Latest / Fire Engineering Podcast / FDIC 2027 Preview: New Firefighter Training, Live Fire, Technology, and EMS Programs

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FDIC 2027 Preview: New Firefighter Training, Live Fire, Technology, and EMS Programs · Fire Engineering Podcast

• speaker-0: This podcast is sponsored by the International Fire Service Training Association. Train, Perform, Succeed with IFSTA. speaker-1: The opinions, viewpoints, and advice shared in this podcast are solely those of the host, Dave McGlynn, and should not be interpreted as reflecting or endorsed by the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense, Fire and Emergency Services. All right, all right, all right. Welcome to another Fire Engineering Podcast Training Officer. I am your host, Dave McGlyn. ⁓ if you're new to the show, like I always say, thank you so much for joining in. ⁓ background of the show, we like to talk about training tips, instruction tips. We talk to leaders from all over the fire service, from all over emergency services and even our military. We like to talk shop, like to ⁓ spread some some ⁓ some information, share some nuggets. ⁓ and I always joke and say we also like to just co-miserate. 'cause ⁓ you know, you're not alone in your problems, I promise. ⁓ annually, since ⁓ Chief Rhodes is taking over as the editor in chief, ⁓ I've had him on the show so we can talk about the upcoming FDIC. ⁓ so this year, just like the years in the past, I am joined by ⁓ the great the great Chief David Rhodes, ⁓ editor in chief of fire engineering and ⁓ you know the the ⁓ head person in charge of FDIC. So Chief, thank you so much for joining and Can't wait. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me. And we're a little earlier this year so that we can get the word out sooner. Right. And and we talked about that last year, was us getting the show out in the October show, right? Because like I said before, and like I've said in the past, you know, most departments ⁓ they go off of fiscal year budgets, and ⁓ usually October is when people get those fiscal year ⁓ money. And if you're planning for FDIC. Well, you know, the group, the fine folks that run the show, the people behind the scenes, they've now set it up where you can get that early bird special stuff starting right when those bud budgets are dropping. So if you don't mind, Chief, ⁓ talk to us a little bit about that, but just give give the the viewer an insight. What do we got coming up? Why should they come? ⁓ you know, start wherever you want, you know. What what what do we got coming up? Why should people go this year? What makes this year better than last year? And why should they go, period? So a registration does open up October fifth is the target date. So it's just ⁓ coming up right around the corner. And ⁓ especially for the groups that want to get ⁓ live fire hands on, ⁓ those things sell out like within the first few weeks. So you really gotta jump in there and ⁓ and get your guys signed up if you want those live fire classes and then hot as ⁓ in general as a whole, sign fills up pretty pretty quick. Usually by the end of the year, we're ⁓ at about ninety, ninety-five percent of ⁓ sold out. So make sure to to jump on the on the early bird special, save you some money, and then also ensure that you get the classes that you want. With that, super excited about the ⁓ hands-on training lineup. ⁓ all the favorites are back, live fire Aggressive interior operations, canned confidence, flashover, search, vent inner search, all that stuff is back, forcible entry. But we got some new ones that we're we're excited about. Kind of run down that list. Hopefully I don't miss anybody. And ⁓ notifications just went out. So ⁓ so these instructors know. A new class called Engine Company Excellence with ⁓ Anthony Rowett. Who ⁓ runs a podcast generation engine with Todd Edwards? He'll be doing ⁓ a lot of just, you know, hose stretches, hose loads, just a lot of ⁓ engine company work ⁓ in four sessions there. Andy Sacadado is back. Slight change in class is ⁓ moving water from static sources for maximum flow. This includes ⁓ drafting from static sources and flowing big water. ⁓ From everything from water shuttle to ⁓ drafting right out of the pond. This one we're super excited about. We have tapped last year's instructor of the year, Brent Brooks, for a mid-rise, high-rise tactics for the modern fire ground. So he's gonna be out at the ⁓ Wayne Township Tower just doing tons of ⁓ water flow, hose stretches, different. ways to to gain access and tactics to get up into those multi-story buildings. This one, a good friend of mine, no no ⁓ stranger to to FDIC or HOT, in fact, used to run the Hot classes, ⁓ retired FDNY rescue guy John O'Connell, ⁓ who was in charge of shoring at the World Trade Center in charge of all the subgrade searches. ⁓ helped recover the gold out of the basement. ⁓ he is coming back with a ⁓ shoring class. He's gonna be teamed up with Paratech for that one. ⁓ it's gonna be extreme slope shoring. So ⁓ they're gonna teach you how to use your struts and get them in place quickly and then replace them with a more permanent ⁓ wood structure. So they'll be learning like cut table operations and then Doing all those slope floor and slope wall sh ⁓ struts. Another new one, ⁓ fire dynamics for the fire investigator. Dan Madrikowski, ⁓ ULFSRI, formerly with NIST. He's got tons of curriculum on fire investigations. And we're very fortunate to partner up with ⁓ Indy Fire Training, who has built three or four burn pods out of connex boxes where they can do room sets and do actual burns and then go in and look for cause and origin and just explain a lot of how the fire science and fire dynamics translates into fire investigations. And so those are going to be two eight hour classes specifically designed for fire investigators. Another new one is aerial ladders facts, fiction and fallacies. ⁓ Larry DeCamello is doing that one. And ⁓ so that'll be a little bit different twist on aerial operations. We also have a new search operations and victim removal that we're gonna do later in the week. I think it's gonna be Thursday, Friday from Noah Katz, who's a ⁓ captain in Phoenix, is gonna be doing ⁓ this is gonna be one where you're, you know, you're not in smoke, you're not an IDLH environment. This is all hands on like. instruction. ⁓ we've got like a half house type half wall deal built and you'll be able to put your hands on it. It's extremely great for instructors ⁓ that want to make sure that they're getting their ⁓ search philosophy and their victim removal correct. So it's ⁓ it's all a learning ⁓ station that's in that kind of hot hybrid ⁓ workshop format. And then we're bringing back the ⁓ eight hour hands-on class that is Totally in Spanish. It's basic basic operations for the fire ground. And ⁓ Jose Tranicoso is our instructor for that one. And ⁓ again, that one is completely for our ⁓ Spanish speaking audience. ⁓ you know, whether they're ⁓ in the US or coming from any of the Latin American countries. surprisingly, we got about 40 people in that class last year. And as fate would have it, ⁓ a little funny sidebar, there were four or five students that signed up that did not speak English, which meant in Fireman Logic, they had to go to the website, copy the description from Spanish, translate