WHAT DOES A COVID SAFETY OFFICER DO?

Hello, this is Les Goldberg, and welcome to The Road Ahead. The Road Ahead podcast is dedicated to the future of the live events business, bringing together industry experts. Hello, production world, this is Les Goldberg and The Road Ahead. Today I have two amazing guests. I have Terry Higgs, who's the founder of Thinc Worldwide. And I also have Tom Spital, who's the founder of Get Back Onsite. Guys, welcome to the show. Well, thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. Listen, today our show is dedicated to a brand new title to our industry. It is what is a Covid safety officer and what do they do? We're going to talk all about Covid safety. What is this role in our show, in our production world and our lives? So I'm going to throw it right to Tom and I'm going to say Tom with Get Back Onsite. Tell me, what does a Covid safety officer do. Explain it to the audience. So this is you know, this is a new position. This is a new department. This is a new part of our lives. So and it's also there's so many different names for this for this position, you know, Covid Compliance Advisor, Covid Compliance Officer, we have Infection Mitigation Coordinator. We have all these different names for this position, but they they are a dedicated person on the production staff now who's overseeing all the compliance protocols to protect, you know, to protect the health, you know, and provide the health and environment that that looks after the health and safety for all of our production peers. So so I'm going to throw this to Terry. Terry, could you maybe give me some granular things of what are the kind of things this person does, you know, when they get on site or in pre-production or kind of give us some of their actions or things that they really kind of do? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Choose your title, as Tom said, but the heavy lifting for Covid Compliance Officer really begins in pre-production. A lot of people tend to pivot to the fact that this may be sort of a hall monitor that is, you know, making sure everyone has a mask on, that everyone stay six feet apart. But but like all production work, doing good advanced work makes the on site part of the process much simpler. And I think one of the key things for Covid Safety officer is bringing all the despair disparate parties together in alignment, because Covid's new to all of us, and everyone has an opinion about it, and many of those opinions are valid. The venue has an opinion. Your and the client has an opinion. The venue security has an opinion, right? Production companies have an opinion, the creative company has an opinion and the labor provider has an opinion. So somebody has to correlate all that information, get it aligned with the state regulations that are in play and make it a cohesive plan. I just want you to know I have an opinion too, like everyone else had an opinion, so I might as well have an opinion just like everyone else. And in my opinion is we need to get back to the ballroom. We need to get back to work. So I'm throwing this to Tom. Tom, why is it important to have someone doing this job? Why is this what we'll call an essential position? Well, just, you know, just as a, you know, a Terry pointed out as well is need someone to be looking at the big picture to be able to, you know, have all these communications up front to identify what the appropriate procedures are. And, you know, what is the best method for that particular production. You know, because all of this, the, you know, we're working towards having standards put in place, but everything has to be created specifically for each individual production. You know, it has to be customized for those situations because, you know, in our production world we're a little bit unique in like, every production has so many different people coming in and not all the same ones all the time. So every, every time that we're going to be doing a new production, a new event, there has to be fresh eyes looking at it and making it customized for that. That is what this person needs to be doing, is needs to be that resource to be able to look at, you know, like I said, the big picture and make a, you know, and make an environment that is specific to that, that is looking after everyone's health and safety. So, Terry, when we think about a person doing this important role, would it would have impact that that role? If you think about different jurisdictions, well, maybe like you might be in Seattle and I might be in Florida today and the would any of that affect the the role or is the role the same role no matter where you are in the world? I think the role is the same wherever you are in the world. But of course, geographical location will impact the guidance that is required to be compliant in that specific region and something else that's come into play. It's been in play the entire time since Covid has affected our industry, but it's even coming back in play again in a in a more complicated manner. Is the different regional restrictions around travel right now, as we go into a third wave of Covid, many states are implementing either mandated or voluntary travel restrictions, and with production crews traveling and talent traveling, there's a whole new level of complication as to how you put together your overall Covid plan. Not have someone trapped in a foreign state and not be able to return home to their resident state. You know what's interesting? We have a lot of physical studios around the country in our in our different offices. But sometimes because of health and safety, the leadership of a company might be in a certain location, and they want us to set up a physical studio close to them so their executives don't have to leave that that physical area, and they feel very safe. And it's one of those things that we've learned. So not only are we have studios where people come to, but we have to bring the studio to them. And that brings me to my next question. This is to Tom. How will safety play a part in a presenters feeling of comfort to come and participate in an event? So what I just kind of laid out is that some of our clients want us to build studios in their office locations so that their, you know, executive leadership or they're presenters all feel very comfortable. How will this safety officer instill a level of confidence in the people that are presenting and participating in the show? Well, I think the first step of that is that that they are