I have shared/will be sharing more on The Fire Critic Facebook page. Below are some of the highlights of FDIC 2014.
First of all, thank you to all of the great Brother and Sister firefighters I met for the first time or got to hang out with again.
I’m beat. I don’t know about the rest of the 30,000+ firefighters who were in Indianapolis, but I made the most of it. I stayed up late and got up early. Captain Wines and me were burning candle at both ends.
This year, I traveled with Captain Wines (IronFiremen.com), Andrew Catron (ModelCityFirefighter.com) and Preston Wiley (Valley of the FOOLS). We also had Matthew Schimmel with us as a photographer. Schimmel enabled us to keep our phones in our pockets and not have to worry about taking our own pictures. He took some great photos you can check out on his Flickr page. So far, he has the Brotherhood Bash and Thursday’s Pictures up.
On Thursday and Friday, we hung out in the Demers Ambulances booth. A lot of our friends caught up with us there. Demers wants to expand their branding throughout the fire-based EMS service in the U.S. and they picked us to help them do that. Who has heard of Demers Ambulances? Not too many from the answers I got when I asked…but do you see what I just did there…NOW YOU HAVE heard of them! Demers built a fire-based EMS ambulance and brought it to FDIC. Everyone loved the set-up. We weren’t there to sell ambulances, merely to show their MXP 170 (that is what they call it) to you. It worked. Not only that, but so many firefighters who stopped by got their picture with us in front of the Demers ambulance.
Demers Web Site – Demers on Facebook
Here is what is awesome about teaming up with Demers…They are great people, they build a great product, and they GET what Captain Wines and I are all about. We don’t just help market any old product. We have to believe in it. Just days before they sent the ambulance to FDIC, they took ideas from us to make it better suited for fire-based EMS and implemented them. Sure, they were minor changes…but they might have made a difference in what some of you saw and related to being able to use. That is exactly why they asked people to fill out surveys. They want feedback on their products. Those who took the time to check out the ambulance and fill out the survey got a free t-shirt and a chance to win one of two $250 AmEx gift cards.
Thanks for stopping in to say hi. If you have pictures, share them on Facebook and tag us in them. I will post more on FDIC tomorrow.