it to in English, and then sign up for it, and then said they didn't know it was going to be in Spanish. That's the links that our guys will go to to try to outsmart the system. But luckily the guys are bilingual, so they got they still got ⁓ they still got their money's worth. A couple other ones, a little bit of a modification and an upgrade to a class is gonna be called ⁓ your fire pump, the building's fire pump. Are you ready? Dave, you know there's been just a influx of big box fires. I mean, you see ⁓ every month on the news, whether it's a Walmart distribution, Amazon. And ⁓ the fire service is pretty weak on knowing what to do on those big boxes for as the fire sprinklers, the fire pumps. And so the National Fire Sprinkler Association has developed a curriculum. They have a special unit built that a fire engine can actually pump into the system and simulate the big box sprinkler system, the fire pumps. They're actually flowing some lines, but they're giving you again, it's education on like how do you contend with these fires in these sprinklered buildings? What do you need to do? ⁓ Everything from when to shut the system down, when not to shut the system down, how to shut the system down, how to pump the system. Does the system have a fire pump? Are you pumping into the fire pump? Are you pumping into the system? What's the water supply? They go through every different type of scenario. And teach you the fundamentals on how that works. We have taken ⁓ this is gonna be an interesting, this is gonna be a ⁓ a hot workshop, one of the hybrid models. So you'll have four hours and you'll have a little bit of ⁓ a classroom and then some demo. It's gonna be called the Evolving Fire Lab. That's gonna be Sean Gray. And he's basically doing a ⁓ modification of the fire dynamics boot camp that's like a three, four day program. And then we did it at FDIC as an eight hour program, but they're taking the the big meat and potatoes part of that and putting that into a four hour ⁓ hybrid workshop. So you're going to get some experiments in the classroom, a little ⁓ little experimentation at the table, and then you're gonna go out and and use some props and stuff and really learn all about fire behavior, fire dynamics, ⁓ and that. Another brand new one. Is going to be for instructors, is going to be ⁓ what are we calling that one? It's a ⁓ learning to burn. ⁓ we're actually doing this one on site in the parking lot. but it's going to be in a ⁓ full-scale burn building that's going to be brought in by ⁓ Lone Star Burn Buildings. They're building it specifically for the class. Ian Bennett is gonna be the instructor. And this is going to be a class to teach live fire instructors how to fire load a building for live fire and how to manage that fire load for the most realistic fire conditions that you can create with the class A material that we're allowed to by the new NFPA 1400 standards. So ⁓ this building's gonna be sealed up to recreate Vent Limited. fires. ⁓ they're gonna have they're gonna show you what you can do with a fire load, teach you how, you know, how to balance it so that you're not just overloading the building to get what you want. They're gonna teach you some science into these fire loads and how to get maximum impact for your students with a live fire. You won't even have to get on a bus to go to this one. It'll be right there in the parking lot and there'll be four, four hour ⁓ sessions on that. And then Lone Star is going to raffle that burn building away. And I believe it's three wide, two stories, ⁓ two stories, three wide. So it's a massive, ⁓ it's a massive building. We will be repeating the live fire during the week, ⁓ not repeating the same classes, but repeating last year's model. Last year we did live fire Monday through Friday. ⁓ we are going to take a break on the live fire classes on Wednesday to give our logistics team a chance to reset. But we'll be back with those ⁓ live fire classes that we did last year, and they'll be Thursday and Friday. So if you miss the Monday, Tuesday live fire sessions, you'll still have ⁓ eight opportunities to ⁓ get in live fire sessions with ⁓ two days, four sessions each with those classes. ⁓ and there's other Other hands-on classes going on throughout the week. We're bringing back the ⁓ urban rope class that you see the guys up in the ceiling of the Lucas Oil Stadium. ⁓ those those classes will still be going on at the same time. And then we have ⁓ Wednesday, we have Lion ⁓ is gonna be doing a fire ground fundamentals class in their burn building in the drill yard. So ⁓ that'll be happening. I think it's two, four hour sessions. So if you miss out again on the Monday, Tuesday, got a chance to get in a little forcible entry, a little VES stuff ⁓ in the in those burn buildings that'll be in the drill yard. A lot of stuff coming back in the drill yard. obviously we have our our brass tacks hard fact stuff. We'll have the three story tower back. I think we're gonna have a three-story burn building. And possibly a second burn building in the drill yard. ⁓ and then just tons of of demonstration and vendor-led education that's still developing. So you have to keep an eye on that. And a lot of that is free. All you all you have to do to attend that is have a exhibitor pass. ⁓ so if you're really strapped, you know, for money, you can't afford the regular hot packages and all, we're trying to. offer something for everybody in the education side. A lot of these are vendor sponsored. ⁓ you don't even have to sign up for them. You just have to show up at the designated time. And, you know, they're not going to be the same level as like a live fire class, but you're going to get an hour or so of of practical fire ground skills that you'll actually get to do something. You know, ⁓ they'll have gear there for you to borrow if you don't have gear. So maybe it's a forcible entry class. Maybe you're learning about a ⁓ a ⁓ maze prop that somebody's brought in and you can do something there. there's all kinds of skills. ⁓ be a little bit of ⁓ vehicle stabilization type stuff going on. This is going on all week from starting, I guess, Wednesday. Thursday. Thursday. Thursday. Okay, just Thursday. Yeah, Thursday when the show floor opens. I love it. It goes through there. And then you get into you you we've connected this the sim yard to the drill yard. So imagine that that whole end zone and then it taking a ninety degree turn and coming back up through where the EMS area is. So those two areas are are connected and we got the ⁓ the sim yard there where a lot of the ⁓ technology and ⁓ EMS training, which I know ⁓ Mike Brown will speak about in just a few minutes, will be going on everything from Like ⁓ you know, ultrasounds in the field, ⁓ new AI assisted respiratory innovation techniques and just all kinds of crazy stuff. That's ⁓ kind of an overview of the new stuff. tons of stuff will be back. We still have a a big combination of those four hour ⁓ hot workshops. And that's important to know when you're looking at your ⁓ trying to fill up your schedule. If you do the ⁓ all inclusive, which includes 20 hours of hot, not 16 like it used to be. It includes 20 hours of hot. And and that that that can be hot, it can be a hot workshop, or it can be a classroom workshop. So any combination of 16 hours ⁓ that you want to do, you can