By A.J. Heightman, Editor-in-Chief, JEMS
10. Great preconference workshops, including: A fun and challenging Back to Basics Skills Lab, Introduction to Ultrasound in the Field, PHTLS Hybrid Certification, and the NAEMSE EMS Instructor Course II, and a.
9. You’ll also get FREE registration to the new International Conference on Disaster & Terrorism Preparedness, with sessions from international experts to help you prepare for a range of terror threats. In effect, you’ll get two conference registrations for the price of one!
8. Clinton R. Van Zandt, former FBI profiler and hostage negotiator and popular NBC/MSNBC analyst, will present a powerful and informative keynote address on the New Age of Terrorism. If you’ve ever heard his interviews and reports on TV, you know how compelling it is to listen to him. This is your chance to see and hear a seasoned public safety expert up close and personal!
7. Hear important lectures on the use of simulation, clinical hot topic issues, and successful grant proposals, as well as a federal town hall meeting, the EMS Policy Summit and EMS “State of the Science” trends from members of the Major Metropolitan Medical Directors Coalition.
6. Be throughly entertained as Baxter Larmon and Walt Stoy emcee the cooking contest on Friday, March 2 in the exhibit hall. If you haven’t seen these two pair up before, you don’t know what you’ve missed. Guaranteed to be a gut-buster! (sorry cooks, no pun intended here…)
5. Learn, have fun and earn CEH at the ever-popular JEMS Games “Excellence in EMS” Clinical Competition on Friday night, March 2nd.
4. The massive EMS Today exhibit hall not only features many new EMS products, it also hosts free CE sessions, the cooking contest, free continental breakfast on Saturday and more products related to disaster/terrorism preparedness and planning. I’m thinking about bunking overnight in the hall, just to have enough time to see everything. A.J. Heightman, EMS Today Conference Coordinator, discusses new ways to see the latest products in the Exhibit Hall
3. Vote for your favorite new products in the New Product Rush program. After you view the display in the exhibit hall, vote for your favorite. Each year, over 50 new products launch at EMS Today!
2. Meet Randolph Mantooth, who starred as firefighter/paramedic Johnny Gage in the TV series Emergency! He’ll be in the exhibit hall all three days and will also present our opening keynote on Thursday afternoon.
1. Networking, networking, networking. If you have a problem or a success story, you need to share it with your EMS colleagues. Don’t underestimate the value of networking to your career.