Crowd Cushion. Maybe it was the University of South Carolina where she got her degree and the professor who assigned a particular lesson. Or maybe it was her own love of festivals and the sense of comfort and friendliness attending them gave to her.
Maybe it’s the fact her parents are energetic and own a thriving business with both knowledge and capabilities for developing intricate technological equipment.
Or maybe it’s the friends and smart folks she have met along the way who are eager to help make her idea a success.
Or perhaps it was her own fear of being crushed and injured or killed at a popular festival where the crowds were overwhelming.
Whatever it is, 23-year-old Catherine Curtin, attractive, vivacious, full of enthusiasm and energy bouncing off the wall, is well on her way to providing a safer, more enjoyable atmosphere for people of all ages who love the crush and rush of being in the pit at festivals or popular public events.
Curtin, the daughter of Dan and Tricia Curtin, owners of Comprise Technologies, Route 36, Middletown, planned on studying public health when she enrolled at the South Carolina university after graduation from Red Bank Catholic High School.
It only took her one day in that course, however, and she knew it wasn’t for her. Rather, she found out, the university known for its Gamecocks has a little known or offered Sports and Management program where she could continue to plan events as she loved to do and get a degree in that specialized field at the same time learning safety and design and planning measures. So, she switched majors and met her professor, Laura Truell.
For the first two years, Curtin attended all her classes, did well, loved college life, and continued to attend the music festivals she had always loved. She also worked summers at Manasquan River Golf Course where she was shopping manager and could redesign and help organize events.
Then she and the rest of the world heard the awful tragedies at Astro World, the Houston festival where nine people were killed and hundreds injured after overenthusiastic and under-protected concert goers rushed and stormed the stage during a Rapper Travis Scott concert, crushing to death other concert goers in their abandonment of any control.
Back in the classroom, Professor Truell made her students think about the tragedy and how it was their obligation as event planners to know more about it. Her assignment: what could have been done to prevent this tragedy.
Like the others in class, Curtin thought about the assignment and in talking with classmates, decided some kind of alert or warning system should be installed before crowds got so large and uncontrollable.
She attended another concert that was not the size of the Houston tragedy, but where she herself was crushed in a crowd, lifted off her feet and felt herself swaying in the air, not able to control her own motions. It scared her.
While the last two years of college were under Covid regulations, Curtin, like anyone else who thought about it, knew once restrictions were lifted, a hungry crowd for music, entertainment, togetherness and the joy of friends enjoying life together would create even bigger and better events along with more uncontrollable crowds.
In telling her parents about her idea for a pre-tragedy warning system, Curtin’s father, with his background in software technology, calmly told his daughter, “We can do this.”
Since she was six years old, Catherine had always been a part of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. A tradition had started long before she was born when her mom was employed at Macy’s and eagerly signed on when they needed volunteers to work the day of the Parade, helping with the inflated balloons. Dan and Tricia both continued to volunteer for the event after they were married, and when Catherine was old enough, she was part of the volunteers along the parade route.
So, Dan remembered the mastermind behind all those inflatables, the hard working and ever alert “inflatable man” who worked for Macy’s, John Piper of Pearl River. “John was the perfect man to go to,” Curtin said, “he was the life of the Macy’s parade, he was the idea man, the designer, the everything that makes that event so perfect.” Curtin explained he thought between his technology and Piper’s inflatables, the Crowd Cushion could become a reality.
They tried, they experimented, and they decided, inflatables could simply not be strong enough to ensure the control they wanted.
Rethinking, Don recalled so many incidents when their dog, Johnny, had shredded up pillow and cushions and the senior Curtin then hoped his next idea in helping his daughter design what she had dreamed up could work. To save cushions from Johnny’s playful tearing them apart, Kerry Wilkens, owners of Jean’s Canvas on Route 36 in Middletown, had designed a strong but comfortable cushion that even Johnny could not tear apart.
When the Curtains presented Wilkens with their need, he understood what they needed immediately and set about showing them how he could create the kind of cushion Catherine had only envisioned. Then Dan, using his team of more than half a dozen employees at Comprise Technologies, helped Catherine design the software that would be tucked inside the cushion.
