Scott Carroll Appointed to Board of Directors of Event Safety Alliance (ESA)

By the unanimous consent of its Board of Directors, the Event Safety Alliance (www.eventsafetyalliance.org) today announced the appointment of Take1 Insurance Executive Vice President & Program Director Scott Carroll to its Board of Directors, where he will also serve as Secretary.

“Scott and Take1 Insurance have been tireless advocates for the ESA’s mission since day one, and have played a crucial role in helping the ESA become the industry’s preeminent voice for safety that it is today,” said ESA President Jim Digby.

According to Digby, Carroll has invested considerable time and resources into positioning the Event Safety Alliance in many industry publications and singlehandedly conceptualized and promoted a three-part webinar that introduced the ESA’s message of “life safety first” to a large and diverse audience. “In addition, Scott has personally attended and supported nearly every public event produced by the ESA and has consistently promoted the relevancy of our mission wherever he goes. He has demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to the cause, and we’re honored to have him on the Board of Directors.” 

In accepting his appointment, Carroll noted that, “The cause of the Event Safety Alliance is the cause of Take1 Insurance.  We share the same commitment to making live events as safe as humanly possible.  I am proud of the work we have achieved together and I look forward to making significant contributions to the alliance’s future success.”

Entertainment Experts to Talk Safety and Insurance at Upcoming Event Safety Summit

Hundreds of live event professionals have registered to attend the first-ever summit focused solely on producing safer live eventsthat will take place from December 2-4, 2014 in Lititz, Pennsylvania.  

John Barylick, acclaimed attorney and author of Killer Show, to make keynote presentation. 

If the world has learned anything from the tragedies of the Boston Marathon, the Station Club Fire, the Indiana State Fair stage collapse, the Republica Cromanon nightclub fire in Argentina, and countless other incidents like them, it is that there can be no excuse for not having a well thought out event safety plan in place for every single live event produced anywhere around the world. 

And that plan, according to Take1 Entertainment Insurance Executive Vice President & Program Director Scott Carroll, must include a thorough review by the event producer’s insurance provider.  “The events of the past three years have had an enormous impact on the way insurance companies approach covering live events,” Carroll said today.  “We live in a totally different world than the one we lived in a few short years ago.  The level of scrutiny has increased significantly.  The requirements of coverage have become more demanding, and insurers are requiring more information around issues related to event safety.”

Scott Carroll, together with Susan McGuirl, Senior Underwriting Director at Fireman’s Fund, will lead a special panel entitled “Ensuring the Insurance Partnership” on Thursday December 4th at the Tait Towers campus in Lititz, Pennsylvania.  The panel will focus heavily on explaining how the strategies of underwriting have evolved; understanding the importance of collaboration and partnership between the producer and the insurance provider when evaluating live event risks from the insurance carrier perspective; knowing the various resources that are now available to help producers of live events assess risk, evaluate the aspects of each event that are most likely to cause loss, and resolve pre-loss and post-loss issues; and discussing, in general, how to be better prepared to predict, plan for, and mitigate the next tragedy — hopefully keeping it from ever happening.

Amplifying the importance of learning from past tragedies, Event Safety Alliance Executive Director Jim Digby today announced that acclaimed author and attorney John Barylick will deliver the keynote presentation at the summit. Barylick is the author of Killer Show, a gripping and meticulously-researched account of the conditions and decisions that led to the 2003 Station Nightclub Fire in Rhode Island. Using video from the incident itself, computer reconstructions and burn tests, Barylick will explain the many missteps that resulted in the fourth-deadliest club fire in U.S. history, which claimed 100 lives and injured hundreds more. By examining this tragedy in detail, the ESA hopes to underscore the deadly seriousness of our task as event professionals, and help ensure that nothing like it ever happens again. 

The first-of-its-kind three-day Event Safety Summit symposium and hands-on workshop is designed to increase awareness of the many event safety risks present at live events, and teach event producers to address those risks more effectively.  A complete Event Safety Summit 2014 schedule can be found at Event Safety Alliance web site: www.eventsafetyalliance.org.

Third Take1 Webinar to Focus on the Best Utilization of the Event Safety Guide

The ABCs of the Event Safety Guide: A 60-Minute Primer on Putting the Event Safety Guide to Work for You will again feature the Event Safety Alliance and be held on Wednesday, July 9, 2014 at 2 p.m. EST and feature Joseph Pred, founder and CEO of Mutual Aid Response Services (MARS), based in San Francisco, California. 

