13. Rachel Jackson - journey to major events, post lockdown behaviour, anti trust, Zone Ex, women in security, burnout
This episode does not hold back, covering many angles and challenging topics. Rachel Jackson, a freelance crowd management and event operations professional and I discuss the change in crowd behaviour post lockdown, the challenges and opportunities facing women who work in security and safety, Zone Ex, burnout and more. Rachel does not hold back in her honesty and wisdom of her experience in working major events at home and abroad, which I hope will inspire and "enfire" you as you listen.
13 Feb 2025
12. Marcel Altenburg - from military to marathons, bomb threats, flood response, deviance, crowd science, risk, control rooms.
Marcel, who is Senior Lecturer in Crowd Science at Manchester Metropolitan University is a friend, colleague and teacher, whom I met when studying the MSc in Crowd Safety and Risk Analysis. There were many routes this episode could have gone down has I had so many questions to ask. What I value about Marcel is his exceptionally unique perspective and outlook on life and situations, always challenging me to see things differently. This approach has aided him in developing unique solutions to challenges at the major marathons he works on across the globe. In this discussion, he shares his experience of responding to a bomb threat at one of the marathons he worked on, demonstrating the importance of training, experience and self awareness when working in a control room. We discuss an important event in his military career, his journey to crowd science, deviant behaviour in audiences and the importance of working as a team.
Marcel’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcel-altenburg-596382123/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcel-altenburg-596382123/)
26 Nov 2024
11. John Dundas - spectrum management for major events, code words, protocol and interoperability
In this episode I chat with John Dundas, who is a Radio and Spectrum Manager for major events. John provides insight into the world of spectrum management and how this work underpins Command, Control and Communications, sharing how his unique background taught him problem solving.
I learn just how much work goes into spectrum planning and how events cannot operate without good strategies. Learn how this is key to interoperability, what we can learn from Manchester Arena attack and Astroworld, and the critical importance of the big red button. We discuss the debated use of code words and key protocol tips for operating a radio. I have always been amazed by John’s breadth and dept of experience and hope you will enjoy this episode as much as I did.
Some of the initialisms include:
C3 - Command, Control, Communication
FA - Functional Area
Glasgow 2014 - Commonwealth Games
Code Words: Link to Episode 2 with Janthea (https://rss.com/podcasts/safetysistas/1679311)
5 Nov 2024
10. IBIT 2024, Roxana Luca, Alexandra Von Samson and May-Britt Morgenstern
In this episode, I start with a solo chat about my experience at IBIT 2024 conference (http://ibit24.de) on event safety and security in Cologne, Germany before sharing three interviews with Roxana, Alexandra and May-Britt, three women who are spearheading change in the industry. With varied backgrounds in production and event safety, they share their views on their role in the industry, what inspires them, what draws them to be part of the YES Group (as part of the Yourope Festival Association) (https://yourope.org), licensing, integrated planning, Gen Z, and what they want to see in the future.
Roxana Luca https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucaroxana/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucaroxana/)
Alexandra Von Samson https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-von-samson-718a1767/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-von-samson-718a1767/)
May-Britt Morgenstern https://www.linkedin.com/in/may-britt-morgenstern-4862b220b/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/may-britt-morgenstern-4862b220b/)
23 Sept 2024
9. Olivia Bellas - the power of facilitation to create safety, relationship building, designing meetings differently, respect and empowering social impact.
Olivia Bellas, a facilitator who empowers people to make sense of complex work, speaks with Íse about the importance of creating an environment with purpose to get the most out of meetings and gatherings. We explore the power of facilitation to create safety, empower people and make big change.
Support the show: If you enjoyed this episode and want to say thanks, you can leave a tip (https://safetysistas.com/support).
About Olivia: A facilitator at the intersection of arts, digital, charity and government spaces, with a 25 year track record of leading social impact work through fundraising, designing and evaluating. Putting people first is at the heart of what Olivia does, to generate untapped insights. She reframes learning, development, relationship building - bringing distinctive value by merging traditional and digital practices. For more information see her website https://olivia-bellas.com/ (https://olivia-bellas.com/)
Ise’s websites: murphymorris.co (https://murphymorris.co) and isemurphy.com (https://isemurphy.com)
7 Apr 2024
8. Becca Wilusz - college sport events in the USA, applying an engineering PhD to plan crowd safety, working with students to manage safety and behaviour, women in the industry
In this episode I get to chat to Becca Wilusz, Assistant Director of Athletics / Game Operations & Championships at Duke University in North Carolina. Becca discusses her unusual career path into crowd safety at events, how she designs event plans, applies her background in biomedical engineering to planning, risk and data analysis and how her team work with students and student bodies to manage crowds. We only scratched the surface of Becca’s extensive experience and knowledge so I look forward to inviting her back very soon for part two. I hope you enjoy.
