing else in the space.

    But there was a lot else: food vendors, rides, medical tents, two stages. Each one takes up space—and not just their footprint. You also need safety clearance zones around them. For example, a ride’s footprint includes not just its base but the full area it occupies while operating. All of that eats into your usable capacity.

    At the time, Houston didn’t require an occupancy permit. Live Nation, the promoter, sold 50,000 tickets. But with so many people jumping fences, we honestly don’t know how many were actually there.

    Design Flaws and Dangerous Layouts

    Let’s talk layout. If you look at images of the festival, here’s what stands out:

    • Minimal signage
    • Poor lighting
    • Only two water stations
    • Limited exits
    • 100-foot-wide quadrants
    • Narrow access aisles

    And the main stage? Not used all day. So when it was time for Travis Scott’s performance, everyone moved toward one focal point, funneling into those 100-foot quadrants—with no crowd monitoring and no signage to direct people across the space. Security started pulling people over fencing into narrow aisles—essentially making things worse.

    By 4 p.m., 54 people had already been treated for injuries. Houston PD had flagged dangerous conditions. The Chief of Police met with Travis Scott to voice concerns. That’s four hours before the show even started.

    Security—In Name Only

    There are lots of conflicting reports about security numbers. Some say there were over 1,000 personnel, including Houston PD and two private firms. Technically, that aligns with the industry rule of thumb: one security staff member per 50–100 attendees.

    But numbers aren’t everything.

    You must match staff to your event. Peer security (a.k.a. untrained volunteers) requires more oversight. And guess what? Neither of the security companies hired were licensed in Texas. Some workers said they didn’t even know who to report to.

    Who Was in Charge?

    A lot of attention has been put on Travis Scott. And yes, his past behavior is a problem—he’s been charged twice with inciting crowds, and there was a crowd surge at his own Astroworld event in 2019.

    That said, he hired Live Nation—the “world’s leading live entertainment company”—to run the show. He states in the documentary that he wasn’t qualified to plan the festival, so he hired a company that did have the expertise.

    Let’s take a look at LiveNation:

    • 200 deaths and 750 injuries reported at their events since 2006
    • 10 OSHA violations between 2016–2019
    • No certification requirements for project managers—just 3 or more years of experience

    Yes, there was an emergency plan. It included scenarios like severe weather, active shooters, missing children, and unruly fans. But guess what it didn’t include? Crowd surges. One of the most common risks at concerts.

    Even worse: the only people authorized to stop the show were the “concert’s executive producer and festival director.” Their names were not listed in the plan. That’s a massive oversight.

    Back to the Layout

    The layout was approved by the City of Houston and the Fire Marshal. Permits were issued for tents, pyrotechnics, food vendors, and street closures. But again—no capacity permit was required, just a safety plan filed with property owners.

    So what happened during the show?

    It started around 9 p.m.—a little late, but not unusually so. Within 15 minutes, Travis Scott stopped the show briefly for a distressed fan (we see this in the documentary). Reports say he paused two more times. But by 9:40 p.m., a mass casualty event had been declared by the police. Still, they didn’t stop the show—for fear of triggering a riot.  My question is, aren’t they trained for that?

    The concert finally ended at 10:15 p.m.—more than 30 minutes after that declaration.

    Final Thoughts (for Now)

    There’s still so much we don’t know. And if you have insights—please share. If you spot something I missed or got wrong—tell me. I’m here to learn, too. Most of all, I want to hear what you think. The good, the bad, the ugly. Let’s talk.

    Your turn. GO.

  • Passion and Profession: My Life in Event Management

    Passion and Profession: My Life in Event Management

    I’ve always been an event professional—long before I even knew it was a profession. I was the one who organized everything: school dances, parties, sports tournaments—if something needed organizing, I stepped in. I loved the challenge and thrived on the recognition that came with a job well done. Growing up in a traditional, old-fashioned family, my ambitions were often dismissed and ridiculed. I was constantly told I should want something “normal,” and any deviation from that was met with criticism. I’m sharing this because it helps explain why I’ve spent the last 30 years studying, working in, and advocating for the events industry.

    My professional journey began in 1994 at the University of Guelph, where I worked part-time as a secretary for an environmental computer science professor. One day, after returning from a conference, he told me he’d agreed—along with two European colleagues—to host an international conference. They needed someone to manage it. I had no experience, but the promise of a trip to Whistler, British Columbia, for me and my family was enough to get me to say “yes.”

    Over the next eight months, I undertook all the aspects of planning a conference—from negotiating hotel contracts and managing registrations to creating schedules and coordinating transportation. All this with just a desktop computer, dial-up internet, and a fax machine. I felt grossly unqualified and made plenty of mistakes, like booking hotel rooms for attendees who left early meaning the organization had to pay. But I discovered something even more valuable: I loved the work.

    From 1994 to 2010, I worked as an international conference manager, traveling to Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Italy, the U.S., and Switzerland, among others. I “fell” into a career I hadn’t known existed, and being a natural researcher, I began digging into the field. I found associations, and educational opportunities that deepened my understanding and expanded my network. Although I lived in a small town and couldn’t attend regular association meetings, I went to annual conferences where I finally found a community that understood me. These professionals didn’t just speak my language—they lived it and accepted me.

    Those experiences inspired me to formalize my training. I earned a Special Event Coordinator certification from the Ontario government, completed an Event Management certificate through George Washington University, and eventually enrolled in their Master of Tourism Administration (MTA) program. Going back to school as a single parent with a full-time, travel-heavy job was no small feat. But I loved what I was learning and earned my degree in 2007.

    After graduating, I worked as a teaching assistant in the MTA program and attended an alumni event where a professor encouraged me to pursue a PhD. A week later, I had submitted my application to the University of Waterloo’s Recreation and Leisure Studies program—at his insistence. I was at a crossroads: continue as an event professional and possibly start my own company; or pivot toward education. As much as I respect entrepreneurs, I never had the desire to be one. Teaching allowed me to combine my love of events with my passion for research and mentoring. I completed my PhD in 2.5 years—1.5 years faster than average in Canada.

    When I joined the faculty at Endicott College, I found the perfect fit. I could teach, research, and still plan events. I developed a risk management process for events, traveled to speak about it, and eventually published a book. I also deepened my involvement with industry associations and grew my global network.

    Today, I continue to study the events industry not just because it’s my profession, but because it’s my passion. It has shaped my life, challenged me, inspired me—and given me a place where I finally feel I belong.

    I know there are many more people out there with a similar experience and would love to hear your story. Maybe we can encourage others to become more active.