The men and women who work behind the scenes in the concert touring industry represent a vast resource waiting to be tapped in response to disasters such as the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

The crews who organize, manage, and staff the world's largest concert tours have tremendous logistical experience that can be put to good use in ongoing relief efforts in partnerships with experienced non-profit organizations.  These "roadies" come from diverse backgrounds and bring a wealth of experience and expertise to their work; we are highly adaptable and flexible, and we are used to working under pressure - including in uncomfortable conditions.  Many roadies are ready and willing to volunteer in any capacity when disaster strikes or in ongoing projects to strengthen communities in the many countries we visit.

Recognizing the opportunity to put our skills to use in response to the earthquake in Haiti, two companies with decades of experience in the touring industry have assembled a coalition of volunteers and partner organizations in an effort to move large quantities of urgently needed medical equipment into Haiti.

We have experience operating the largest, most logistically complex, highest-grossing concert tours in history.  Each tour - consisting of hundreds of trucks, hundreds of traveling staff, hundreds of tons of equipment - is essentially a miniature city that we move from place to place and setup each day on an extremely tight schedule.  Our incentive is always to minimize the downtime and keep the show on the road moving efficiently and safely around the world.  Accomplishing these goals requires a wealth of logistical expertise managing people and equipment, developing infrastructure, as well as extensive experience with ocean, air, and land freight operations.  The unique methods that we employ to move around the world are so effective that they have drawn praise from a wide variety of observers, including the US military.

Our initial effort in response to the earthquake in Haiti was led by QED Productions and SOS - Satellite Office Services, with Upstaging Trucking, Rock-It Cargo, APR Energy, and numerous other companies and individuals making extraordinarily generous donations of their time, equipment, and logistical expertise.

In 2005, veteran production manager and QED Productions president, Charlie Hernandez, co-produced a benefit concert in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - raising nearly $8 million for the relief efforts in the aftermath of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami.  In the course of producing this show, Charlie revisited an idea he had discussed with his long-time friend and former business partner, Lori Tierney, and the two began considering ways that their years of logistical experience could be put to use more directly in future disaster response and relief efforts.  After years of moving people and equipment around the world for the world’s biggest rock bands, our team has a worldwide network of contacts that can be mobilized to accomplish almost any task.

Charlie was working in China when the earthquake struck, but immediately contacted Lori, and the two began making phone calls and assembling a team from around the world.

While our team has a highly valuable skill set we can bring to the table, we recognized right away that we needed to partner with organizations with an established presence in Haiti who could provide us with a realistic assessment of the most urgent needs and cooperatively evaluate the most effective ways to put our people and our materials to good use.

The natural leader in this effort was SOS founding-partner, Lori Tierney.  In addition to her years of experience in the concert touring industry, Lori holds a Masters Degree in Non-Profit Management, and drew on her extensive contacts in the non-profit sector to help organize the initial mission in Haiti.

Lori has a longstanding relationship with Project C.U.R.E. and we coordinated with our entertainment-industry partner, Upstaging Trucking, and later Shomotion, to consolidate medical equipment and supplies located at Project C.U.R.E. facilities throughout the United States.

Once the materials were consolidated, Rock-It Cargo, a leader in worldwide logistics and freight movements for the special events industry, donated the use of a plane to transport the materials into Haiti.  Project C.U.R.E. donated the materials to Partners in Health, an organization with a well-established presence and years of experience working in Haiti, even before the earthquake.  Partners in Health has a vision that perfectly epitomizes the roadie work ethic: “Whatever it takes.” 

The supplies we transported were used to replace medical infrastructure destroyed in the earthquake and address both the immediate and longterm medical needs in Haiti.