Support the show here! (https://buy.stripe.com/fZe2b0crf4cw95mbIN)
11 Feb 2024
7. Solo - Improving the industry, decision making, incompetence, awareness, rejection, self trust
This is my first Safety Sistas Solo episode and is an honest share about my intention on improving the industry, what I truly value, the systems that help me, understanding decision making, feeling incompetent, developing awareness, behaviour in the event control room, fear of rejection, being too hard on ourselves, and what happens when we trust ourselves.
For more information on my work in crowd safety, see https://murphymorris.co
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isemurphymorris/
31 Dec 2023
6. Emma Parkinson - practical academic, power of volunteers, respecting staff, C3 (Command, Control/Coordinate, Communications), learning from High Reliability Organisations to improve crowd safety.
I meet with Emma Parkinson, who leads the MSc Crowded Places and Public Safety Management at Coventry University, works as a crowd safety manager on some of the world’s biggest events as well as studying a Professional Doctorate into learning from High Reliability Organisations such as nuclear, aviation and space.
We discuss our role behind the curtain in facilitating joy and escapism in events, the power of volunteers in a crowd safety management plan, respecting, training and briefing our staff appropriately and C3 - Command, Control/Coordinate and Communications.
Emma is one of the leading crowd safety practitioners in our industry and as you will hear, I am a big fan of her work, wisdom and passion for crowd safety.
Emma’s Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-parkinson-87b5804/)
MSc Crowded Places and Public Safety Management (https://www.coventry.ac.uk/course-structure/pg/eec/crowded-places-and-public-safety-management-pg-cert/)
Ise’s Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/isemurphymorris/)
Ise’s website (https://isemurphy.com)
21 Nov 2023
5. Becky Stevens - Event Control, Safety Advisory Groups, managing an emergency evacuation, insights into the Fatboy Slim concert on Brighton Beach in 2002
In this episode, I catch up with Becky Stevens, director of Hybred Events, on site at Lumiere Durham 2023, a biennial light art festival in the north of England. Becky shares insight into how we approach event control, discusses the importance of training for safety advisory groups and debunks the narrative of us being the “safety police”.
She shares her experience of having to manage an emergency evacuation of Bloc Weekend festival at London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as working on the famous Fatboy Slim concert on Brighton beach in 2002 that almost turned deadly. Hearing Becky’s experience of dealing with both these events is crucial learning for all event professionals and attendees to help develop awareness of how we can reduce risk in the future. Becky’s wisdom, experience and perspective taught me a lot and I hope you find this episode as insightful as I did.
Hybred Events https://www.hybredevents.com/
Becky’s LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/becky-stevens-7a9a7512/)
Ise’s website (https://www.isemurphy.com/)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/isemurphymorris/)
TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@isemurphy?_t=8hZaeQGCoCG&_r=1)
LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/isemurphymorris/)
10 Nov 2023
4. Morten Therkildsen - Roskilde Festival, IBIT 2023, evolution of formal education, Safety and Security, Zone Ex, politics, high reliability organisation, definition of a Crowd Manager
Welcome to my first in person podcast episode, where I sit down with Morten Therkildsen, Director of Safety at Roskilde Festival in Denmark. We caught up at the IBIT 2023 Conference in Cologne, where we were both speaking.
I represented the Global Crowd Management Alliance speaking about Zone Ex, and Morten spoke about the meaning of, and how we use the words Safety and Security, especially as in some languages they are the same word.
We spoke about some of the sessions we sat in, such as the Love Parade: Lessons Learned by Prof Doc Jurgen Gerlach and Figen Murray’s presentation about Martyn’s Law (Protect Duty). Our discussion continued into the importance and evolution of formal education, how the events industry should be classed as "high reliability organisation”, political influences, the definition and competency of “Crowd Managers”, proximate and distal risk and where we need to go next.
As this is recorded live in the RheinEnergies Stadium, there are background noises of talking, bottle crates and the Football Club’s mascot reminding us of session start times. This is a casual conversation between two members of the Global Crowd Management Alliance, hopefully demonstrating the importance of international exchange, something which IBIT and the GCMA champion and facilitate.
