A record-setting 377 live event professionals turned to their computer screens yesterday afternoon to participate in the industry’s first Webinar focused on promoting Live Event Safety. Sponsored by Take1 Insurance, in conjunction with the Event Safety Alliance, the event was hosted by New Bay Media’s Rental & Staging News. The Webinar is now available for all to access at this web site.
“We are thrilled with the turnout for this critically important first step in making event safety a first priority for producers of live events, the owner/operators of venues where live events are held, and the municipalities that host them, along with all live event service firms who work these shows every day” explained Scott Carroll, Executive Vice President & Program Director of Take1 Insurance. “More than 820 professionals registered for the Webinar and 377 of these pre-registrants actually participated in the event. These are great numbers for a free Webinar and the questions posted afterward revealed significant interest in this topic.”
According to Carroll, the timing of the Webinar comes as the Event Safety Alliance prepares to introduce the industry’s first comprehensive Event Safety Guide. “The availability of this Guide is going to have a permanent impact on the way the insurance industry approaches coverage in the future. Insurance providers, like Take1 Insurance, are going to ask if clients know about the Event Safety Alliance, are aware of the Event Safety Guide, and use the Event Safety Guide to prepare an Event Safety Plan,” Carroll asserted. He advised everyone involved in producing live events to ‘underwrite the underwriter.’ “All carriers in the live event space are not alike. If your carrier doesn’t value what you do in terms of safety precautions, then maybe you should consider finding a carrier who does.”
According to Jim Digby, Executive Director of the Event Safety Alliance, “We’re all in this together — event producers, venue owner/operators, municipalities, promoters, and first responders. We all have a legal as well as a moral obligation to make live event safety our very first priority when it comes to producing and staging a live event. The Event Safety Alliance was formed to make this goal a reality so that we no longer have to witness the tragedies that have occurred over the last number of years in Toronto, Rhode Island, Indiana, and Brazil. Together, we can make the production of live events infinitely safer for everyone involved.”
According to Digby, the ESA Event Safety Guide will soon be available for purchase on Apple iTunes, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble as well as directly from the Event Safety Alliance website.
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.
The Event Safety Alliance was founded in 2011 by Jim Digby, a 30+ year veteran of the entertainment industry. He is the founder of Collaborative Endeavour Group (CEG), providing international touring strategies and complete production solutions for the live entertainment industry. He currently serves as Director of Touring and Production for the multi-million selling artists Linkin Park, and has previously worked with artists as diverse as The Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi and Marilyn Manson. A long-time advocate for event safety and ethical touring models, he is a three-time recipient of Tourlink’s “Production Manager of the year” award, as well as the Parnelli’s “Production Manager of the Year” award for 2012.