you can do in that. So it's important to sign up. ⁓ the other piece of that that's included in those is we have some new ⁓ symposiums. ⁓ people may be familiar with the high-rise symposium we did last year. ⁓ that was four four hour sessions Monday and Tuesday. We're copying that model ⁓ with a performance, culture, and wellness symposium. And so there'll be four four hour sessions, ⁓ The first ones, I believe they go in this order. ⁓ the first one Monday morning is anything to do with the brain. The next one's anything to do with the body. The next one's family. And then the next one is organization. And it's all how that affects performance culture and wellness. So if you sign up for one of those, you're gonna have four to five speakers in each of those four sessions that'll be strictly ⁓ working on the brain, the body, family, and organization. ⁓ then we're gonna have a technology symposium going on at the same time. Another four four-hour sessions. They'll start out with tech implementation and adoption. ⁓ the next one will be AI, data, and decision support. And then Tuesday morning will be the connected fireground creating the common operating picture. And then the last one, Tuesday afternoon, will be robotics, drones, sensors, and wearable. So you can do all four. And that'll be 16 hours of your package. If that's if you're into performance culture and wellness or in technology, ⁓ you can do all four if you want. Or if the if maybe you're only interested in robotics and drones, you can only you can go just to that one session. So where in the past we've done those technology where you sign up for all or nothing. And we did the high rise couple of years where it was all or nothing. We've broken them into areas of like specialties. So you can pick and choose what you want to go to. we will bring back the high rise symposium again. I haven't seen what their ⁓ model is on their four sessions, but it'll be the same type of deal. Metro Officers Summit is back, and this is for those second in command chiefs, like your operations, logistics, and they spend a couple of days. ⁓ just talking about ⁓ officers issues very very controlled they create their own agenda but if that's something that you're you're interested in I think your department has to have like 300 members for you to qualify to go to that and it's it's a little bit like the the Metro Chiefs but where that has to be the fire chief of the department and they're talking cheap, you know, high level chief stuff. This is that second level the the people that The the people that report directly to the fire chief and they're talking everything from, you know, budgeting, equipment, maintenance, ⁓ recruitment, retention, training, schedules, that kind of stuff. ⁓ the officers club will come back. Again, there's a requirement on who qualifies to go that. And then new this year, which ⁓ we're really excited about, we're gonna unveil Friday, is the volunteer officers club. So ⁓ currently the volunteer officers don't don't qualify for that group for the for the officers club. So we're creating a special one and we're working with the National Volunteer Fire Council. ⁓ we're working with several different volunteer organizations to bring that curriculum and ⁓ and group together. The gym summit will be back for EMS ⁓ with tons of ⁓ big names there. And then the ARF summit will be back, which is run by the ARF working group. But we we work with them ⁓ to develop that curriculum. And then back again is the industrial summit, which is our fastest growing area, ⁓ probably one of the most underserved areas in the fire service, and that has gone from like thirty people the first year to about a hundred last year and expecting that. We've given them like a huge room ⁓ this year for ⁓ for their for their summit. And that's another one. We got Rick Haas that ⁓ helps with that who is a industrial fire chief. We got Eddie Buchanan helping with the technology symposium and then Stephanie White doing the performance culture and wellness ⁓ piece there. So a few of our board members and workers working on those with our with our staff to make those those happen. So that's kind of a ⁓ a down and dirty overview of the the education piece. Of course, then we have tons of four hour workshops, everything from leadership. ⁓ another one I forgot. ⁓ we've got another ⁓ symposium or a another ⁓ hot workshop that is going to be dealing dealing with difficult people. Jerry, Jerry Stretch is doing that one. He just came out ⁓ you know, with the book. It's a great book. And so if if you're familiar with like our our ⁓ simulations that we do, Anthony Castros does the command labs on ⁓ like Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. They sell out like that. And so he does a four hour classroom workshop, but then he does four or five four hour labs. where you actually go and you do command simulations. You're talking on the radio, you've got, you know, a a simulation in front of you on multiple screens and you're filling the different roles of command. So this is going to be similar to that that that Jerry's doing with those dealing with difficult conversations and all is it's going to be like HR scenarios. So you're actually going to have to have these conversations in the simulated ⁓ format with some role play type stuff going on. So that's something definitely for the officer, the chief. ⁓ tried to up that level of not everybody wants to come and force doors and cut locks and crawl around in smoke. So there's something for everybody, ⁓ for every rank, for every position in the department ⁓ to get through. So and then we've got our normal ⁓ lineup of You know, over 200 classrooms, hour 45 sessions. ⁓ hits will be back. That was super popular last year. We did change the format of that. Last year we did ⁓ five, four hour ⁓ sessions, and based on the feedback that the attendees gave us and the instructors, we're changing that to eight hour forty-five sessions. You'll s you'll have four speakers. in that hour 45 instead of one speaker like a regular classroom. ⁓ and it'll still be that, you know, short 20 minute each kind of deal. ⁓ you know, high, high intensity. And we're gonna theme those like engine company, truck company, leadership, EMS, and performance. And so there'll be a couple of repeat topics in there, but those will go like Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning. And then that way they break on the same schedule as a classroom. So maybe you only want the truck hit session, then you can go to that and you won't miss, you know, another hour 45. With that, I I'll turn it over to ⁓ Mike Brown to give you the latest. I'm super excited about what Mike has done on the EMS side. ⁓ that was when when I brought him on board, I said, hey, I want the best, most engaging EMS educational content there is. And he worked on it last year and took it to a higher level and then this year is just gonna be off the chain. So, Mike, I'll let you talk about that. speaker-0: Yeah. Hey, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it. I couldn't be more excited to be here sharing what ⁓ what gems is bringing to FDIC in in twenty twenty seven. And ⁓ we're just we're hitting the gas on EMS content at the show in twenty twenty seven. I could not be more excited. We're gonna have double the number of classroom sessions that we