actually there just by having the production company, you know, have the have the forethought to hire this position, you know, it is you know, it is identifying that they're taking all of this very seriously, you know, and, you know, putting, you know, putting on the hat of being a client. I would want to see that, you know, the folks that we, you know, that we'd be hiring are taking this very seriously. I think, you know, I, I think this position is going to be around for a while because you need, you know, you need to see that, like I said, that all of these points are being taken seriously. And I think by having this person in position that that's identifying it. So so, Terry, do you think there's a what I'll call the optics of people on site that by having, as Tom said, this position there, it kind of sets a tone. And, you know, people become more comfortable just knowing we're going through and doing all these little things. So it kind of it sets a tone where people just feel better about coming and participating. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, optics I think are important, right? Some people may look at that and think that it's. The Tom used a word before. What did you call it, Tom? Medical theater. Is that what you used? Health. Health theater? Theater is that, you know, optics are important. Doing things like temperature checks, doing things like having rapid testing available, having a Covid safety officer on site that is there to answer questions because we have found in in the jobs you've actually executed. One of the greatest value props that comes from this is having a nonpartisan party on site that anyone can come to and bring a concern that they may have, or an observation they may have, or just for further education. They come because they want to understand why we're in, why we are implementing certain protocols. And that has greatly relieved a lot of sort of unnecessary stress and anxiety that clients and vendors have had in projects. Well, no one wants to have unnecessary stress and anxiety. Me for first and foremost, I want to go on the record about that. But but you said something and I'm going to throw this back to Tom. You mentioned about testing on site. Tom, what are your thoughts about the idea that there's a person doing Covid testing on site? And I would have to imagine that would be the rapid 15 minute test, which has a less what I would say, a less specific target rate of the result. It has a little bit more wiggle room than the PCR test. So do you see rapid testing on site on shows? Is that something that we'll see? Well, I mean we are seeing that, you know, and, you know, as Terry was saying, it is there. Yes. Part of that is optics. You know, the rapid test ones are, you know, for antigens, which are of course different than the PCR. The PCR tests are the ones that, you know, you identified that you have the that you have the virus and such, but they're the ones that take right now, you know, the 48 to 72 hours turn around to the lab and all that. The rapid ones are like said antigen. Again, it is a step that, you know, you go on site and saying, oh yeah, we're going to be tested. I feel someone's taking, you know, taking my, my, my, my health seriously, you know. And so, yes, I think part of it is optics, but it's also showing the commitment to how important, you know, our staff are. Our staff is. So. Yeah. And I think it's, you know, the technology is only going to get better. I would think less. So I think it's going to be around for a while. And then you know, we look at look at all the great news we're getting about vaccines, hoping that they really are progressing as quickly and efficiently as they as they are are. You know, we're hearing, you know, because that's that's only that's only going to help us, you know. So. Oh for sure. If they had a vaccine I could take today I'm in. The only thing I don't want to do is get a placebo because I wouldn't feel as excited. And today they don't, you know, unless, you know, you're getting the vaccine, you might be getting the placebo. So to Terry, how do you overcome the fear of either crew or prisoners or anyone involved when they, you know, people are kind of a little bit concerned? Do you think they call the Covid safety officer or the production team gets that person involved and says, let me talk to them and let them know. Is it something that maybe you put out a written document that says, these are the things we're doing to preventative measures to protect all parties involved? What are your thoughts on that? Absolutely, yeah. It goes that goes back to the part of the sort of preparation, great planning and education, because the Covid officer's role, one of the most significant things they can bring to the table is education, right. Somebody that is thoroughly educated on the topic and make that available to people. When we execute on projects from the beginning of the pre-production phase, the Covid officers personal information is shared with the entire production team and is available 24 over seven right through the entire production, and you would be shocked at the amount of. Individual reach out. That happens where people just have questions they want answered that help to put their fears at rest. So it means that it's a brand new thing. Education, education education. Right. Got it. All right. So this is going to be a zinger question for you guys. So fasten your seatbelt. We're on show site. Everybody's doing their thing. The client's presenting. We're maybe we have a studio environment where we're doing a virtual event. And And Tom, what happens if someone says I, I comes up with Covid, maybe someone has a fever and they do a test, and all of a sudden that person now has symptoms and does the show continue? What happens? Like what is the is there a master plan is we have to worry about the client getting sick. And I've had that experience already. We're worried about the crew getting sick or any combination there too, or the Covid safety officer is getting sick. That's the worst case scenario. Well, I mean, you, you, you hit the big that that of course is the big question. And you know, they're they're currently there are no laws in place. There is no this is the way legally what we're needing to do. Everyone is currently asked to be coming up with their own sort of plans, you know. So this goes back to the, you know, the pre-show. You know, all of these types of questions need to be identified with the client, with the