FDIC Recap Part II – The People You Surround Yourself With

This article is going to ramble…I warn you now. It is also not going to be in any particular order of appearance.

I think there is a saying that goes something like…Your character shows in who you surround yourself with. I can say that I am a better person because of the friends that I have. Below are some of them.

More about my trip to FDIC here:

• Recap part I is here
• 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb coverage is here
• My take on Captain Dugans speech is here

 name dropping turned on…

I was able to bump into, hang out with, and drink some beers with several of the FireEMSBlogs.com group including: John Mitchell (FireDaily.com), Mike Ward (FossilMedic on FireGeezer.com), Jason Hoevelmann (FirefightersEnemy.com), Tiger Schmittendorf (TigerSchmittendorf.com), Dave Statter (STATter911.com), April Saling (PinkWarmDry.com), Chris Kaiser (LifeUnderTheLights.com), Bill Carey (Backstepfirefighter.com), Michael Smith (BoronExtrication.com), Nate DeMarse Chris Collier and others (BrotherhoodInstructors.com), Christopher Naum (CommandSafety.com and TheCompanyOfficer.com), and Willie Wines Jr. (IronFiremen.com). All of them were at the Meetup at Indy on Friday night hosted by Fire Rescue Magazine, FireFighterNation.com, and FireEMSBlogs.com.

On a side note: I also bumped into Art “Chief Reason” Goodrich at FDIC. He still has a blog on FireEMSBlogs.com but doesn’t update it anymore. You can now find him at FireEngineering.com. He seems to be enjoying himself! He wasn’t at the meetup…he apparently doesn’t hang with us anymore…

I got to meet with several companies both during FDIC and since. Several of which I hope to be doing product reviews for very soon! If you are looking for having a product review for your product, check out more information here. I spoke with Major Mack of The Bowring today on the phone. They are sending me their product to review shortly. There’s was one of the busier boothes at FDIC. I think the product looks like a potential tool that years from now will be a staple in “What’s in Your Pockets” discussions!

I also have more of a review coming for Foxfire soon!

Black Diamond Footwear will be sending me their brand new X2 boot to review soon as well. You might remember my review of their X boot here and here.

I uploaded a bunch of pictures from FDIC here and from the NFFF/FDIC 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb here.

I met the Fire Service Warrior Chris Brennan. He recently had his book published and it was available at FDIC this year. Chris’ name was a buzz word this FDIC…he has a unique perspective of the fire service which goes against the grain of some. This young author is certainly making people take a look. His has some similarities to myself (in my view) that are good and bad…He is young, outspoken, and doesn’t mind telling you what he thinks. I look for a lot more from this guy!

I got to eat lunch and a dinner with Josh Creamer of No Ambition But One. Our time was not ideal for him and I to chat too much because Tiger always has to be the center of everything…the only thing he doesn’t have a handle on is eating his meal…

I once again met up with brothers Robby and Danny Owens of Average Jake Firefighter.

I met Eddie Crombie of Hooks-Irons.com. I also hung out with the author (not sure if he is anonymous or not) of  Too Late to Stop, too Early to Quit!!

I finally got to meet John Broyles!

I spent some time with “The Nick’s” of FDLiveIn.com and Hyattsville VFD. These guys are a lot of fun…and I could not hang with them out until all hours of the morning…wait til Baltimore guys! I won’t have as much on my plate there!

I got to see Martin Grube of FireRescueTv.com once again this year. It is always a pleasure and he is just so damn nice…he helped settle me in at the classroom ready room when I was preparing to teach my class. He is the coordinator of this area and has been helping FDIC for many years.

I got to meet Kevin Shea. That was pretty cool. The only problem is that I took a pic of Willie and him and didn’t get my photo taken with him. Kevin has a group on the Fire Engineering Community for you hunters out there titled “Off Duty with Kevin Shea. Check it out here.

As always, it is fun hanging out with friends! I enjoyed dinner and more with the guys/gals from Go Forward Media team, Fire Rescue Magazine, and Elsevier teams like Dave Iannone, Chris Hebert, Jeff Berend, Bill Carey, Paul Andrews, Tim Sendelbach, Shannon, Janelle, Cindy, Mary, and others.

I also got to hang out/meet/say hello to Doug Cline, Diane Feldman, Bobby Halton, Frank Ricci, P.J. Norwood, Billy Goldfeder, and Doc Multrup.

name dropping turned off…

I am sure I left plenty of great people off the list. I might have hit on them in other articles about FDIC. Willie and I bumped into people all week long everywhere we went who knew of our sites and recognized Willie. It was a ton of fun and I cannot wait for Fire Rescue International and Firehouse Expo this year!