had last year. So if you thought last year was good on the EMS side, we went ahead and doubled it for you. ⁓ four full-time classrooms dedicated to nothing but EMS content. There's no single swim lane in the fire service that gets that kind of attention at FDIC. So we are here to bring you some real serious content on the EMS side. New this year is a EMS educator track specifically. ⁓ Jeff Murphy from Master Year Medics is going to be coming, teaching a four-hour workshop that I'm really excited about for EMS instructors. And ⁓ we also have a critical care track that is new for ⁓ for gems in in 2027. So some significant players that are coming to FDIC to ⁓ to give you some great ⁓ some great education. We're kicking off the week Monday, Tuesday with the EMS Innovation Summit. That's the place to be if you're a leader in EMS that is innovative about pushing this profession. We changed our tagline. Educate, elevate, evolve. If that's what you're about, the the summit is the place for you. After we finish the summit, we kick off our workshops. The SIM Yard's gonna be back again for 2027. Huge, huge home run in 2026. And we're gonna make it even better. We're having hands-on workshops in the SIM Yard on Wednesday. So you can sign up for workshops on Wednesday in the SIM Yard, and then our classrooms are running Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. ⁓ we have workshops running Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. some great workshops that I'm really excited about. Tim Phalan's gonna be here ⁓ teaching his ⁓ his STEMI master class. ⁓ Ashlyn Odell is coming in with a dumbed down guide to understanding the heart that I'm really excited for. Dr. Jeff Jarvis, Dr. Remly Crow, and ⁓ Dr. David Wampler are doing an EMS evidence lab. They're going to talk to you about how to r actually read EMS evidence and what you should really be looking at. And those are just a few of the ⁓ exciting workshops that we've got planned for you throughout the week. So those are add-ons that you can do for the conference. And ⁓ you know, we're just ⁓ we're just excited to ⁓ to have you here in twenty twenty seven. Again, ⁓ Mike Brown from GEMS. I'm the development editor. and ⁓ and yeah, just excited. Thank you for having me on. speaker-1: Tell ⁓ about the ⁓ new classroom format. That's kind of a big ⁓ thing for us. speaker-0: Yeah, so we got some really good feedback that ⁓ that some of the classrooms were a little long for for what for what they were covering. So we're going to a forty-five minute duration classroom. ⁓ and I'm really excited for that. Also, ⁓ building off of the ⁓ what we've identified as a best practice from twenty twenty six, the hits room, the high intensity training sessions, ⁓ we're gonna have an EMS hits room. Very excited for that to be coming in. 20-minute TED talk style educational opportunities for you to ⁓ to be able to consume. So yeah, EMS is really getting a significant spotlight here. And this is something that I've been passionate about since I came to GEMS. There are immense amount of resources that are dedicated every year to FDIC in Indianapolis. And ⁓ you know, we have a big anniversary for FDIC coming up in 2027 that's that's really exciting. And this is a great way to showcase all of those resources coming together and channeling that into some very purposeful EMS content. And I'm telling you right now, Indianapolis in 2027 is the place to be for your EMS conference. Hands down. We've we've got all the educators you're looking for, we've got all the vendors you're looking for. You can network with ⁓ all kinds of different providers, fire service providers, private ambulance, ⁓ hospital based services, all of your ⁓ all of your coworkers from all over the world in Indianapolis in twenty twenty seven. speaker-1: Mike, ⁓ you know, ⁓ a lot of the courses that ⁓ we're gonna be having offered through through GEMS, ⁓ that they have Con Ed or CEU ⁓ capabilities also. So most of the people that they're signing up for stuff, that's also gonna help them get those continuing education credits as well, right? speaker-0: Yeah, thanks thanks for bringing that up. I appreciate it. ⁓ yeah, every single one of them will be CAPC credited thanks to ⁓ F E T and J E T, so fire engineering training and ⁓ GEMS training, ⁓ which is an LMS platform that we also operate. And ⁓ they will be ⁓ they will be helping us to provide CAPSE credit for all of those ⁓ all of those classes. And if you really I I tried to make it as easy as I could for you for twenty twenty-seven. I've taken each one of the different divisions of the national registry and I've split our classroom sessions into learning lanes that fit into each one of those divisions of the national registry. So if you're there trying to get your recertification taken care of, ⁓ I I can tell you right now we've got you. ⁓ whatever education you need, it's easy to find. The learning lanes will be on the website. ⁓ once we roll everything out, ⁓ I'll put out another video that kind of walks you through exactly ⁓ what you need to be looking for, but it's it's all gonna be there. You're gonna get CapC credit for all of it. That includes the ⁓ classroom sessions, that includes the workshops, and that includes some offerings that we're gonna have in the SIM yard as well that are going to be assigned CAPC credit. So we're gonna bring into the SIM yard, we're gonna give you a panel discussion and then an opportunity to practice some skills while you're there and get Cap C credit for it. speaker-1: And ⁓ you know, just ⁓ as I I I keep saying, you know, Early Bird opens on Monday, October fifth. ⁓ you know, whether you're a firefighter, a fire instructor, fire chief, ⁓ an EMS professional provider, paramedic, whatever, everything's available. Don't wait until the last minute to sign up. You know, ⁓ get on on Monday, October fifth at noon and take advantage of this ⁓ Early Bird special as well. speaker-0: Yeah, absolutely. And that's when everybody gets in on the good ⁓ hands-on training classes and all of the EMS workshops. ⁓ because ⁓ we had several that filled last year. They're and obviously they're they're gonna fill again for for twenty twenty seven. We try to give you enough, but you keep filling them every year. It that's amaz that's that's an amazing problem to happen and I love it. But get in early, especially if there's specific things that ⁓ that that you want to ⁓ that you wanna see. ⁓ one that has that I'll tell you right now has fairly limited opportunities to get into. American Academy of Pediatrics is gonna be teaching a full ⁓ PEP class at FDIC in twenty twenty seven. So you have the ability to become a PEP provider. So ⁓ pre hospital emergency care ⁓ Pediatric emergency care for pre hospital professionals. speaker-1: No, it's a lot of interesting stuff, Chief. ⁓ I appreciate you giving the the full card, right? So for the viewer, y you know, you just got an upfront You know, behind the scenes, what's going on? And it's, you know, six months in advance, right? So you're welcome. But moreover, just you know, I'm just writing some stuff down as you're saying it. So like the I've been coming to the show a while. You know, I I I I get to have some intimate involvement in the show and I and I get to see our evolution and it's just it's really exciting. But as a fireman, as somebody who's still