Large Gatherings/Dangerous Crowds! - Become a Crowd Manager

The role of the Crowd Manager is simple: Prevent a sudden crowd surge that may cause injury or death.

The Crowd Manager Course satisfies the requirement from NFPA in a “place of assembly” that hold 50 or more people. We choose to come together or “assemble” in this way for recreational, business and worship reasons.

This class prepares you and/or your event staff with the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to fulfill these roles and responsibilities:

• Assess the venue for hazards
• Create a facility plan
• Evaluate all hazards including severe weather and violence
• Safely manage and direct a group of 50 or more people that assemble for business, recreation, worship or business reasons.

Class time is expected to be 3-4 hours with case study and case study quizzes. These types of assembly are all around us in every size community every day (and night) and may include:

Armories

Assembly Halls

Auditoriums

Bowling Lanes

Club Rooms

College classrooms

Courtrooms

Dance Halls

Drinking Establishments

Exhibition Halls

Gymnasiums

Libraries

Mortuary chapels

Motion picture theaters

Museums

Passenger stations

Places of religious worship

Pool rooms

Recreation piers

Restaurants

Skating rinks

Special amusement buildings (i.e.: haunted houses)

Theaters

Fundraiser events

Non-profit events

During an emergency, event patrons often have to make decisions about where the best exit is located, when to exit and how to remain safe. The crowd manager plans for emergencies at each venue to keep people safe. They can manage and direct the audience to a safe exit before injury or death occurs.

You will study crowd psychology and learn the FIST method of management:

F -The Crowd Force (or energy)

I -The Information upon which the crowd acts

S -The physical Space involved both in terms of individual density and larger scale architectural features

T- Time the duration of the incident.

Terms you will know at the end of the class are:

Critical occupancy-Critical occupancy is the gradual accumulation and overloading of a pedestrian space, beginning at levels below 3 ft²/person (0.28 m²/person) until it reaches the plan view area of the human body of about 1.3 to 1.5 ft² (0.12 to 0.14 m²).

Flight Response-The flight response occurs where people are fleeing either from a real threat, such as a fire or explosion, or from a perceived, but otherwise nonthreatening, event. Flight responses may be labeled as panics and stampedes, but closer examination shows that rapid group movement away from the threat was a reasonable reaction.

Craze-A craze is a competitive rush to obtain some highly valued objective. Crazes may happen when spectators attempt to get closer to celebrities, gain entry into a popular event, or, more unfortunately, where food is being distributed to starving victims of a disaster.

Crowd Surge-A crowd surge occurs when the energy of a crowd increases to the point the crowd surges forward in a wave. In this class you will study the effects of a crowd surge and see a crowd surge in action.

Crowd Manager Supervisor-A crowd manager supervisor receives additional training in incident management, planning and directing their team. Crowd Managers have a higher level of training and may fulfill duties in the event command room or command post along with public safety, event management, venue management, ambulance services and other partners. If you have questions: Instructor Accessibility is guaranteed through the online class messaging system and email.