Feb 4, 2021
Active Shooter And Threats to Event Safety
James Taylor interviewed Carol Cambridge and they talked about Active Shooter And Threats to Event Safety
In today's episode Carol Cambridge talked about, Active Shooter And Threats to Event Safety.
Carol Cambridge is CEO of The Stay Safe Project, an international conference speaker and workplace violence expert. She is on a mission to help people and organizations stay safe by being prepared and taking action from a place of strength not from a place of fear. Her career began as a communication specialist in emergency services and disaster preparedness with a Canadian Law Enforcement Agency. Today, 25 years later, Carol has taught over a quarter of a million people how to make good decisions. Highly profiled for her expertise, she is constantly sought by media for comments when workplace shootings and tragedies occur. Carol has been interviewed by ABC, NBC, USA Today, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation & News Channel Asia in Singapore.
What we cover:
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Emergency planning for events
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Active-shooters and terrorism at live events
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Working with local enforcement
Resources:
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Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/active-shooter-and-threats-to-event-safety-sl095/
James Taylor
Hi, it's James Taylor, founder of SpeakersU. Today's episode was first
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but not before you listen to today's episode.
Hey there, it's James Taylor, and I'm delighted today to be joined by Carol Cambridge. Carol Cambridge is CEO of the state safe project and international conference speaker and a workplace violence expert. She is on a mission to help people and organizations stay safe by being prepared and taking action from a place of strength, not a place of fear. Her career began as a communication specialist in emergency services and disaster preparedness with a Canadian law enforcement agency. Today 25 years later, Carol has taught over a quarter and a quarter million people how to make good decisions and credible number highly profiled for our expertise. She is constantly sought after by media for comments when workplace shootings and tragedies occur. Carol has been interviewed by ABC, NBC, USA Today Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and news channel Asia in Singapore. It's my great pleasure to have Carol join us today. So welcome, Carol,
Carol Cambridge
thank you. My pleasure to join you this morning, James.
James Taylor
So share with everyone what's going on in your world just now. What
are you currently working on at the moment?
Carol Cambridge
I guess more than anything, the inquiries I get are all around
active shooters, workplace violence in general, things that we
didn't see years ago, we're starting to see and it's becoming
almost commonplace. I hate to actually acknowledge that or to say
that, but it is becoming more commonplace, especially with event
planners, they're dealing with things in the last year, so that
weren't even on their radar five years ago. So across all
industries, I would say increase in violence increase in workplace
safety, security issues. And active shooter is probably the biggest
concern, at least in the United States. And I think globally,
people are starting to wake up and think, Hey, we have time now to
get prepared to take whatever steps necessary to maybe not be able
to eliminate but to reduce the risk of that ever happening.
James Taylor
Yeah, I know where I'm speaking to you from today, here in the UK,
you know, obviously terrorism has been a strong, you know, a big
one for many, many years and thinking about and preparing for those
as there's incredible work that's gone into around that. But in the
US, obviously gun crime is a bigger issue. And we've seen some
terrible occurrences recently as well. And you're I know, you're
often brought on to like news channels and TV shows to do that. Do
you ever feel sometimes I really wish I wasn't having to go back on
and do these do these interviews? Because you know, you're having
to? I know you're having to do, unfortunately, you have to do a lot
of them in a bad sense.
Carol Cambridge
Absolutely. And, you know, it's very sad. There's a recent study
been done out of the University of Alabama, that shows when there
is one bad incident like this, that almost always within a two week
period following there will be another severe incident, whether
that's in the UK, in Europe somewhere, whether that's in the United
States, but you know, my phone rings, I have more interviews, I
have people that wake up to the possibilities. So the unfortunate
part for me is every time there's a terrible incident, anywhere in
the world, my phone starts to ring.
James Taylor
Let's talk about how you came into this industry. I mentioned you
worked in law enforcement and helping those kind of agencies as
well. When did it when did the more the events side start for you?
When did that all begin?
Carol Cambridge
Well, I moved to the United States from Canada about 24 years ago.
