ESA Event Safety Guide

[kpierron]

I’d like to strongly encourage venue managers, production managers, stage managers, and technical directors to take a look at the public review draft of the Event Safety Guide being developed by the Event Safety Alliance. A free copy is available to anyone who registers on the website Event Safety Alliance > Home (registration is free).

Please read the post at the Theatre Safety Blog http://theatresafetyblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/esa-releases-draft-version-of-us-event.html .

I am very excited about this document, and think it will have a significant impact on theatre productions. I would love to hear your opinions on its merits and shortcomings. I'm especially interested in how well the book addresses the needs of typical plays and musicals. Comments and edits are also being collected through the ESA website.

 

[teqniqal]

Trying to get the theatre community to come to grips with the realities of production safety is something that is a never-ending effort for many of us. Getting theatre instructors and their administrators to engage in the conversation can be difficult, as they don’t always see that their students are the very people that will eventually become a part of the entertainment industry workforce. Sadly, many just look at ‘theatre’ as an extra-curricular activity or something for the non-football playing students ‘waste their time’ with. If the industry is to build a good base of future workers, we need to provide good arts advocacy support in the schools. This is sometimes referred to as making STEM into STEAM by adding Arts to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

Towards that effort I just posted a blog about the ESG 2.0 release. I included an incentive on the part of my company to try to get others to join-up and donate to the ESA.

For the student readers at Control Booth, it is important that you communicate your interest in the management and technology skills training that you will need to be successful in the entertainment industry business place. Let your teachers and administrators know that the collaboration skills and project management tools you are learning are practical and in demand in the real world and not just 'fluff'. Employers in all industries want workers that have good interpersonal skills, presentation skills, and creative problem solving abilities. Theatre work demands these qualities, and is the perfect place to develop them.

Learning good safety practices is icing on the cake. Every employer must spend time and money training new hires about their rights and responsibilities to be safe workers. If you already possess that knowledge, you are ahead of the other applicants that you are competing with for a place in the workforce. The ESA Event Safety Guide, although not a complete body of work, is about as close as you will find to a one-stop shopping experience for the big picture of safely planning or working an event. A cover-to-cover read will provide you with the insight to understand the enormous effort required to mount a show safely.

 

[ruinexplorer]

Digging up this thread. There will be a free 60-minute webinar hosted by the Event Safety Guide (sponsored by Take1 Insurance) on July 9th.

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.

Yes, it does sound like this is an infomercial so that you buy the ESG, but I feel that there may still be useful information.