Morten’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mortentherkildsenrfx/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mortentherkildsenrfx/)
IBIT https://ibit23.de/UeBER-DAS-IBIT/ (https://ibit23.de/UeBER-DAS-IBIT/)
GCMA https://www.thegcma.com/ (https://www.thegcma.com/)
4 Oct 2023
3. Anne Marie Chebib and KT Sonnen - The BBC report on malpractice in security training, regulation, expectations on security and stewarding, the wider picture, and evolution of our industry.
After the release of BBC’s File on 4 undercover investigation, on the 3 October 2023, into “sham training” in the security industry, Íse sits down with Ann Marie Chebib, Managing Director of Select Security and Secretary of UK Crowd Management Association and Global Crowd Management Alliance and KT Sonnen (from our first episode), COO of Invictus Professional Training and PhD student to frame this issue in the wider context of the industry. We take a step back to look at the bigger picture and understand the causes and conditions that come together to influence industry practice. Join me in learning insights from Anne Marie and KT to the reality of the industry, from the challenges we face to the evolution of our industry in professionalising and improving competency to keep people safe at events.
BBC News article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66923084 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66923084)
Segment from Íse’s dissertation into legislation and regulation on crowd safety: https://www.isemurphy.com/legislation-regulation-and-crowd-safety/ (https://www.isemurphy.com/legislation-regulation-and-crowd-safety/)
Ann Marie Chebib: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-marie-chebib-86974849/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-marie-chebib-86974849/)
KT Sonnen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kt-sonnen/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kt-sonnen/)
Acronyms and initialisms:
AO = Awarding Organisation
SIA = Security Industry Authority (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/security-industry-authority)
UKCMA = United Kingdom Crowd Management Association (https://www.ukcma.com/)
GCMA = Global Crowd Management Alliance (https://www.thegcma.com/)
NTIA = Night Time Industry Association
SGSA = Sports Ground Safety Authority
EIF = Event Industry Forum
14 Jul 2023
2. Janthea Bridgen - child care at events, regulatory compliance, lost child procedures, risk assessing events for child care, how safeguarding can be improved.
Janthea Bridgen is CEO of Nipperbout, providing child care and children’s activities for the events industry. We talk about how she got to where she is today, what it takes to provide best practice and what challenges she faces in the industry. She shares fascinating insights in how she risk assesses events, debunks a theory that sometimes divides event safety teams and what she would like to see change in 10 years time. I learned so much from listening to Janthea and hope that you too can take home some of the wisdom she shares in how we can all work together to keep children safe at our events.
We couldn’t cover everything we wanted to in this episode and I will be inviting her back soon. Some of the things we are keen to cover next time are;
the times during an event in crowds when the risk to losing a child increases
the risks associated with toilets
the risk of losing children via fire escapes
For more information on Janthea:
Website: https://www.nipperbout.com/ (https://www.nipperbout.com/)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jantheabrigden/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jantheabrigden/)
For more information on Íse:
Websites:
https://www.isemurphy.com/ (https://www.isemurphy.com/)
https://murphymorris.co/ (https://murphymorris.co/)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isemurphymorris/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/isemurphymorris/)
1 Jun 2023
1. KT Sonnen - experience as events security, studying a PhD, training security, working the pit, crowd dynamics, staff welfare, post-pandemic behaviour, improving the industry
Welcome to our first episode of Safety Sistas! The podcast about the people who keep you safe. I interview people who fascinate me with their experience, wisdom and knowledge in the world of safety and I want to celebrate the work they do behind the scenes to keep us all safe at events (and beyond).
We kick things off with a bang with the wise and hilarious KT Sonnen. KT has worked in event security and medical for almost twenty years, is COO of Invictus Professional Training and now a full time PhD student. She shares with us how she got into this niche sector, how her career evolved and why she is now studying for a PhD on the behavioural science of protective security. Prepare to be taken on a rollercoaster ride as we navigate her experience, stories and how she learned a lot about crowd management from cows. Yes that’s not a typo.
There was so much packed into this short hour so I hope to welcome KT back soon to go deeper into some of the critical topics we discussed for the future of the events industry.
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and follow the show.
If you wish to support my work, you can buy me a coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/isemurphy
For more information on her company Invictus Pro Training: https://www.invictusprotraining.co.uk/
For more information on Íse:
Websites: https://www.isemurphy.com/ https://murphymorris.co/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isemurphymorris/
1 Jun 2023
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