Post by Anna Mulé McRay, CEM, CSSP, EFO, NEMEA

Went to the Teddy Swims concert in Norfolk tonight. Amazing show. New favorite song is “911” … so feel free to hit me up. 😄 He’s vibing with the crowd and early on he gave the crowd an actual quick safety briefing: look out for each other, if someone needs help, turn on your phone light and signal the staff, and they’ll get assistance. Most people probably thought, “That’s nice.” My emergency management brain immediately thought, “Excellent use of a trusted messenger. Strong crowd management principles. Effective emergency communication strategy.” We literally discuss this in the NCS⁴ Southern Miss. sports and venue security classes—whether the talent can help communicate emergency instructions during an incident. After seeing him work the crowd tonight, I’m convinced he’d be the guy calmly saying, “Alright everybody, we’re going to shelter in place for a few minutes,” and thousands of people would actually listen. 😂 And I wonder if he asks about that kind of stuff…maybe it’s just me though! 😂😂 Fantastic concert, fantastic performer, and apparently a pretty good emergency communicator too. #preparedness #emergencymanagement #teddyswims #venuesecurity