And when I started into this business, I just saw that there was a
hole, I guess, in both corporate america and then probably just
five, six years ago, really in the events industry started to
realize that that event planners just weren't prepared. And this is
happening more and more. When I get hired to do. I do an active
shooter keynote, which I know sounds a little odd to do a keynote
on an active shooter, but we actually do a couple of mock drills.
And when I get hired to do something like that, I have something
that I send out to my client to help the event. planter, from the
point of insurance to talking to where the the event is going to be
located, whether that's a conference center or a hotel, but really
where they can combine forces. And what I realized going through
this is that most event planners are just not aware at all of the
potential for violence or what their role should be in this, I
think the UK and is probably further ahead. In this area, the
United States is getting there, but other countries are really far
far behind and smaller events, event planners who are maybe running
conferences for 150 people or 200. People, they have less knowledge
of what preparation that they need to be concerned about
James Taylor
is one of the reasons I was so keen to get to get you on here,
because I just feel it's such a, it's such an important issue at
this point as well. We're seeing obviously more and more
occurrences of this happening as well. And also with the the nature
of this event, we're doing just that as a global event. So I you
know, I know that frozen in the US and and also in the UK, they're
really at the forefront of some of these things as well. But I
wanted to get him get your knowledge to as many people as possible
because it could potentially save lives as well, when you were
starting in this business of actually talking about these things,
especially to meeting professionals, event professionals. Was there
any other kind of mentors or any other people you saw during that
time that we were doing this work? Or did you have to kind of forge
your own path,
Carol Cambridge
I think it really forged my own path. When I first started doing
this, I almost had to twist people's arms. And even now I just
spoke with a bureau speaker's bureau this morning, and let her know
that I have a last minute booking. And I know she had a couple of
people who maybe couldn't afford me. But I thought if I'm there
locally, maybe we could work out a deal. And she said, I can't
understand why I'm not booking you three or five times a day. She
said everybody needs this. But in the event planning industry,
there's a little bit of denial going on. I think people there's two
reasons I think people are in denial, they're afraid that if they
address these issues, or they address them with their audiences
that they're going to create fear with the audience. And then I
think secondly, they think that this is a negative or a downer, you
know, as a professional speaker, and presenter as you are, we know
how to work with audiences, I know how to take a traumatic topic, a
topic, that could be a real downer, but I make it, I almost
hesitate to use the word fun. But it's very experiential. And
audiences say they have fun, I'm constantly coming back as one of
the highest rated, and it isn't because necessarily what I'm doing.
But the way I choose to set up the program, it's extremely
experiential, it, there's not a talking head, I'm not the talking
head, everybody is involved, and everybody plays a role. And so I
think that's what makes it exciting. And, and attendees learn
better that way. So I'm starting to see where some event planners
are getting more and more calls, even in the last month, from event
planners who are more open to let's get our staff trained, let's
get our people trained, because if something does go wrong at one
of our events, we do have some liability there.
James Taylor
Now we're gonna get into some more specifics in a minute. But one
of the stats that I heard and I came up with you told me or maybe
it was one of one of my speaking colleagues was this 10 8010 rule
where this, I think they said it was, in the case of an event,
basically, 10% of people will actually actively do something to
help and to get things happening. 80% will do nothing, unless
they're given instructions from either the keynote speaker on stage
or someone there. And actually not and 10% will almost actively see
the wrong things to do. And actually, you know, get missed, not
intentional misdirection, but they're doing things which are not
helpful to deal with that situation as well. So when you're first
talking to going in and speaking to audiences about that, let's say
if you're if you're in a in a room, you're speaking in a room, what
are some of the first little things that the you kind of bring
their mind to and bring their attention to?
