Event Safety Alliance presents at ProLight+Sound Guangzhou 2017

www.prolightsound-guangzhou.com

Staging Truss System Collapse Kills One, Injures 13

Nanning, China 2015-10-29 - China News reports that during the construction of the stage for an upcoming Jolin Tsai concert the ground supported stage truss system collapsed.  On worker was killed, and 13 other were injured.  On of the injured is in serious condition, while the others only suffered minor injuries.

Truss System Before the Collapse

The incident occurred around 5PM local time at the Guangxi Sports Center Arena.

After the collapse workers assess damage.

Deconstructing a tangled web of steel, aluminum, and stretched cables is a dangerous endeavor - stress in materials can create booby-traps due to spring loading and fractures in components that have not yet fully failed.  Hopefully, the workers doing this are planning their work carefully.

Also note that only three of the workers in the pictures are wearing hardhats.  It is unclear, but likely, that safety shoes are not worn in this construction environment.  Few workers appear to be wearing bright colored clothes, which makes it more difficult to spot staff and avoid collisions.  All of these factors can contribute to further injuries.

This is particularly relevant as this Blogger is scheduled to address the China Stage Design Exhibition in Beijing on November 26th-29th to discuss the development of an Entertainment Safety Initiative similar to the US lead Event Safety Guide developed by the Event Safety Alliance.

Update:  Two more pictures:

 

ESA and TAKE1 Insurance host webinar on Live Event Safety

September 16, 2013 — Asserting that the live event production industry can no longer take a passive approach to life safety, Take1 Insurance, the leading insurance provider to the entertainment industry, today announced that it was teaming up with the Event Safety Alliance (ESA) to host the industry’s first webinar focused on producing safer live events. According to Scott Carroll, Executive Vice President and Program Director of Take1 Insurance, the precedent-setting webinar will take place on b>Wednesday, November 13, 2013 at 2 p.m EST and is open to anyone involved in the business of producing and staging live events.

“A 60-Minute Introduction to Producing Safer Live Events” will be held on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 at 2 p.m. EST (1 p.m. CST, noon MST, 11 a.m. PST).  Webinar Registration is now open at:
http://engage.vevent.com/index.jsp?eid=1681&seid=1019&code=take1

“The time for discussion is over and the time to take action is at hand,” Carroll stressed today. “For years we have emphasized the need for live event producers to take the time to prepare for the unimaginable and now, thanks to the leadership position taken by Jim Digby and the Event Safety Alliance, the industry can utilize the ESA’s“Event Safety Guide” to prepare complete emergency action plans that include having the right insurance coverage in place.” Carroll emphasized that, “Investing 60 minutes to learn more about the issues involved in producing safer live events is not too much to ask of any of us, given the number of incidents that have occurred over the last several years. It is our hope that ‘A 60-Minute Introduction to Producing Safer Live Events’ is the first in a series of additional Take1 sponsored topic focused webinars that involve a broad range of industry professionals in a very important discussion.”

“Due to a series of tragic accidents, life safety has become a major concern to many within the live event industry,” explained Jim Digby, founder of the Event Safety Alliance. “Whether you work directly on productions or provide support to them, everyone has a role to play in ensuring the well-being of our performers, workers, and audience members. In this webinar, leaders from ESA and Take1 will detail the importance and responsibilities of event safety for those who promote, produce, and insure live events. You’ll learn more about the mission and activities of the ESA, along with our vision for the future, as well as the solutions offered by Take1. Most importantly, we’ll discuss critical tools and resources currently in development, and how the insurance industry can work with the ESA to create safer live events.”

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

A week after the Event Safety webinar, the Event Safety Alliance will take its message of “be prepared” to LDI 2013 (November 22–24, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada) where it will host a presentation entitled “The Event Safety Guide: The Future of Safe, Responsible Show Production” on November 23, 2013 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

At 3:30 p.m. the same day, the ESA will host a 90-minute roundtable discussion entitled “You Are The ESA”, also at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

LED Screen Falls Injuring Three at Miami Ultra Music Festival

Thursday, March 14, 2013 - Workers setting-up modular LED display screens for the annual Miami Ultra Music Festival were trapped under screen components that fell about 30 feet (10m) from the overhead trusses.  Fortunately, Fire and Rescue teams were on the festival site preparing for the two-weekend event that runs over Spring Break.  They were able to respond immediately and free the trapped workers.  The workers were transported to local hospitals where two were checked and found to have only minor injuries, and one worker remains hospitalized with two broken legs.  The incident occurred just prior to 8:00 PM the night before the festival opens.