meeting planner, with, you know, with the venue, with all that, you know, all these specific questions. You know, there's one that I have been in, you know, my presentation I do that I bring up. Is that okay? So you have this person that gets sick on side. So of course they need to quarantine. You know, that's the first step is to separate them from the from the mass as well. So they are separated. So they've traveled in. They are on site. So do they quarantine at the venue okay. For 14 days okay. They're quarantined. Who pays for that. Who's paying for that room. And then is that person getting paid? You know all these types of questions. There are no rules. All these have to be discussed up front and identify, you know, force majeure is its own is its is its own thing. But does that, you know, as this is a pandemic, does that come into play with with all of these. So you know, your question as to what do you do? It has to be identified specifically for each event. But that's the first thing is to separate them. And then, you know, the discussion up front has to be made. And that's on part of the pre-show checklist of identifying, you know, who has the ability to cancel the show, who has that ability to be able to say, we're stopping this now. And, you know, there are so many, you know, legal ramifications, financial, all of that and ethical, you know, ramifications to this. So, you know, it's not a simple question, you know, but it is the most important question. I told you it was a zinger when I came in. And now I'm going to ask I'm going to continue the zinger question. So Terry, we're on site. We're doing a big show. We got a crew of 20 people where everyone's socially distanced and and someone, whether it's the client and it could be the client too, because that's a whole set of variables out of our control, what the client does and how they act. But it could be a client or it could be a crew member. And let's say let's go down the path that Tom said, we're going to isolate the person. We're going to quarantine them. So does the show continue? Is there a cleaning requirement for the environment? And we take a break and let the a cleaning crew come in and sterilize everything. What's the your thoughts on how does the show continue and and what would be a strategy that we should consider. Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, again, it goes back to the pre-production side of this. And it's probably the hardest part of working through a pre-production Covid strategy, which is writing what we call an incident response plan. And the incident response plan has to take into account all of the potential variables, right? I mean, it could be a Covid positive case, a case that's that's discovered on site. It could be somebody that's working in your production who has had somebody at home that's just tested positive for Covid. And because every different situation has a different level of risk associated with it, right. If your crew is not in a complete bubble and your crew is going home every night and socializing at whatever levels, which you can't control as a production team, you know, there's a certain level of risk. If you're in a complete bubble, there's a lower level of risk. So the incident response plan needs to take into account all these different scenarios and a good incident response plan, which is developed before you get on site, means that it takes this emotional connection away from making the decisions. When any one of those particular Covid exposures happens, a secondary rate exposure, somebody at home with somebody else's positive versus a actual positive test on site, and then that incident response plan gets put into place or it gets activated. So whether that is a we shut the production down for a specific period of time and go through an in-depth cleaning process, or we have to shut the production down 100% based on the risk around the specific situation, or was the risk really relatively low? And you can continue to move on safely. So there's no single answer to any of that. And just like there's no single answer to any incident response plan for any hazard. So my advice is this have the hard conversations before you get into production. You know what happens if a key person like a client, or what happens if a key person like your video director comes down with Covid? What are the responsible steps to take at that point? Well, so so you brought up that issue. But let's just say it's your video director. I said, you know, we have to have time to find a replacement person and be able to respond and react. And it could be any position on the crew. But obviously there are positions that are we'll call a more mission critical in key roles. And then there are more support roles. So it's an interesting and interesting conundrum that we're in. It sounds very, very interesting, but it's I like your incident plan up front having the tough conversations. That makes a really, really big difference. So people at least are prepared for it. So, Tom, how long will a safety officer be involved in the event business? How long will we be talking about a Covid safety person on site? It's a whole nother position. It's like a show caller. I got camera guys, I got audio guys, I got lighting guys, I got rigging guys, and now I got a Covid safe temperature. Will we be talking about this in a year and two years? How long will this role, you know, last in your opinion. Well you know so saying that it's just it's the officer. It's actually a new department. You know thinking you know, there there is a there's a compliance department. Now that is part of the team. Just like there's video and audio and lighting and rigging and all that. And with that, you know, I think there's going to be, you know, once this, you know, everyone's getting used to this scenario. You know, the initial answer hopefully not long at all. I guess that's the that's the that's the answer. We're all hoping, hoping know where the vaccine is going to be miraculous. And we're all going to be healthy and everything's going to be fantastic. I don't see that really happening very quickly, you know? But I do I mean, the protocols that are going to be that are being put in place are really looking, looking after everyone's health and safety. I mean, that's really what they are. And is that a bad thing. So to see if this goes away completely, you know, this this this department goes away completely. I'm not sure. You know, I you know, because it is it is working in