Carol Cambridge
Well, you're totally right. 80% do nothing and 80% do nothing from
the perspective that they don't know what to do. So people aren't
freezing out of fear. They're freezing because we haven't trained
ourselves. We don't have messages in our brain as to what to do. So
when I'm first with an audience, and let's say we're talking about
an active shooter incident, I'll actually run a drill probably five
to seven minutes, maybe after I start. And I actually watch
everybody, there's some warnings that I give to people. Of course,
I don't want anybody who might be susceptible to a heart attack or
anybody who's dealing with emotional illness or PTSD. I give them
warning. So I never surprised an audience with an active shooter
drill. But what I do is I allow them to do everything wrong. The
meeting players don't even really know what's going to happen. They
just know that I'm going to let everybody do what's wrong. And if
you think about it, most of us as adults have been trained, for
instance, what to do, if there's a fire alarm, what do we do we get
up, we orderly leave the room, most participants will leave the
room in exactly the same manner that they entered. So they don't
bother to look around at the other exits in the room, they don't
know what's behind closed doors. So they go out in a very orderly
fashion. Well, if it's an orderly fashion, and you're stacked up at
a door, and you have an active shooter that you don't know where
they are, all of a sudden, that person is going to take out a lot
of people, a lot of folks are going to be injured or killed. So
then when I bring people back in, we actually have the
conversation, and we do a debriefing. And the number one thing that
people will say to me is, I just left the room, I didn't even think
to look to see if I could find a shooter. I didn't, I didn't know I
could have been running right into him. So several things that
happen, people go out the doors, because they don't know anywhere
else we don't. We're not aware of situational awareness, we don't
pay attention to what else is going on around us. Secondly, we
follow the crowds. We do what everybody else is doing. Or Thirdly,
the people do your third point that that other 10% takes actions
that they probably shouldn't. In this example, many people will
pull a fire alarm because they think, Oh, I need to I need to be
the hero here. I'm going to warn other people, it's done with great
intent. Even meeting planners will pull a fire alarm. Well, what do
most of us do? If we're in a hotel venue and Conference Center, and
you hear a fire alarm? What normally happens, James, we sit back
and we wait, don't waste it.
James Taylor
And as you're saying that one of the things I'm I'm thinking of
just now is, you know, that happens. And I'm wondering here, what
the role of not just the event planner, let's say before and doing
things there. But what is potentially the role of the keynote
speaker, maybe the person that's up on stage or has that microphone
at that point, because that's that's a pretty powerful position to
have to be in when something like that happens. And you could go
either way there.
Carol Cambridge
Absolutely. We saw that in the horrific Las Vegas shooting that
just happened within the last month, the band when they realized
that there was shots being fired, the band turned off all the
lights, well, then there was great controversy. What do we do? Do
we shine the lights? Do we turn them on? Does that make people an
easier target for that active shooter? Or do we turn the lights
towards the active shooter? Well, in that particular incident, it
wouldn't have made a difference. But when you're in a controlled
environment, like a meeting space, it really is up to the speaker
who has control of the mic to give some directions. We often can
see better from the platform, we have a better view, we're often on
risers, and we can see the room, we can give advice to people.
Here's the biggest issue though. Many speakers don't go into the
room and see what's behind those closed doors. Are they fire exits
are those doors locked? So I think as a part of this, speakers,
event planners, vendors, the facility managers themselves, we all
need to start working together and create some checklists. And I do
have some checklists for your listeners if they want to email me
for that, on creating a safer event. And these will be really
important for speakers as well. Some of the information on there is
not only going to be what, what we do as professionals to help get
people out of the room. But what kinds of things can they do up
front in preparation for along with, you know, when do they hire
executive protection? When do they bring in law enforcement? Do you
have them in plain clothes Do you have them in uniform, and there's
lots of different reasons that you would want people in to appear
differently, and this white paper I have is going to address many
of those issues that they need to look at. So that we, as speakers
and event planners, we're not getting caught by all of these blind
spots that we have.