active on the job, like I like the practicality. We're bringing things that matter. We're listening to the people. We're truly reading the feedback. And we got our finger on the pulse of of of you know what what's coming up, what matters, what we need. A lot of things that you were saying, you know, so I want people to understand the takeaway is it's for everybody in our thing in the fire service. ⁓ but if you are an instructor and you're coming here. There is soup to nuts information. There's things that are going to make you a better instructor. There's there's courses available. Like I always say to people, I'm not trying to knock any of those heavy hitter people. I'm not. ⁓ but FDIC has such a cadre of amazing instructors and such amazing programs that if you're only gonna go to the guy that you think is famous' class, and that's great support, and we'll take it. ⁓ Is it really applicable to what you're doing in the in your career field now? How is it going to make you a better leader, a better instructor, a better firefighter, a better performer? ⁓ there's everything. You know, ⁓ and then the other thing that I found really interesting was that ⁓ that drafting piece. ⁓ so if you if you don't mind, just a just a quick touch on the logistics of that. So, like, you know, we're gonna have where I where I live in in the Northeast, we call them tankers, you know, but so so we're gonna be offering These amenities, you just have to come and you're gonna learn how to do tanker shuttle and w water shuttling, you know, how to do the drafting, how to move water, how to how to, you know, do all those. That's all all logistics are there. Yep. Everything is the only thing you have to bring for your hands on classes is your personal PPE and yourself. You know, and then when I say personal PPE, that you don't even bring a breathing apparatus or a face piece. Like we we provide all the breathing apparatus and all the face pieces. You bring your helmet, coat, gloves, hood, pants, boots, and whatever you wear underneath it. And any ⁓ any accoutrements that you want with it, whether it's pliers or flashlights or you know, whatever, whatever you can travel with, but do not bring an ⁓ an S C B A. or a face piece. ⁓ we got that covered and that's that's a sponsored event. And then good segue into ⁓ this will be our third year offering gear cleaning for anyone. It's only for those who take live fire and it doesn't matter if you take live fire Monday or Friday. ⁓ the offer is there for you to have your gear professionally cleaned ⁓ by by Redline who will have 10, 12, 15 trucks out there ⁓ in front of Lucas Hole Stadium, just cleaning like 12, 16 hours a day from Tuesday through Saturday morning. And ⁓ all they're gonna need to know is like what day you're picking your gear up and they'll have it ready ⁓ for you. We've we've had tremendous success with that. We've been cleaning about 800 sets a year for the last two years. And they even make small repairs if if they have two repair trucks there and if they see a tear or something, and this costs you nothing. and it's ⁓ you know, part of our setting the example of keeping we we will store your gear for you ⁓ Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday, all the way through till Saturday if you don't leave till Saturday. ⁓ so you don't have to keep your gear in the hotel room other than when you bring it in, you know, your first night before you get it dirty if you come in on Sunday. But after you're out and you get that gear ⁓ exposed to to live fire, ⁓ we'll keep it for you. It'll be kept on site. It'll be guarded. It'll be safe. And then you just pick it up in the morning when you go again Tuesday or Thursday or Friday, whenever your your ⁓ classes are, and then they'll clean it for you, pack it all up in a brand new gear bag, give you your old gear bag back, and ⁓ off you go. And ⁓ it's just a phenomenal program. We couldn't pull it out without pull it off without the sponsorships. There's gonna probably end up being ten to twelve sponsors that make that happen with with Red Line of course being the the anchor sponsor for that. And there's you don't get that anywhere else. Right. That's what I was just gonna say. It's not we're not because you know you've advocated for this for a while. You know, the beauty of of fire service training is the ten training. Go and train, get better. Maybe I sound biased to say it, but I'm just gonna say, like, there's nothing that compares. Yeah, I sound corny and maybe I sound overzealous. You know, you're you're always modest, Chief. I mean, you're gr you're great at at marketing our thing, but you know, you got that quiet, calm southern. So I'll just be the ADHD jersey guy real quick and I'll tell you there's nothing that compares. Okay. ⁓ you can go all over the country and people try to replicate, but nobody masters, and that's okay. ⁓ Because we bring everybody from all over to to to this one location for that entire week, and we offer quite literally anything and everything that we have the amenities and the logistical support to be able to offer practical training, things that have purpose, things that are up with the trends between the brain health and everything like that. And like Chief just said, you know, i you don't have to bring an SCBA. You don't have to worry about cleaning your gear. Bring your full set of turnout gear with the exception SCBA so you don't have to worry about missing a hood or whatever. But here's the other thing. If you forgot something, bro, it's FDIC. There's gonna be something there that you're gonna be able to get that might be better than what you had already, you know? But just like to your point, from the educational piece, the classroom piece to what we have going on in the drill yard, to what we have going on between the two buildings, out at the training areas, inside the stadium. Inside the convention center. It's zero excuse. I always say this to people like there is zero excuse for you to walk away without being ten percent better before you showed up. And and then bring that shit home to your department. That's the intent. Nobody's stupid here. We recognize that you can't send your entire department, right? But bring that home to your department and then encourage people to say, hey, listen, this is what I took. I learned this, this, and this. So we need to get on the budget now and start locking in spots for next year so we can send two, four more guys, whatever. And I recommend they take this because this will help with our department, et cetera. But like you have some of the greatest minds of the fire service from literally all over the globe taking time to share with you some nuggets of information. You would be a damn fool. if you don't capitalize on the opportunities that are there. And it is so much more convenient now because we heard from you and we have aligned ourselves with in the past, people used to lug their gear. You know, Chief, you know, they used to bring your g ⁓ well the problem with signing up for hot at FDIC is now I got my hotel room stinks like OSB and and and straw. Like, not no more, bro. We heard you. We're taking care of it. You're welcome. It's probably cleaner now than it ever was before at your own department because these people are This is what they master in. You know, it's just that's one example. But