It’s because of her own love for festivals, that Catherine Curtin went to the University of South Carolina to earn a degree in sport and entertainment management, with an eye towards a career in the live events industry.
But it was because of her fear of what could happen in those large crowd gatherings at these festivals and other events she loves so much that this deep thinking, ever smiling and always helpful young woman become an inventor.
In a nutshell, that tells the story of Catherine Curtin of Atlantic Highlands, NJ, and her patent pending Crowd Cushion that is already sought after in Europe and Asia, and marketed right from Monmouth County.
Catherine said she always loved shows and entertainment of any kind, always liked being at the most popular venues for the most sought after events. But as she got older, she started realizing that in some situations, she felt genuinely unsafe in the crowd.
“That really stuck with me,” she said, “because there are environments that are supposed to be fun and freeing….but instead, at times, they felt overwhelming.”
Th daughter of Tricia and Dan Curtin, a pair of entrepreneurs and thoughtful volunteers ready to help in any situation where they feel a need, Catherine knew she had to do something. After all, she thought, if she felt uncomfortable in places she really loved to be, there must be others in the same predicament.
Her family runs Comprise Technologies, a New Jersey-based company that’s been in business for about 30 years and focuses on customer service software for public agencies. Her father, Dan built the company from the ground up. And Catherine readily points out that growing up around that entrepreneurial environment had a huge impact on here and gave confidence to build something of my own.
She knows she also inherited her parents dedication to hard work and compassion for helping others; she volunteers at the our Lady of Perpetual Help Food Pantry in Highlands her parents started more than 20 years ago at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church and continue to operate for all those in need in the Highlands area.
Talking about how she came about becoming an inventor, Catherine explains “ I’ve been in crowds where I felt unsafe, where I fell and genuinely worried about being trampled,
“That feeling stays with you. It made me realize how quickly things can escalate and how little visibility there is in those moments.: That’s what pushed me to create something that could prevent that from happening to others.
Rather than complain about it, or stop going to events she enjoyed … Catherine decided she had to do something to relieve the stress and make it possible for everyone, especially young people enthusiastic about sports and entertainment, to feel safe.
It was the Astro World tragedy that set Catherine inventive brain cells into motion.
It was in November, five years ago, that a fatal crowd crush occurred during the Astro world Festival, an annual musical event hosted by American rapper Travis Scott at NRG Park in Houston Texas. Eight people died in that incident that day, and another two more died in the hospital a few days later. The medical examiner in charge of the investigation listed the cause of death as compressive asphyxiation, literally being crushed to death by the crowd. Although it was ruled an accident, it was a tragedy that set the entire industry asking the same question: how can we better understand and manage crowd pressure before it becomes dangerous?
At the same time, Catherine was working on a school project at South Carolina focused on preventing crowd surges, “Everything kind of clicked. I realized there wasn’t a real-time, data-driven way to measure what people at the barricade were actually experiencing physically.”
So it was this combination … Catherine’s own personal fears in crowds, her education in sports and entertainment, and what was happening in the industry, that ultimately led to her creation of the Crowd Cushion.
Catherine’s unique invention is a sensor-equipped barricade cushion that measures crowd pressure and sends real-time alerts when levels become unsafe. It’s unusual and waiting on a patent because it is unique in that it measures actual physical force, not simply visual clues. To get to her eventual safe Cushion, Catherine and those working with her explored other ideas, including cameras or manual monitoring. “But those rely too much on interpretation and can miss critical moments.,” she said, something that wasn’t good enough for an investigative and questioning woman with a goal of helping prevent accidents.
Over the past few years, Catherine continued to improve on her original Cushion, to the point the system itself has already evolved into something even more efficient. For instance, there is a digital command center so the system can be monitored remotely; there are wearable-style pagers that vibrate when alerts happen, and text message alerts for security teams to keep informed and up to date on specific situations. There is even an artist-facing light so performers on the other side of the Crowd Cushion can help calm the crowd in real time.
The Crowd Cushion borne of Catherine’s own fear is best used today at festivals with large crowds, pit environments, high-density concerns and any place where stage-front barricades should be in use to prevent another Astro World Crowd Crush.
Catherine is quick to put out her invention is a full-time effort and she has worked with engineers, developers and industry professionals to try, test, eliminate, expand and bring this product to life. She said her team has relied heavily on feedback from people who work in crowd safety to ensure the system is practical, not simply an innovative usable invention that can take on real-world environments.
She is accomplishing what she set out to do. Already, Crowd Cushion has been deployed at dozens of shows; in more than a third of them, the system generated alerts, meaning it identified potentially unsafe pressure levels in real time . Some of those alerts lasted more than 20 seconds, which shows how critical early detection can be. She has already expanded internationally, including at large-scale festivals in Saudi Arabia. She has permanent installations at venues including the Stone Pony and Alerus Center.
Beyond that, it is obvious that brand recognition has really grown—people in the industry are starting to understand that Catherine Curtin and her Crowd Cushion is here to stay.
She continues to work to make entertainers and their managers aware of the benefits of the Crowd Cushion. For Catherine, it’s simply “I want Crowd Cushion to be something event organizers rely on—not just in emergencies, but as part of everyday planning—so teams can make faster, smarter, data-driven decisions.. The goal is to make proactive safety the standard at live events.
And all the work has certainly been a lot of fun, too, Catherine admits. “One of the biggest highlights has been traveling internationally for events and seeing Crowd Cushion used in completely different environments. From local venues to massive global festivals, it’s been incredible to watch something that started as an idea actually working in the real world.
So what’s next? “I think one key piece is that Crowd Cushion is about shifting the mindset from reactive to proactive safety. Everyone deserves to feel safe while enjoying those moments, and if we have the ability to prevent harm, we have a responsibility to do so. At the end of the day, I’m a fan. I love live music. This is about protecting that experience so people can enjoy it safely!
I want to continue building solutions that make a real impact. Whether that’s in live events or beyond, I’m driven by creating things that genuinely improve people’s safety and experiences.
Because live events are about bringing people together.
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