James Taylor
So that's interest, you know, in that role in terms of trying to
get as much as many things planned upfront as possible. I'm
interested to hear also from the speakers, I know, a lot of
speakers are attending this, and I've been in situations where I'll
be speaking at an event and where I've had a meeting beforehand
with one of the team, and there's been certain, I've been taught
about certain kind of code words and certain things in the case of
emergency that will be said and, and other procedures, but I would
say, it's pretty rare, you know, it's a relatively low number that
that's ever that's ever happened to me. Most of the time, you know,
you're not, you know, you're you have your AV check, and, and your
your PowerPoint presentation, and kind of you sit in the greenroom
and you go up and do your thing there as well. So, what should you
know, because this is a this is a point that other speakers we can
take about a leadership stage here as well. What should we be
asking those those? Those people are booking us, either on our pre
event calls? Or when we get on site itself? What are some of the
questions that we should be asking to ensure that we have at least
you know, we think about the entirety of our job, this is another
part of our job that we need to really have locked down? You know,
that's
Carol Cambridge
a great question. And it sparked some interest in me, I think I
need to write an article about exactly what speakers can do. Let me
share with you a couple of questions I asked. I want to know if the
association I'm speaking to or the event planner, do they know
anything? Do they know or anticipate protesters of any kind. Even
if it's a corporate event, I've had corporate events where the
corporation is launching a new product, and perhaps word has gotten
out that there may be something in that product, for instance, that
that might cause cancer? Well, an event planner, a speaker, we
would never think of asking that question. So we have to think and
ask that the event plant planner to check back with a client. Is
there anything that would create a protest? Is there anything that
would cause problems here? Give me another example. We have we had
a 21 year old woman shot dead at was it Hannover, Germany
James Taylor
at a wedding? I say
Carol Cambridge
to event planners, if it's a wedding asked do you expect an ex
husband and ex boyfriend and ex girlfriend to show up and cause
problems? So as speakers, we asked that question as well. Do you
anticipate any protesters? Do you expect anything negative to
happen as a result of this? I often asked the planner. Have you
connected with the hotel with the convention center? Do you have an
emergency plan in place? And does that include a plan in terms of
active shooter? Most of them will have a plan in place, but they
have a plan. If something goes wrong with the AV or somebody gets
injured or someone has a heart attack? I want to know Do they have
communications? Have they spoken with local law enforcement? If I
know that there's the potential for protesters, I take it upon
myself to call law enforcement, I will call the police chief in the
area that I'm speaking ahead of time and have that conversation
with them on a personal level. So I want to know what what they
anticipate for problems.
James Taylor
So you know, just as you as you're saying that, and I'm thinking I
mean, one of the things as we start to talk about this area, so
many other kind of follow up questions happen as well, because you
start you know, you think about, well, what's in this kit, and so
it can feel it can feel a little bit overwhelming, because this is
another thing that, you know, we have to think about. And we have
to develop, you know, if there was if there was someone's has an
event, let's say they've got an event coming up very, very soon, ie
within the next few weeks, you know, what are the two or three
things that you should be absolutely ensuring if they don't have a
huge amount of prep time, but they have some prep time that they
should be ensuring that they have together?
Carol Cambridge
Yeah, I want to know where the exits are. I want to know ahead of
time very often I actually asked the event planner to send me a
copy of the room that I'll be speaking in. And so I actually can
see where the exits are. If I have any issues, any problems with
that I can find out from the hotel or the conference room. I want
to know what safety briefings they are going to give or they expect
me to give, usually as a keynoter, it's someone before us that
gives that information, but I want to know if they address these
issues at all. And I give them guidance. I say to them, if you're
going to deliver this deliberate in a matter of fact way, just like
the safety briefings on an airplane, we're not terrified when we
hear those safety briefings, we shouldn't be terrified. And we
shouldn't be terrifying anybody in our audience with a safety
briefing. But I do think it's very important these days that we do
take the time to ensure that either we or the event plan or
whoever's introducing us, gives that information to our audiences.
So that's a question I would make sure up, will you be informing
people where the emergency exits are and where they should go in
the event of a problem? And I also think, if we have, the most
important question we can ask is, do they expect protesters? Do
they expect tourism? are we speaking in an area that is dangerous?