yeah. Yeah, they've ⁓ the gear cleaning guys have told me that like they think that some of it like might might have been the first time it's ever been cleaned when they get it. So ⁓ yeah, and let me dis dispel a myth too. It's like ⁓ a lot of people that ⁓ put in for classes and may not get accepted or whatever. Sometimes people will be like, ⁓ it's just the same classes every year. We do try to do a certain percentage of new classes every year. But one thing that they don't realize, like we look at who's coming ⁓ to the conference and stuff, over fifty percent of the attendees to our conference every year are brand new, never been people. So like I'll get on the hot buses and and so like you can only the maximum you can take is twenty hours worth of hot. So if you did four hour classes, that's ⁓ that's six or or five, five, four hour classes, right? There's hundreds of sessions. So even if you're coming for your second or third time, which we know the percentages on that too, it would take you six, seven years to take all of the classes that we offer if you wanted them all. But then 50 over 50% are brand new people and the classes are selling out. So if we have a class that's selling out, we're not going to cancel that. class for a new class that we don't know if it's gonna make or not. So so it's not just having the same stuff every year. And even to the classrooms. A lot of the classrooms are very, very popular, but the attendees are different because you couldn't there's so many good classes. Like it's it's like, ⁓ man, I I wish they would not have all the good classes at one time. Well it's good classes the whole time. You know? And so you have to kind of pick and choose what you want to do. And then next year, maybe you can get the next one if you miss somebody that you ⁓ that that you did. And we we haven't a hundred percent figured this out yet, but we we think we're gonna unveil something new in the classroom ⁓ setting this year. We're gonna actively track the attendance and you guys know what happens. Like if your class fills up, we have to send the The ⁓ classroom team down there, they put a sold out sign on it and they block the doors because the fire marshal won't let anybody else in the room and all that. And then people are like, ⁓ man, I wanted to see this person. So we are toying with the idea that if we have one of those classes that's unexpectedly fills up, and like some classes will have enough room for 400 people, right? And some some will only have enough room for 100 people, but let's say We got a class that's like for a hundred people and it fills up and nobody else can get in the room. We may offer that class again on Friday. So let's say that class was Wednesday afternoon or Thursday, whatever. And all we're gonna do is text that out to everybody that registered and then put it on the app. It's like a pop-up class, and we're gonna rerun that instructor. Because people may not have there's probably people turned away at the door. So s not a hundred percent, but we're gonna try to logistically ⁓ pull that out. We're gonna hold a hold a classroom or two to see if we can have a ⁓ couple of pop up classes based off the popularity of ones that ⁓ that are good. And that'll give you another chance to see that popular instructor. Right. And that's really that's again, you know, y you're hearing it right from the guy's mouth. We're here for you. He's here for you. The brand is here for you. It's not being corny. It's not sales shit. If it was just to make money, and you don't have to chime in, Chief, I'll just say because we get the people's, ⁓ well, it's just a money machine. First of all, an anything that's successful is a business, okay? But we're providing a service, and our services is to make our firefighters better, train our firefighters, instruct our firefighters, and make better instructors and leaders and people in our thing, the fire service. Yep. And if we weren't If we were only in it for the money and we were only in it for business sense, none of these accommodations would be factored. None of these times that you and Brent and everybody else takes with the algorithms and figuring stuff out and comparing the numbers and reading the feedback and and having board meetings and and us off the off behind the scenes, having Teams meetings or whatever it is that we're doing, you know, where we talk about stuff, none of that stuff would matter. So I'm telling you, just telling you like my small piece of having a ⁓ you know being able to look behind the curtain. These people are in it for you. Every year the the the the the goal is the first main objective for the upcoming year is how can we do better for our attendees and what can we do next for the upcoming show. It's never what can we replicate. That stuff comes in later. And like you said before Chief, you know, with fifty percent of the people that are showing up Sure, there's there's classes that seem to be replicated because there's new attendees. And I got another thing for you, just as a person who, you know, I I my thing is training and educating firefighters, is, you know, we W the way the brain works is is when we take a class or we read an article, we read we you know, we read a book, we retain what our brain is on. So let's say in the moment, I'm dealing with a really bad boss, and I take a leadership course and I resonate with a lot of stuff that's from that, right? The following year, now I'm dealing with union issues because I'm on the opposite side. Now I'm the leader. I'm not dealing with the bad boss, I'm dealing with how do I communicate with the leaders. Well, I can take that same class and Something new clicked because my brain wasn't focused on that. I was biasedly viewing from a different lens on dealing with bad bosses. This information's in there. So if you see a repeat class, it doesn't mean you don't have to take it. It also doesn't mean it doesn't have a purpose there or they're part of a good old boys thing. There's a system, there's a reason. You know, Firefighter One exists since you know, ⁓ I don't even know when. I mean, it's just been around forever. And and what do we do is we continue to grow on it and build on it and make it better. Nobody's saying, Well, I took fire one, so we don't have to do that anymore, right? We keep building on it. It's the same thing with the classes that we offer at the show. You you might have seen the same title. It doesn't mean that it's gonna land the exact same way. It gets improved on, plus it's a whole new group of students that are retaining from that. So I I I I appreciate that you mentioned it before, but I'm just gonna tell you from my side of it, is like, you know. This is literally in my experience as an educator in the fire service as a person who's passionate about passionate about training. There's nothing that compares to what we're doing. Everything that is involved with this show is to give the firefighter, the attendee, the instructor, the learner the best experience that they can possibly get. It cannot be matched anywhere else. And that's what we give you. And that's the biggest reason why you shouldn't sit there and wonder, well, should I go to FDIC? No, you should go. You'd be a fool not to. Yeah. And if it wasn't for the trade show part of the FDI, the exhibits, we couldn't do the education because