Conference review - and date set for 2015

Last November over 50 fire comms professionals from all parts of Great Britain got together for the 8th consecutive annual FirePRO conference held at Eastwood Hall, Nottingham.

The first part of day one largely looked back at things we'd done in the last year whether that be incidents or projects, with interesting insights into the most high profile emergencies of the year, including some dealt with by other agencies.  There's always something to learn from other people's experiences of media liaison not least...to remember where you've parked your car (Sam Thomas, Greater Manchester FRS). 

As time moved on we started to look ahead to things that are being planned or developed and it was great to be joined by Watch Manager Wayne Parsons with his very simple message: to be more engaged you have to be more engaging. 

After a great evening of eating and quizzing (courtesy of Carol at Way Ahead Media) day 2 continued to look ahead at development issues with external speakers on customer insights, digital engagement and collaboration.   

Ratings seem to be good and feedback positive and the summary is attached so members can see what others thought and what we'll need to consider for other events. There's been lots of people volunteer to take forward planning of next year's conference and other training events and the workstream lead for this - James Morton will be in touch. 

Dates are set for the 24 and 25 November and will last for two full days (we'll go on after lunch on day 2 to make sure we have time for workshops or informal discussion groups). The location will be somewhere in Birmingham and we've enlisted event organiser supremo Carol Longman to start making arrangements. 

Don't forget if there's anything you want to share with members as a case study, or you come across a really great speaker you think would be good please let James Morton know.