After focusing on general and weather-related event safety issues in its first two precedent-setting webinars, Take1 Insurance and the Event Safety Alliance (ESA) will take a more focused, practical look at how to best utilize the ESA Event Safety Guide (available now at the web site eventsafetyalliance.org). "The ABCs of the Event Safety Guide: A 60-Minute Primer on Putting the Event Safety Guide to Work for You" will take place on Wednesday, July 9, 2014 at 2:00PM and once again be hosted by New Bay Media’s Rental & Staging News and moderated by Editorial Director David Keene. 

“More than 1,200 industry professionals registered to participate in our first two event safety webinars,” according to Scott Carroll, Executive Vice President & Program Director of Take1 Insurance, “and we couldn’t be more proud of the response received to date and the requests for follow up information that each webinar has generated.  The live event industry is taking safety to heart and, as the entertainment industry’s leading insurance provider, we understand just how important this is to producing safer live events.”

In addition to Event Safety Alliance Executive Director Jim Digby, the July 2014 webinar will feature Joseph Pred, founder and CEO of Mutual Aid Response Services (MARS), based in San Francisco, California.  MARS provides the special event industry, as well as the non-profit, industrial and corporate sectors with comprehensive consulting, risk management, and operations with a focus on emergency medical, communications and fire services to supplement on-site resources and provide contracted first response to any emergency. Pred has been an active member of the Event Safety Alliance since 2012 and has more than 20 years of experience working in the event management and safety industry. 

Pred’s presentation will include an overview of the Event Safety Guide, how it ties in to existing standards such as the public safety incident command system, and how to use the guide in areas both familiar and unfamiliar to specific areas of expertise. He will walk participants through a demonstration of a typical event and explain how to apply the guide to various aspects of planning and operational phases. A variety of special considerations, such as electronic music events, unfenced or un-ticketed events will also be reviewed. The webinar will conclude with a Q&A period for those who have specific questions about their event and integrating the use of the Event Safety Guide.

“The partnership between Take1 Insurance and the Event Safety Alliance becomes more important every day,” ESA Executive Director Jim Digby said today.  “Take1’s continued sponsorship of these vitally important webinars demonstrates a commitment to event safety that is second to none in the industry today.  They are to be commended for all they do to promote the production of safer live events.”

Amateur Meteorology Must Become A Thing Of The Past, Safety Experts Warn Live Event Producers

A dramatic shift in weather that’s producing an unprecedented surge in pop-up thunderstorms, superstorms, and tornados is challenging live event producers to completely re-think their approach to real-time weather forecasting. Fortunately, for the live event industry, this challenge comes at a time when a new generation of advanced weather detection and monitoring systems are available to help make all live events safer live events.
 
“Plan ahead when the sun is shining and not when the storm clouds roll in — that was the simple but powerful message delivered to the more than 200 professionals who turned out on March 19th for the second Take 1 Insurance sponsored Event Safety Webinar,” Take 1 Insurance Executive Vice President & Program Director Scott Carroll said today. Take 1 Insurance is the entertainment industry’s leading insurance solutions provider and a founding corporate sponsor of the Event Safety Alliance (ESA).
 
Hosted by New Bay Media’s Rental & Staging News, the Event Safety Webinar included presentations by Carroll, Event Safety Alliance (ESA) Executive Director Jim Digby, and Weather Decision Technologies (WDT) Senior Vice President David VandenHeuvel. A complete transcript of the webinar is now available for all to access at this link.
 
The webinar focused on issues such as weather planning and "predictive weather forecasting" vs. "nowcasting," or rather, the dilemma a producer faces when deciding whether to pull the plug due to dangerous conditions. With weather detection technology, pre-emptive insight for event producers and venues alike is now accessible, and in many cases, necessary.
 
“Incorporating the latest advances in weather forecasting and monitoring into a comprehensive safety plan is probably the single most important thing a producer can do to ensure a safer outdoor live event,” explained Carroll. “Weather affects every aspect of an outdoor live event and it’s becoming a huge issue, in particular from the point of view of insurance providers who want to make sure that every eventuality is considered if not planned for.”
 