The City of Miami had originally passed on requiring special engineering reviews for the festival stages, but the morning after the incident, they rescinded that ruling and city engineers, building inspectors, the Miami Fire Marshal, and OSHA reviewed all six stages to ensure that they were safe.  The event opened on-schedule and over 330,000 people are anticipated to attend.  Reports coming-in the first evening of the festival indicated that more than 15 patrons were transported for medical reasons due to a variety of causes.

A video from a Miami TV station is here: http://miami.cbslocal.com/latest-videos?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8633167

Hopefully, the recently developed Event Safety Guide organized by the Event Safety Alliance will reduce the number of worker and patron injuries over the years to come.  This assumes, of course, that cities and states chose to adopt this as a best practices manual.

ESA Releases Draft Version of US Event Safety Guide

Los Angeles, California - 2013-02-07 - The Event Safety Alliance has released Draft Version 2.0 of the recently developed The US Event Safety Guide for public comment and review.  The initiative began last year after numerous large scale public events suffered deaths of both workers and audience members.  The disasters also included significant damage to equipment which further escalated financial losses and drove-up insurance costs.

The US Event Safety Guide is modeled after the UK Health and Safety Executive's Publication 195, also known as "The Purple Guide".  The ESA first announced their intention to create a US version of the ESG during the summer of 2012, and they opened a web site to solicit commentary and input for consideration in the development of the US guide.

The document was release to the attendees at the Live Event Expo conference during the numerous Health and Safety Sessions that were offered.  The Draft Version 2.0 of the The US Event Safety Guide can be downloaded at no cost from the ESA web site after registering for access.

When you register for ESA site access you set-up a login id and password so that you can return to the site. Providing commentary about the content of The US Event Safety Guide Draft will help the editors to expand and improve this body of work.  Please take the time to read the guide and contribute your knowledge and experience toward making the guide's content relevant to your work.

Currently, most of the guide is authored around the commercial concert industry, but it can just as easily be applied to educational and non-profit theatre production.  As a participant in your industry it is incumbent upon you help define your working environment.  Almost everything in the guide applies to you and your venue.

The ESA is a non-profit organization and is funded through donations.  Please take a moment and move a few of your hard-earned dollars their way.  Consider it a down-payment on your life, as the efforts of this alliance's members may be clearing the way for a safer workspace for us all.

As an incentive to 'Do the right thing', I'll send a free Theatre Safety Blog Teq-Shirt to anyone who can confirm their donation of $100 or more to the ESA in the month of February, 2013.

Event Live Expo 2013 Plans Full Day Of Safety Workshops

The Event Live Expo and Summit this February 5 thru 7, 2013 in Los Angeles, California looks to be a tremendous resource for Event Safety information.  The organizers have planned six Summit sessions to fill the second day of the expo (February 6th) and numerous elements of event planning and execution will be addressed.  A run-down of the day can be found at:

www.eventlive-expo.com/2013-program Click on the DAY 2 tab.

General information and registration for the conference can be found at: www.eventlive-expo.com

infoComm Posts Article About Event Safety Progress

November 29, 2012 - infoComm International published an article by Dan Daley that provides an update on the Event Safety Alliance's efforts to get an Event Safety Guide written for use in US venues.  The article can be read here: www.infocomm.org/cps/rde/xchg/infocomm/hs.xsl/22551.htm

Event Safety Alliance moves forward on US Event Safety Guide

The Event Safety Alliance (ESA) has solidified plans to move forward with publishing an Americanized version of the widely-used U.K. guide of best practices in the event production industry, The Event Safety Guide also known as The Purple Guide.

First published in the UK in 1999, The Event Safety Guide is a 33 chapter event production primer covering best practices for event production safety.  The chapters include planning and management recommendations to specific topics such as electrical installation, sanitation, structures, and 30 other key elements for safe event production at every style and size event.  The forum for suggestions at www.eventsafetyalliance.org is still open for comments.