the the the cost to put on the education is especially the hot is just you wouldn't believe it. But ⁓ but we're committed to doing it and it gets the right people there. And ⁓ you know, that's why, you know, visiting the boots are important because they're the ones footing the bill. Right. You're you're you're paying to come and yeah, it's it's part of the whole process. But if it weren't for the trade show piece, ⁓ it the education side wouldn't happen. So Right. ⁓ yeah. And and and th thank you for mentioning that. It's important. The other piece is there is over sixty people involved in the curriculum and selection of the courses and that means, you know, evaluating proposals, giving us feedback and scoring those proposals and for anybody who like doesn't get picked, ⁓ just think it this way. There's there's like a I think we got eleven over eleven hundred, twelve hundred things and there's only three hundred people picked ish, right around three hundred. and so you have a greater chance of not being picked than you have of of being picked. And just there's so many reasons you wouldn't get picked ⁓ is like your topic is already covered in detail by somebody else that's a major brand contributor that's written on the subject for 10 years and is sort of the expert in it. ⁓ you you might have gotten a great evaluation from our board that your class is good, but we had too many classes on writ. So we only had spots for one class per session on writ, but we had thirty-five great proposals. You know, how do you narrow that down? And unfortunately, you know, you know, we don't have a s we don't have enough staff and system to give you a lot of feedback on why you didn't get selected ⁓ so much. But we know we can increase your chances by being involved in the brands all year all year long. You know, you gotta like Establish yourself as the SME in that area by writing articles, by you know, being guest on web webinars, doing webinars. ⁓ maybe you wrote a book. Pretty much anybody that writes a book for us in the fire engineering books is guaranteed that they're gonna do a workshop or or teaching at the conference because they put that time in to doing that body of work. that we selected for that, especially for the, you know, the titles within the last few years. And then you got your John Norman's who's had a best selling book ⁓ fire company officer for thirty ye I studied it for my lieutenant's test thirty years ago. So ⁓ I was gonna say it's over twenty years for sure. Yeah, and he's still just still coming and doing a workshop, you know, on on that type of ⁓ stuff. So You know, like I said, there's something for everybody, and and I always say this is like it's where the entire fire service comes together. So you've got the manufacturers, you've got the instructors, you got the chiefs, you got ⁓ second in command, you got the company officers, you got the volunteers, you got volunteer officers. Everybody's there. And so much about an event is the the networking, the relationship building, the ⁓ conversations in the bar at night where you're just like, ⁓ there's, you know, John Norman. There's there's, you know, ⁓ Jerry Strike, there's, you know, Corley Moore, who whoever. They're I can go talk to them. I can w they're they're not like hid somewhere. They're at the bookstore, you know, with their books. They're walking the halls. They're attending other people's classes. They're out at the bars at night. And so people are very accessible in ⁓ That that surprises me sometimes when people will be like, you know, I'll be somewhere, maybe I'm at the bookstore hanging out for a minute and the guy will be like, ⁓ I didn't know I used gonna be out and I could actually talk to you and I'm like, Yeah, dude, I'm just a normal guy, right? ⁓ but but some people kind of think that all the instructors are this like celebrity status and they're just they're they're firefighters and they wanna they wanna have those conversations, you know. ⁓ with you. Sometimes some of us have to be somewhere and we're in a hurry, but I try to if I gotta be somewhere and I can't talk to people, I try to take a route where I'm not gonna run into people so that I don't have to tell them that I can't talk. So they won't even see me. If they can see me then I'm available usually. Especially that week you you kind of have a full card that week anyway, you know plus Scott who's seven foot tall tells them that I can't and then I have to handler. Scott. Yeah. He gets a phone call. Rhodes got to be here, so I have to go. But ⁓ it's just so much fun, man. It's it's a ton of work. But ⁓ the relationships again, I've been doing it since nineteen ninety seven and ⁓ in all kinds of roles, starting as an instructor and attendee and then keynoting back in ninety nine, two thousand. And then it's just kind of it's kind of cool to be in this spot and be able to provide those opportunities for, you know, the up and coming generation and and the And the ⁓ salty veterans that are that are still around contributing, you know. Yeah. I love that you just shared that. That's ⁓ that's really cool to I know you, you know, I mean we we talk offline. I'm I I I love that human piece that you just shared. That's that's really cool just to kind of put it all together in perspective of like where it started for you and where you're at now. That's just it it it means something to me, so that's really cool. So thanks for sharing that. I I'll say my way to the top. Right. That's awesome. Was it by design? Somebody cornered me at FDIC last year and they were like, What goals did you set for yourself and what classes did you take and all in order to obtain your position? I started laughing. Like, dude, none of this was planned. I said, just be the I just felt like running at what you're doing right now. If you're a firefighter, then master forcible entry, cutting locks, venting roofs. No fire behavior, building construction. And then when you get to the next level, master being a lieutenant, don't worry about what's down the road or whatever. You just like it'll come if you if if you ⁓ are doing what you're supposed to be doing and you know, don't skip don't skip something for a bigger piece of the pie or whatever. Cause ⁓ you know, there was there was no plan. There was no I'm taking this class so I can be the editor of fire engineering. Hell I can barely spell. That's what I got. That's what I got the copy editors and Rachel and Taylor and all them for and Diane in the background. So Yeah. He got a good team that's right I just read I just read the articles and go, This guy knows what he's talking about. He can't spell worth a damn, but he knows what he's talking about. So fix it. Work with him. ⁓ no, ⁓ but I'll just ⁓ so before we wrap up, I just wanna say one, thank you ⁓ for sharing all the details, the intimate, you know, hey, this is what we got in store. ⁓ and then ⁓ just on a a a a quick note just to to touch on one of the things that you talked about before. ⁓ you know, we've done a great job. You and I talked offline before about this. ⁓ you know, we've done a great job better than we have in the past of Explaining to people what they what it is that they need to do. So while we can't always reach out to you on, hey, this is why you didn't get picked or whatever, right? A that doesn't mean that you boycotted. So if you