Prepare for emergencies at live events with hands-on training in crowd management, emergency planning, CPR/AED, and venue safety.
When: January 5-7, 2027 | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Where: McAlister Auditorium – Furman University
3300 Poinsett Hwy, Greenville, SC 29613
Emergency Preparedness for Live Events is a three-day, hands-on workshop for the people who run and work in performance venues: production managers, house managers, stagehands, technical directors, venue operators, and the students and early-career staff coming up behind them. Presenters Danielle Hernandez and Doug Bruce (Creative Safety, Inc.). and to-be-announced guests, will walk participants through the fundamentals: what an emergency action plan actually needs to contain, how to read your own venue for hazards you’ve stopped noticing, and how communication structures break down under pressure, through the science of crowd behavior and movement, severe weather and life-safety decision-making, and the security and active-threat considerations that come with hosting a high-profile event. The approach throughout is grounded in Event Safety Alliance (ESA) guidance, the ANSI event-safety standard series, OSHA’s emergency action plan requirements, and NFPA life-safety provisions translated into plain language for an audience that knows its venue’s technical systems cold but may never have had formal training in crowd management or incident planning.
This is not a lecture series. Day 1 closes with small-group scenario exercises; Day 2 builds toward a full tabletop exercise set in the host venue. Day 3 offers hands-on CPR/AED and Stop the Bleed certification through Upstate CPR alongside guided site-visit walkthroughs of campus venues. Attendees leave with a working vocabulary for emergency planning, a tested framework for building their own venue’s plan, and direct experience applying it under realistic pressure, not just slides to file away.
Included:
- Morning coffee and light snacks
- Catered lunch
- Event tee shirt and swag bag
Registration fees:
$650
Deadline to register is December 1st.
Attendees are responsible for their own housing accommodations.
FAQs
If you can’t find the answers to your questions here, please contact us.
Will participants receive a certificate or any form of recognition upon completing the workshop?
Yes, upon the completion of the workshop, attendees will receive a certificate of participation for the course and a CPR certification from the Red Cross that will be active for two years.
What is the cancellation policy for registered participants?
Please read our cancellation policy here.
Is there a limit to the number of participants, and if so, how will registration be handled once the limit is reached?
We can accommodate a maximum of 30 students for this workshop. Once that limit has been met, you will be able to add your name to a wait list in case a spot becomes available.