And Crowd Cushion was on the way.
Crowd Cushion, already pending a patent, is designed to line the barricades body level at any crowd event. Unseen by the crowd, but easily spotted both on stage and by the team of security people both near the stage as well as in the security rooms armed with cameras of the crowd, were lights. Once the pressure of crowds jamming a specific area reached a specific level, the software created by the senior Curtin would set off the red light, security could rush to that specific area, and dispel or disperse any crowd before levels got to a dangerous point. It seemed to work, it seemed to make sense, and the Curtains wanted more. They had to test it in large crowds to be certain.
As it happened, one of those two dozen Comprise Technologies employees also played drums at the Stone Pony, the Asbury Park pub made famous by Bruce Springsteen, another Monmouth County marvel. He broached the possibility of testing out the new invention at the Stone Pony and they accepted and encouraged the idea.
Manager Caroline O’Toole thought was an idea well worth trying and enabled Crowd Cushion to be installed for more than 20 concerts over this past summer. “We think it’s a great idea, “O’Toole said, “Our fans love it.”
That part came as a pleasant surprise, Catherine laughs now, the crowds liking it. The Crowd Cushions were noticed by fans who liked the comfort and softness of a cushion rather than a hard plastic or wood barricade as they rushed to get in the pit and closer to the stage. “Having fans like it, having more security in place, having what could be a dangerous situation eradicated before it even begins…what more could you want?”
So, the Curtains and their team members spent the summer in their experiment and testing phase, lining the barricades with the Crowd Cushions, even putting on the Stone Pony logo for an even more attractive appearance. They set up their equipment and monitoring system for all the concerts this summer, made minor changes to compensate any minor flaws they could improve upon and saw the Crowd Cushion work effectively., When the red light went off, as it did several times over the summer, security could see the precise location where it was occurring and rushed to it to take whatever action was necessary long before there was any of the swaying, feet off the ground, or even build-up of too great a crowd to handle.
“We liked working with them,” O’Toole continued, referring to the Curtains, “we’re looking forward to having them back this year.”
And back to Stone Pony we will go, Catherine nodded excitedly. “They were wonderful to take a chance, to find out that my idea really could work. We’re thrilled to be going back.”
In addition to the obvious improvements of safety standards, and the crowd liking the cushioned barricades, Catherine and customers have realized so many other benefits. For instance, venues are required to have insurance for their events; being able to provide a capable proven method of crowd control can help with the costs of that insurance.
Festival presenters have several options. They can outright purchase Crowd Cushions if they are a regular site for venues. Or they can rent Crowd Cushions if it’s a one or three day event at a specific venue. They can receive training in how to operate the system most effectively and efficiently, or they can have the Comprise Technologies team present to handle the entire event. Or they can retain a single Crowd Cushion employee to oversee their own security team to ensure the venue receives the full benefit of the invention.
Crowd Cushion is already a full-time job, not only for Catherine and both her parents, but for the Comprise Technologies employees. In addition to this season’s Stone Pony appearances, Crowd Cushion has spread as far as North Dakota, Catherine made contacts in Chicago, several major companies in other states have reached out for more information and the possibility of permanent placement, and still others have talked about rentals for specific three-day events.
The family lives in Atlantic Highlands, just a couple of miles from their Route 36 office where Catherine also has her own desk and busy schedule. She still attends all the concerts she loves, but now, she laughs and says, “Except now I’m looking and planning how they could make the venue better, safer.” She’s also thinking of how she can get the stars of the venues to become even more involved themselves. “If they see a crowd building up in one place, they see the lights go on, or they see something that makes them feel uncomfortable, they can simply tell the crowd themselves to calm down a little, take a breather. And the crowds will listen to them.” She said it’s happened this summer at the Stone Pony, and said, recalling her days of attending events their before she even thought of Crowd Cushion, “that is just such a great place anyway. They’re great people, great entertainment, another Monmouth County wonder.”
Another Monmouth County wonder. Like Springsteen. Or Bon Jovi’
Crowd Cushion itself and its 23-year old Atlantic Highlands graduate who loves music, might well become the next Monmouth County wonder.
For more information on Crowd Cushion, visit their website at CrowdCushion.com.