According to Carroll, insured losses from natural disasters in the United States in 2012 more than doubled the average of annual insured losses in the 11 years prior. Thunderstorm events, Carroll asserted, are becoming a greater percentage of overall annual insured losses. Although the jump in damage from natural disasters in 2012 was in part due to superstorm Sandy, Carroll asserted that weather is changing and everyone involved in planning and producing live events must be prepared.
 
“We have all experienced weather changes throughout the years, so we know that weather patterns are more severe,” Carroll said. “Therefore, we’re experiencing more thunderstorms, and typically with thunderstorms, come wind storms, and it’s the wind that can cause large amounts of insured damage. And, severe local storms are on the rise in terms of the percentage of insured damage they cause.”
 
Up until 2011, many event producers relied on their own amateur meteorology skills when deciding whether or not to evacuate an outdoor event. “I considered myself an amateur in-the-know meteorologist,” said Jim Digby, ESA Executive Director. “But questions like, should we evacuate, or shouldn’t we? Who will make the call? Who will tell the audience? Where would they go? were all conversations that were happening in real time, and that’s not good.”
 
“Being weather savvy does not prevent you from being exposed to weather damages,” VandenHeuvel explained. “However, using a professional weather service like WDT takes the burden of monitoring the weather off of the producer’s back and puts it onto our meteorologists.”
 
Luckily for event producers, WDT’s team of expert meteorologists applies a varying degree of different weather triggers when monitoring for a single outdoor event. Weather advisories starting seven days prior to the event give producers a better grasp on if and when to pull the plug due to an unsafe situation. “You won’t save lives if you don’t have a plan and a robust communications protocol in place,” VandenHeuvel advised.
 
For a go-to guide on all aspects of live event safety, the Event Safety Alliance Guide is now complete and available on eventsafetyalliance.org. In addition, ESA is now offering Event Safety leadership training courses intended to enhance the safety awareness in the live event space. “Our hope is that these classes will close the gap between event officials in charge with no required training whatsoever, and those who are required by their employers to have safety training,” Digby said.
 
According to Carroll, Take1 Insurance, together with the Event Safety Alliance, will be hosting a series of follow up, subject-specific Live Event Safety Webinars in 2014. “We sponsor these webinars to help educate the dedicated public involved in putting on live events,” Carroll said. “The subject and primary focus is always safety first."

Second Take1 Webinar To Focus On Incorporating The Latest Weather Technologies Into An Event Safety Plan

Responding to requests from a wide range of professionals for a safety webinar focused specifically on producing safer outdoor events, Take1 Insurance, the leading insurance provider to the entertainment industry, today announced that it will host a webinar focused on how to best utilize the latest advances in weather forecasting and monitoring technology — Weather First: A 60-Minute Primer on Incorporating Weather Technology in Outdoor Event Safety Plans.
 
According to Scott Carroll, Executive Vice President & Program Director of Take1 Insurance, the leading entertainment insurance provider is again teaming up with Event Safety Alliance (ESA) to ensure the March 19, 2014 webinar is as compelling as the inaugural event safety webinar that was held last November. The March 19 webinar will take place at 2:00PM eastern standard time and is open to anyone involved in the business of producing and staging live outdoor events. Registration for the webinar is now open here.
 
“Incorporating the latest advances in weather forecasting and monitoring into a comprehensive safety plan is probably the single most important thing a producer can do to ensure a safer outdoor live event,” Carroll said today. “Weather affects every aspect of an outdoor live event. From an insurance perspective, when it comes to weather planning, we are going to want to know, in some specific detail, how the weather will be managed and monitored at the show site.”
 
Elaborating further, ESA Executive Director Jim Digby noted that the webinar will focus specifically on issues like weather planning and "predictive weather forecasting" vs. "nowcasting," and show stop/hold planning. “I am very proud to announce that this webinar will involve the participation of David VandenHeuvel, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Services at Weather Decision Technologies (WDT) in Norman, Oklahoma and a founding member of the ESA. David has over 32 years of weather and safety experience, 23 years of which were in the United States Air Force (now retired). WDT has developed custom weather decision aids and services specific to the live event industry, including interactive maps, alerting and mobile applications.”
 
According to Digby, in 2013 WDT provided weather support for over 1,500 events around the globe, including Linkin Park, Paul McCartney, and the just completed 2014 Super Bowl in East Rutherford, New Jersey.