The Event Safety Podcast

Danielle reconvenes the 2nd annual current events roundtable, joined by event safety friends, Jacob Worek, John Badcock, and Doug Bruce to review the incidents, trends, and conversations that shaped the first half of 2026 for live events.

Weather was a major theme, also, the FIFA 2026 World Cup, audience behavior and safety messaging, technology and surveillance at events, nightclub fires and more.   Lots of lessons learned, as well as considerations of pathways forward for these challenges.

Show Notes:

ASTM F38 Drone Shows Committee

Contact Danielle | podcast@eventsafetyalliance.org

Guests:

Jacob Worek | SMP

John Badcock | Event Operations & Safety Director, SXSW

Doug Bruce | Creative Safety

Hosts:

Danielle Hernandez (host)

What separates safety training from safety culture? Danielle and co-host Anna Glover sit down with Jen Ruggerio, founder of Rugged Training Group and author of Uncorporate Leadership, to dig into that question.

Safety training without leadership support is box-checking.  The conversation examines common leadership models that do not translate to environments where the stakes are lives rather than quarterly numbers.

This episode builds a case for shared leadership as an alternative to top-down hierarchy, positioning safety accountability as something every crew member holds rather than something that flows from a title. Practical threads include heat illness in new workers, how to speak up when you are day labor, why imposter syndrome is evidence of growth, and how the fresh eyes of a first-week worker are an asset most companies fail to use.

Guests:

Jen Ruggerio | Founder, Rugged Training Group  Jen Ruggerio | LinkedIn

Hosts:

Danielle Hernandez (host)      

Anna Glover (co-host)

Show Notes:

Uncorporate Leadership (Amazon)

Rugged Training Group

Contact Danielle: podcast@eventsafetyalliance.org

It is fireworks season! Danielle sits down with Ryan Abel, a fireworks and FX designer and pyrotechnic specialist. This in-depth chat covers pyro from design to operations, including budget, AHJs, permits and safety protocols.

Site selection, weather, and show-stop criteria each get real-world treatment, including stopping a show mid-performance when winds spiked unexpectedly.  The discussion goes into the reputational stakes when incidents go viral, performer and audience clearances in entertainment pyro settings, the role of spotters, and the early-stage challenges of combining drone shows with fireworks.

Guests:

Ryan Abel | Fireworks and FX Designer, Pyrotechnic Specialist

Hosts:

Danielle Hernandez (host)

Show Notes:

NFPA 1123 (outdoor displays) | https://www.nfpa.org

NFPA 1126 (proximate pyrotechnics) | https://www.nfpa.org

Contact Danielle | podcast@eventsafetyalliance.org

Pink Bows Foundation grew out of tragedy. After ten people, including Madison Dubiski, lost their lives at Astroworld in 2021, her family channeled an outpouring of community grief into an organization committed to making live events safer for everyone. The foundation's work runs on three pillars: a philanthropy program honoring Madison's commitment to community service, a Showstop procedure course that has trained over 700 event professionals worldwide, and the Safe Space itself.  

Danielle and co-host Tami Richter sit down with Ashleigh LaBure and Kyrah Lowe from Pink Bows to talk about their Safe Space initiative and how it is finding its way to large events across Texas and beyond. The bright pink tent structure has become a recognizable beacon at festivals — a cool-down spot, a safe refuge, a rally point for separated groups, and a welcoming environment for attendees managing anxiety, overstimulation, or heat. 

Events interested in hosting Safe Space can connect through the Pink Bows website.

Guests:

Ashleigh LaBure, Senior VP of Operations Pink Bows Foundation

Kyrah Lowe | Volunteer & Community Outreach Coordinator, Pink Bows Foundation

Show Notes:

Pink Bows Foundation info@pinkbowsfoundation.org

Hosts:

Danielle Hernandez (host) & Tami Richter (co-host)

Danielle Hernandez is joined by guest co-host Fr. David Garretson along with guests Bill Conner and Dan Culhane for an in-depth discussion of the present, past and future of fire safety curtains and their place in both venues and codes.  

For over a century, theaters have been required to provide either a fire curtain, a deluge system, or mechanical exhaust at the proscenium to separate the stage from the auditorium in the event of a fire. The forthcoming International Building Code (2027) will eliminate the longstanding requirement for proscenium opening protection in new theater construction.  Bill Conner, who worked this significant change through both IBC and parallel NFPA language, has found no evidence anywhere, including the UK and Europe, that fire curtains have ever saved a human life. 

Note: This change applies to new construction only. Removing an existing fire curtain from an older theater would require buy-in from the local authority having jurisdiction, the insurer, and the fire marshal. NFPA is moving in the same direction, though without IBC's requirement to separate the stage and auditorium from the rest of the building.

 

Hosts:

Danielle Hernandez (host)

Fr. David Garretson (guest co-host)

Guests:

Bill Conner, FASTC, ETCP Certified (retired) Rigger - Theatre. Bill, a professional theatre consultant since 1982, provides facility planning and systems design for the performing arts. Among over 150 projects, notable projects include the Alley Theatre, the West Side Showroom, Cincinnati’s SCPA, Edgewood College’s The Stream, Willow Creek Church, Detroit Orchestra Hall, McFarland High School, and the Holden-Brownstone Performing Arts Center. Bill is the ASTC codes officer since 1987 and participates in the development of the national model codes as the senior member of the Assembly Occupancies committee for the NFPA Life Safety Code, serving since 1988, and participant in the ICC Code Development Process for many years. He is a member of the ICC A117.1 and ICC 300 committees. You can reach Bill at 708-983-5792 or bill@bcaworld.com

Dan Culhane | Co-Chair, Stage Machinery Working Group and Technical Standards Council, ESTA

Show Notes:

ESTA Standards (free downloads)

ANSI E1.22

Deadliest single building or complex fires and explosions in the U.S.

Iroquois Theatre fire

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire

Contact Danielle | podcast@eventsafetyalliance.org