Event Safety Alliance spokesperson, Jim Digby stated, "This is a collaborative effort by some of the best minds in the industry lending their expertise in the specific areas of event production safety they are most qualified in.  This collaboration will provide event professionals with a reference guide that is more than a starting point to find solutions to common problems in attendee safety."  Digby is one of the founders of the organization and has testified before legislatures in regards to event safety procedures.

Although there is strong leadership at the ESA, the group maintains that “YOU ARE THE EVENT SAFETY ALLIANCE, and that input is needed through the web site from all industry professionals.
John Brown, another founder of the Event Safety Alliance, went on to say, "The Event Safety Guide brings together information needed by event organizers, their contractors and employees to help them prioritize safety in all aspects of event production."

The Event Safety Alliance will be conducting meetings and seminars at this year's Event Live Expo (www.eventlive-expo.com) to be held in Los Angeles, February 5-7, 2013 on the Event Deck at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles.  Seminar topics will be announced soon.

Jim Digby states, "It is our hope to have the project completed by the Event Live Expo.  However, this could be a project that comes in installments."  To help expedite the project, the ESA has enlisted Timeless Communications (the publishers of the Event Production Directory [EPD], Front of House [FOH], Projection, Lights and Staging News [PLSN], and Stage Directions) to spearhead the production and editing of the book.

Event Safety Alliance - Applying the HSE Purple Guide for US

The Event Safety Alliance has updated their web site to allow interested parties to help in the modification of the UK's "Purple Book" (http://theatresafetyblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/event-safety-guides-freebies.html) as it can be used uniformly throughout the US market.  The timetable is aggressive, as it should be, as the sooner this Best Practices manual is available for use, the safer events will be when the guidelines are applied.

The US version of the Purple Book will layout, for the first time in the history of the industry in the US, a broad spectrum of guidelines helping to ensure that life safety be considered first and foremost.

Do Your Part and Get Involved!

Whether or Not to Monitor Weather

To be, or not to be (rained-out, or sued out of business), that is the question.  As exemplified by recent weather-related event catastrophes, the monitoring of the local weather is no longer an option.  Sanity and safety dictate that event planners have accurate and knowledgeable weather experts closely monitoring the skies.

What better source for these experts than someone that lives dead-center in Tornado Alley - Norman Oklahoma.  WeatherOps is a subdivision of  Weather Decision Technologies, Inc., a global leader in providing state-of-the-science weather detection, nowcasting, and forecasting systems. WeatherOps is an live entertainment focused offering within WDT's range of services.  WeatherOps offers a staff of trained meteorologists that track weather as it pertains to a specific indoor or outdoor event.  They can provide forecasts and alerts that can be informational broadcast via Internet, SMS (text messages), mobile apps, and/or mobile push alerts.  Event managers have direct phone access to their meteorologists regardless of the time-of-day.

The popular music group Linkin Park has recognized the benefit of this type of service, and has contracted with WeatherOps to follow their 2012 Living Things tour.  WeatherOps will be providing the tour manager, Jim Digby, with color-coded emergency weather plans throughout the tour.  Digby is one of the founding members of the Event Safety Alliance.

Keep your events safer by proactive monitoring of weather activity by utilizing this, or other similar services.

Also see: www.theatresafetyblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/weather-resources-and-electrical-safety.html for a link to the Spring 2012 Protocol magazine article about event weather safety.

Industry Professionals Form Event Safety Alliance Organization

The creation of the Event Safety Alliance was announced to the public at the TourLink 2012 conference in Phoenix, Arizona during the open panel “Outdoor Show Safety Solutions” on January 28, 2012. This panel was moderated by Jim Digby and featured founding members of the Event Safety Alliance who represented all areas of our industry, from insurance coverage to structure fabrication.

The Event Safety Alliance is a group of entertainment industry leaders that have come together to address the immediate need for universal safety standards for the production of live events.  The newly formed group is based out of Austin, Texas and has posted a web site with more information.

Check them out and sign-up for their newsletter at: http://eventsafetyalliance.org/

They are also hooked-up with Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The groups is so new they don't even have a logo yet [updated: see above!], the ink is still drying on the bits, but they are tackling event safety head-on and plan to publish a Best Practices Guide in the near future.