a good direction for taking care of people. And, and we've just never had to experience it before. But now, you know, again, it's brand new. So not exactly a definitive answer that you're looking for, but I think time and date. But that's okay. It was it was a pretty you gave me a roundabout thing. You gave me kind of a zone. If this happens and that happens, then it's probably but but ultimately it doesn't sound like it's a bad thing to to take care of the safety and the welfare of the people. I know, Terry, you have a very big rigging background. We've worked together for years and rigging as well. And and obviously, you know, the health and safety of the rigors is like such an important thing. It's always been important. And now now we're talking about the health and safety of the entire crew and, and making sure that we created an environment which is safe for the, the presenters. You know, we you know, we're talking about so far in these smaller environments, but we're soon going to go back to larger environments and venues, and it just complicates it even more as you get a bigger footprint and more people, and it just multiplies all the potential issues you have to deal with. So, Terry, I'm going to throw you my final question, and I'm going to get Ben Tom to answer this as well. It's will vaccines and therapeutics impact the future of our business. And and in what way do you feel like it's going to do and the time frame, do you think it's a 2021, a 2022? You know how you know, it's great that I turned on the news today. And they, you know, Moderna and Pfizer have these great vaccines, as Tom referred to. But how long will it be before I have got a vaccination? And I am a very motivated back, sir. And there are some people that are anti-vax that will never get vaccinated. There's some people that are going to wait about a month or so and make sure nobody drops dead. What are your thoughts on how the vaccine and the therapeutics and the therapeutic? So obviously allow anyone who gets sick to get, you know, get better quicker. How will they ultimately impact our industry. And and when do you see us back in the ballroom? Wow. Yeah, that is a good one. That's a big question. Yes. So Terry, tell us right. Here we go. I gave you a crystal ball. I'm glad I have this answer for everybody because everyone's going to want to hear this. And I, like everyone else, do not know. I mean, there's obviously there's no there's no doubt that the vaccination, you know, the requirement of vaccination is, is the it is the cornerstone of what's going to get us back into even medium sized, you know, small to medium size and ultimately large events. Right. The timing on it. I have no idea how to predict the timing on it. I would think that should. Vaccinations start to become available, should good Covid protocols be maintained on a really a social level, in other words, good mask wearing, good social distancing, people being smart around things like Thanksgiving and Christmas and etc. and we actually get the country through this third wave and moving in the right direction, that it seems plausible that sometime in 2021, we're actually starting to see some level of small events. Personally, I don't believe we're seeing full scale projects until I say a full scale project. I mean arenas and stadiums full operating at a normal level of business with all the rental companies and creative companies and production companies firing on all cylinders until late in 2021 or 2022, unfortunately. Well, you don't sound like a lot of fun. 21. Right? Same question. Give us your vaccination therapeutics future crystal ball impact on our business. You know, can you tell us when you think we're even back in even a small way or not necessarily a meaningful, you know, full throttle like he's describing and arenas and, you know, stadiums. Well, so just as you know, agreeing completely with, with Terry is, you know, the once the, you know, the the vaccine as is been identified and it's, you know, starting to be administered in all that. That's that's great. Of course it's going to take what year for you know, however whatever that period of time because you know, there's the supply, there's you know, how it actually is happening. You know, all of those sort of things. So that that that is the solution to the Covid, you know, problem. But you know, so Terry's, you know, company in my, my own setup currently it's the model of pre you know pre seen you know doing events pre vaccine. So still creating the model. So being able to still go in with the protocols you know being able to work very intelligently and also in a very compliant manner. You know thinking you know the whole purpose that we're you know we've created our the, you know, our respective businesses is to give production companies that folks someplace to start from, you know, to be able to say, hey, these folks are thinking about our health and safety, and now we can go to them to be able to set up these environments where we can we can safely do, you know, events before the vaccine is actually, you know, done in curing everyone. So I'm a little bit, you know, optimistic about being able to start doing smaller events earlier but small. You know, obviously we we all are become favorite use of the word hybrid events. You know. But you will you know going in and doing, you know building the home base studio type, whatever it is that is going to be streamed, you know, the event will be streamed out, but I think that is a much more doable project. Preval scene. You know, it's long as you know, the environment has been set up and in place to be able to, you know, to do that and, and also allow people to have, you know, have confidence, you know, that this is possible, you know, but I do I, that I'm actually optimistic of, of being able to do this so. Well, guys, what you're doing is incredibly important to our industry. Between both Tom and Terry, you guys are Covid protocol. And you're working in the world and getting the production companies and the staff and the personnel, the education and setting the standards so everyone can get back to work. So I applaud both of you for your efforts in this industry, and I look forward to getting back to a ballroom in some capacity with both of you in the near term. And I appreciate what you're doing for the industry as well as providing great service. And thank you to Terry and thank you to Tom. And this is Les Goldberg and The Road Ahead, guys. Great job. Thanks, Les. Thanks, Les.