Any of those things, then would lead me to the next question? Will
you have executive protection on site in the form of off duty law
enforcement? Will they be dressed in suits? Will they have a
uniform on, I want to know who I can count on to help me in the
event of an emergency.
James Taylor
So most events will have some kind of event insurance. Our
insurance company is really starting to kind of catch up with this
and ensuring that when they're there, they have someone that's
looking to get cover of some sort of that the ensure that they have
some plan in place some in terms of looking at different risks and
have some preparedness in place. Or is I'm even insurances
companies maybe perhaps coming in to help provide some of that,
that that training, because I know there's, this is an area that's
relatively on spoken about. Obviously, event security is often more
spoken about. But things like this is less spoken about, using
insurance companies may be stepping up to the plate, a little
bit,
Carol Cambridge
not a lot, it's new to them, it's a new area, they really just have
started in the last year to 18 months addressing workplace violence
type issues. But I haven't seen too much in the event planning
portion of it, I think we are going to see more and more of that.
And I think when we have I spoke earlier about a controlled
environment, that's an inside environment like a ballroom, when you
have an outdoor event, that's I think, where insurance are much
more concerned insurance companies are then stepping up to the
plate. Because there's a much higher risk and a much higher
vulnerability in any kind of an outdoor event.
James Taylor
So let's get to this maybe some slightly lighter things now as
well. I know you're always speaking your your keynote, speaking all
over the place. Just now you're attending events all over the
place. Are there any any apps or online tools or resources you find
really useful to help you do the work that you do, especially when
you're having to travel and speak all these different events?
Carol Cambridge
You don't none that I can think of? And that gives me a great idea.
Maybe that's something I need to invent. But no, I don't know of
anything online as a tool at this point, that's going to make that
effective.
James Taylor
And what about I know whenever I go to speak events, there's
there's a couple of things that are always in my bag, I never go to
any event without having to mobike you know, for me, it's like my
clickers. And there's a couple of other things I have other any
things that you take to events and bearing in mind, because you
understand the safety, the security side a little bit more than
most of us, as well as anything that you have maybe have in there
that most people probably don't have. And they when they go to an
event,
Carol Cambridge
you know, nothing I take with me. But here's the thing, because I'm
familiar with it, I would even know how to lock a door. If you
think about it, if you were at an event and you got when that there
was an active shooter at the at the conference center, but your
people are safe inside there, we need to secure the doors. And most
of those event doors, they're just push handles to get quick
access. We don't they're not set up so that we can lock those doors
from the inside. But very quickly, I would be able to say to people
from the platform, who's got a belt, grab your belt, undo them, you
can tie them, secure them, lock them, you can put tables up against
those doors. Part of it is how do you secure the doors quickly. So
I don't think that I actually bring anything with me other than the
knowledge of how you could quickly secure yourself and keep the
audience safe and attempt to head hide some of those audience
members in that secure space.
James Taylor
If people you know they want to maybe go a little bit further into
it maybe to to kind of bring you out to their event or maybe their
their their they need some consulting or maybe they they actually
apartment Association, it's just really use someone like you coming
in where's the best place to go to? To find out about that,
Carol Cambridge
you can go directly to my website, which is www the stay safe
project.com is probably the easiest way I get notified within
seconds of somebody sending a message that way, and happy to help
happy to offer some consulting to help planners figure out what
they need to do and what some of their blind spots may be.
James Taylor
Well, Carol, it's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you today,
I think this is a this area is going to be something that people
will be talking about a lot more I know as a speaker, just speaking
to you and learning from you is incredibly valuable, because we
never know if we're going to be in a situation we may have to use
some of this this information as well. So thank you so much for
coming on. And also thank you so much for the work that you're
doing and helping training event professionals in this area.
Carol Cambridge
Well, I sure appreciate your time. And thank you for the idea. Now
I'm going to go back to work and I'm going to include in that safer
or creating a safer event I'm going to write down a list of things
that speakers can do to keep people safe so thank you for putting
that idea into my head.
James Taylor
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