Mass Gatherings Specialist
Join the growing movement of arts & event professionals who are creating a more resilient future for our communities. Unlock new career opportunities as a Mass Gatherings Specialist, building on many of the skills you already have.
Mass Gatherings Specialist
Join the growing movement of arts & event professionals who are creating a more resilient future for our communities. Unlock new career opportunities as a Mass Gatherings Specialist, building on many of the skills you already have.
Arts & Events
Emergency Response
Assist in the design, operation, or management of safe and accessible temporary spaces sheltering large numbers of people, including food, water, power, and waste management services. See details
Public Health
Make a difference as a community health worker, one of the fastest growing job markets. You’re also qualified to support cities and townships to design safe, accessible, culturally-informed spaces to meet evolving social needs, including homelessness.
Renewable Energy
Topics
Sound like you? Take a 4-minute survey to get started today!
Mass gatherings of all kinds share common structural characteristics, whether a music festival, refugee encampment, or emergency shelter. Mass Gatherings Specialists possess skills and knowledge relevant to the design, operation, and management of safe, accessible, sustainable, and community-responsive spaces and events.
Artists and event workers already have many of these skills, and they’ve long leapt into the role of first responders for their communities in times of crisis. The Mass Gatherings Specialists certification validates their existing abilities, equips them with new skills to enhance the resilience of spaces and events, and prepares them for meaningful cross-sector work with maximum job flexibility.
Safety Planning
Developing safety, emergency & evacuation plans, accounting for diverse abilities.
Solar Power
Designing and managing solar energy systems.
Human Factors
From crowd management to food, mental health, and wellness.
Accessible Design
Improving physical & sensory accessibility, language justice & overall inclusivity.
What is a Mass Gathering Specialist?
Mass Gathering Specialists possess cross-sector skills that qualify them for well-paying, meaningful jobs in the arts and entertainment, public health, emergency response, and renewable infrastructure.
Mass gatherings of all kinds share common structural characteristics, whether a music festival, refugee encampment, or emergency shelter. The same skills required to produce safe, accessible, sustainable live events are transferable to contexts requiring the development of temporary infrastructure, management of large groups of people, and support of community mental health and wellness.
With your certification, you’ll open up a world of new possibilities, from working on major concerts and festivals to leading disaster relief efforts to developing sustainable infrastructure. Your cross-training qualifies you to fill full-time, part-time and temporary/seasonal positions across a variety of major industries, letting you choose the jobs and skills that best meet your evolving life and career goals. Day to day you can take pride from using your talents to make a real difference in your community, helping to create a safer, more resilient, more prepared future for all.
Pre-register via our survey to start your journey today.
Case Study: Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
Betzaida Ramos Chárriez, executive director of the Movement for the Reach of Independent Living (MAVI) in Puerto Rico, and Dr. Arturo Massol-Deyá, executive director of Casa Pueblo, both experienced this firsthand during the tragedies that resulted from Hurricane Maria’s landfall in Puerto Rico in September 2018, and the subsequent failures of federal emergency management and response efforts.
What does a Mass Gatherings Specialist Do?
At a rural arts and music festival
A Mass Gatherings Specialist is an integral member of the event design and planning team from day one, evaluating and improving the event’s safety, accessibility, sustainability, as well as overall preparedness in the event of an emergency. They work closely with event operations staff to coordinate food, water, power, and waste management needs and accessible infrastructure. They communicate with vendors, industry and government stakeholders, and public/private safety professionals to ensure shared understanding and adherence to the structural values of the event, and to improve preparedness of everyone onsite in the event of an evacuation or emergency. Their role is also creative, together with the organizers helping bridge the values of the event to community needs and desires, and implementing relevant programming and services to match. Responsibilities might include:
- Perform risk and resilience assessments of the site
- Lead staff and volunteer training to increase competencies that enhance mass gathering resilience
- Develop a sustainability pledge for the festival and work with vendors to help achieve goals
- Design and install interventions to improve the physical accessibility of the site
- Plan, install, or maintain solar power and generator systems
- During the event, help service infrastructure and equipment and cover staff/volunteer shortages
- Incorporate crowd management principles and wayfinding best practices into site design
- Develop weather emergency plans, emergency scripts, and evacuation plans inclusive of a variety of physical abilities
- Prepare culturally-informed event communications
At post-evacuation temporary housing facilities
Mass Gatherings Specialists assist in the design, operation, or management of safe and accessible temporary spaces sheltering large numbers of people, including food, water, power, and waste management services. Their role may also comprise culturally-informed design and programming responsibilities that increase mental health and wellness of both evacuees and responders. Their abilities are broadly relevant to a variety of response and recovery contexts, including:
- Leading art therapy sessions with evacuees
- Incorporate crowd management principles and wayfinding best practices into site design
- Help plan healthy, culturally sensitive meals and coordinate necessary logistics
- Install or service sound and communications systems
- Plan, install, or maintain solar power and generator systems
- Perform risk and resilience assessments of the site
- Incorporate culturally-informed health and safety knowledge into response and recovery communications
- Conduct basic health screenings and triage injuries
- Design and install interventions to improve the physical accessibility of the site
What People are Saying
AENGUS FINNAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE FOLK ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL
Training like this helps us work more effectively with partners across the state around issues of climate change, public health, accessibility, conservation, and community benefit. This ‘whole community’ approach will help build North Carolina’s capacity in mitigating and preparing for the effects of climate change.
Reid Wilson, Secretary of the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
Before this, I myself had never stopped to think how everything we have been discussing with regard to [accessibility in] emergency planning could relate to mass gathering events. It was like an aha moment: in both cases, you have to make sure that you’re taking into consideration the needs of everyone.
