We’re in New Orleans from April 18-19th to present the inaugural ReadyWhen foundations training in Event & Emergency Operations, the pre-conference for the International Foundation for Cultural Property Professionals. Learn more about the new certificate program or explore the complete schedule, resources and more:

Program Details

Want to know how your community would fare in a future disaster?

Visit its events and venues today.

The same waste, water & power systems

The same crowd management skills

Feeding people at scale

The same communications capacity

Multi-Agency Coordination

Disasters are testing the strength of America. But we can be #ReadyWhen it matters most.

Weather disasters now strike every four days on average, causing $182 billion in damages and displacing 11 million Americans every year. Over 95% of Americans live in counties that have experienced major disasters in the last 15 years. Traditional emergency systems are overwhelmed and understaffed.

But there’s a solution hiding in plain sight.

Millions of people with the exact skills needed to plan for & recover from disasters already live & work in communities across the country.

They’re your festival producers, coordinating complex logistics under pressure. The venue operators who manage crowds, power, communications, and safety systems daily. Your local community centers and houses of worship that maintain trusted networks and serve as natural gathering places.

We've been here before.

In the 1970s, a radical idea transformed emergency response: what if medics returning from Vietnam received advanced training to deliver life-saving care before patients reached the hospital? Within a decade, accident-related deaths dropped 40% and survival rates tripled for people in cardiac arrest. It was the birth of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system as we know it today.

America is ready for a similar transformation today.

Disaster readiness isn’t a political issue. It’s about honoring the most basic rights of all Americans: protecting our lives, our livelihoods, and the communities we call home.

The infrastructure exists. The workforce exists. The knowledge exists. These aren’t theoretical assets—they’re active community anchors equipped with sound systems, kitchens, staging areas, and most importantly, public trust. They’re professionals who routinely “build a city in a day” at events—exactly the skills communities need during disasters.

And they're ready.

Ready for that last mile of integrated training to become critical partners in disaster preparedness. #ReadyWhen we design the systems to coordinate local response. #ReadyWhen we bridge the gap between everyday resilience and emergency readiness.

We can continue the current approach and watch our cultural infrastructure wash away in the next major storm, along with so many lives and livelihoods. Or we can fund emergency preparedness in a way that makes sense for Americans, at a scale commensurate with the risks we face.