Today we’re talking hardware, specifically fencing. Our guest is David Mackay, founder and owner of F1rst Fence, manufacturer of the Spring Fence, which has successfully contained large crowds for events across North America since 2011. David has 20+ years experience producing top quality shows and events, lending his expertise in managing events for the NHL, the Rolling Stones, and the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen. In this episode, we’ll get the strategic lowdown on using barriers effectively. Maybe we’ll even get a few anecdotes from behind the scenes.

Successful crowd control is more nuanced than you might think. It requires constant observation and quick judgement. Its success also requires subtlety: often times successful crowd control is about how little anyone notices you doing your job. In this episode, we sit down with Garry McCarthy, former Superintendent of Police for the City of Chicago. Over the course of his career, Garry has brought order to major crowd control events, including the streets of New York immediately after the tragedy of 9/11. Mr. McCarthy shares insights into the behavior of crowds earned from decades in the field. You’re not going to want to miss this one.

Continuing with the theme from our last episode, we take another look at what the world might look like, post-Covid. What does the data tell us about the spread of new strains and how we should plan for them? To find out more, we talk to Mario Daigle, Senior Director of Analytics for the incubator Interset. He’s a noted speaker on the subject of the use of machine-learning in cybersecurity. He’s part of team that has been successful in modeling the behavior of the pandemic. He’s going to share his thoughts about what to we should look for moving forward. Join us!  

You can listen to Mario's podcast Humans and Machines: directory.libsyn.com. 

While we’re not quite out of the woods yet, there’s reason for hope. But what does a post-Covid world look like in the event space? How do we maintain safety protocols and still pull off successful events? What, if anything, has changed permanently? In this episode of Managing Your Perimeter™, we try to make sense of this new world and what live event security looks like moving forward. Do we have all the right answers? Probably not. But we do ask some important questions. Join Ron Calhoun with SDI Labs!

Music festivals have come a long way from Woodstock (and the infamous Altamont). Today’s festivals offer dazzling audience experiences in a safe and carefully planned environment. It appears as if music festivals are back this summer, as we come out from under the shadow of COVID. 

Our guest this episode knows a lot about the ins and outs of running a safe and entertaining festival. Kim Blevins is the general manager of Country Thunder Music Festivals seven major country music festivals that crisscross North America every year. 

Kim gives us the lowdown on the joys of bringing other people joy, as well as the challenges of keeping people safe as well as entertained. 

PJ and Mel chat with Mike Ready, former Supervising Special Agent with the United States Secret Service and current director of Production and Event Security for a Fortune 500 company. They talk about planning and preparation (sometimes there’s too MUCH time to prepare for an event), the gritty realities of execution, as well as sharing some anecdotes of some memorable gigs. It’s 45 minutes of insights from a captivating industry veteran.