50th Episode Anniversary Podium Special: Mastering the Crowd: Safety, Trust, and AI in Modern Events - with Morten Therkildsen MSc

Don't Forget Your Tickets

Don’t Forget Your Tickets — Podium Special with Morten Therkildsen

What can a Japanese tea ceremony teach us about running safe football matches? Quite a lot, according to operational safety expert Morten Therkildsen.

In this special episode, one of our most downloaded guests returns to share lessons from his work across UEFA tournaments — from the Europa League and Champions League finals to stadium safety projects with clubs like Tottenham Hotspur — as well as Roskilde Festival and beyond.

🔑 Highlights from the conversation:

• The tea ceremony lesson: why even after 11 years as a “student,” you never stop learning — and why crowd managers should adopt the same mindset.
• Football vs. festival crowds: why competition changes everything — from how fans arrive, to how they act, to how risks develop.
• The Golem effect: how the way you think about your crowd shapes how they behave.
• The rise of AI in crowd safety: density monitoring, real-time decision support, and why tech should always complement, not replace, human expertise.
• Showstop procedures and prevention: what tragedies like Astroworld reminded the industry about acting before accidents happen.

Morten reminds us that whether it’s 100,000 festival-goers in Denmark or a packed Champions League final in London, operational excellence comes from trust, mindset, and a willingness to always be a student.

👉 Tune in for football insights, remarkable stories, and practical lessons from one of Europe’s most trusted voices in safety and crowd dynamics.

Don't Forget Your Tickets is powered by TicketCo and hosted by TicketCo’s CEO, Carl-Erik Michalsen Moberg. The podcast was originally named TicketingPodcast.com

Fejezetek

1. Introduction to Event Safety (00:00:00)

2. Roskilde Festival Safety Conference (00:04:57)

3. Festival vs Sports Audiences (00:08:58)

4. Balancing Security, Safety and Service (00:16:31)

5. Prevention vs Reaction in Event Safety (00:23:18)

6. AI in Crowd Management (00:27:38)

7. Morten's Future Projects (00:31:39)