didn't get picked, come to the show if you can, right? ⁓ but then B is also, you know, we are we've been, we've been using these platforms and everything. Submit, write an article, ⁓ write something that you're j you know Passionate about, that's genuine, that's unique to you, that that you you truly are a SME, not just something that you think is sexy, right? ⁓ contribute, get on the podcast, ⁓ you know, put some information out there. This way people know who you are. So we know who you are, and we know, hey, this person is a person who means something to what what it is that they're talking about, and this is how it'll fit into the show, etc. But You have to put yourself out there and you have to contribute. You just have to. It's just the th that's the recipe. And you need to have taught your class at a minimum at a minimum with inside your department, but hopefully like on a state or, you know, one of the regional conferences or something. It's like FDIC's not the place to try out a new class, ⁓ un unless you're, you know. John Norman or Rick Lasky or somebody who's, you know, we know have been around for We vetted you already, right? But yeah, if you if you just, you know, man, I developed this class four FDIC or whatever, that's pretty much a no no. So we we we look at that and then we also verify, you know, that you've that you've done that. So ⁓ that's important. And, you know, just put in the work. Put in the work. And again, there's a lot of people that have put in the work that we still don't get to. It's it's it's It's more of a math problem than it is anything else. We only have we have this much budget to fly people and house people and we have this many classrooms and this many sessions. And when you have you know, it's a good problem to have to get twelve hundred ⁓ proposals, but it's also, you know, it's it's disappointing to have to turn so many people away. But but, you know, I was at I was just at the F D N Y foundation dinner, ⁓ couple of nights ago and ⁓ this this young lady walked up to me and introduced herself and I was I was with Champo and and everybody knows Champo at at The Rock, right? So they're all talking. And then Champ was like, Yeah, he's the he's the in charge of FDIC. And I she goes, ⁓ I just got my acceptance letter. I'm so excited. It's the first time I'm teaching at FDIC. And I was like, man, that's what it's about right there. You see, there was there was a person that was new. to the system and she just had a great topic and she had done some some articles and done some work and it was it was something that we needed, you know, to to fill it fill that ⁓ that topic with. And she was so excited to ⁓ to be coming. And I, you know, if you everybody remembers their first time teaching or their first article that gets published or whatever it is. And and don't don't stop at fire engineering. We got fire engineering, we got fire apparatus and emergency equipment that's all about equipment, apparatus specing, apparatus anything. ⁓ we've got Firefighter Nation, which is that performance, wellness, culture, leadership. And then we've got the the classic journal of emergency medical services. And you know, another cool thing about taking these hot classes and and classrooms, if there is any way possible that we can get you CAPSI credit to go towards your EMT paramedic research in any class, whether it's a search and rescue hands on class or ⁓ forcible entry lecture. If there's anything in there about EMS, we have submitted it and you can get credit. ⁓ or and I don't know about you guys, but I'd l lot rather get my credit hours doing doing something at conference than then it's something's cool something cool. Right. Yeah, than anything else. So so that's gonna be a cool deal. But we're looking forward to it, man. And it's early this year too. ⁓ don't have the dates right off the top of my head, but ⁓ It's like the second week of April this time, I believe. So it's ⁓ it's a lot earlier in the year. And then ⁓ just b before we wrap up, just ⁓ b for the for the viewer, you know, ⁓ open registration or early registration is going to be on ⁓ on on Monday, October fifth, ⁓ starting at noon, it opens up and you know that's that's a discounted price. It would be foolish for you to not try to capitalize on that as best you can because You know, it's it's it's there and it's available. The show is April twelfth to April seventeenth, Chief. ⁓ but like I said, October fifth, Monday, October fifth, noon, ⁓ early bird registration, you're gonna be able to get a discounted price. ⁓ I cannot guarantee that you will have an opportunity to have ⁓ prime real estate in the hotel business. But I can tell you the longer you wait, the the harder that'll be and the further you'll be out. So if you're able to get on there on October fifth, get it. There is a new hotel. New hotel open. I think six hundred ish rooms will be open, maybe eight hundred. It'll be open for this year. Yep. I don't know if the whole thing is gonna be done. There may be a couple upper floors they're still working on, but it it's it's gonna have, you know, occupy and we are more than likely gonna have our opening ceremonies in that hotel because this is the largest ballroom in Indiana and it holds five thousand people, where our current only holds three thousand. And it's standing in the halls and in the T V monitors. So hopefully we can actually get everybody in. ⁓ so that's gonna be that's gonna be pretty awesome. That's gonna that's gonna be that's like ⁓ that that John Tapper or whatever. That's gonna be the ⁓ the trial run right there, you know. Let's do let's do a quick let's do a quick ⁓ soft opening. Ha ha ha welcome to Indy. Here's your hotel experience, F D I Cep, yep. And that's a nice Very nice hotel. So a lot of the exhibitors are going to go there and free up some of the other spaces. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, like I said, Chief, if you have any other parting words, man, I just ⁓ I'm glad we do this every year. I think it's meaningful. I'm glad we're able to get the word out. I appreciate your time. I I do appreciate all you're doing. ⁓ but yeah, the floor is yours for any f ⁓ parting words and and then we'll wrap it up. Never stop training. ⁓ take advantage of of every opportunity, whether it's your local conference, whether it's a class that your department's ⁓ offering. ⁓ doesn't matter how many years you've been in the fire service. And ⁓ you know, you come to FDIC for a lot of different reasons, but the the key is the whole fire service is there. you get just as much out of the networking and the relationship building as you do the education sessions and stuff. And it's just it's so ⁓ sort of re-energizing to be there with that caliber of of people, the instructors and the attendees to ⁓ sort of recharge the batteries and ⁓ and get you back to your department so you can share, you know, the latest and greatest information. Yeah. Thank you, Chief. ⁓ again, this is ⁓ Dave McGlen with Fire Engineering Podcast, the training officer. Early bird opens up Monday, October fifth at noon. Get on, take advantage, hope to see you at FDIC. But like always, like Chief just said, you know, take advantage of any opportunity to train, learn more about our thing so that you can get better at it. ⁓ but until next month, stay safe and ⁓ just keep training.