The July 8-10 annual conference of the Missouri Valley Division of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, held at the Overland Park Convention Center, had "emergency" written all over it.
In fact, the headline speaker was Randolph Mantooth, star of 1970s paramedic show Emergency!, who detailed the genesis of fire-based emergency medical services (EMS).
"People thought his talk would be fluff, but he has a message, and he credits seven people with realizing that fire departments could do EMS," says Gary Wilson, training chief for the Overland Park Fire Department, which acted as the host agency on behalf of the Heart of America Fire Chiefs, representing Kansas City metropolitan area fire departments.
The annual conference includes departments from Colorado, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas, and drew just under 400 people (180 for the main conference, with the others comprised of exhibitors or participants in the spouse program), making it one of the larger conferences held in the area recently. The group used the Sheraton as the headquarters hotel.
According to Wilson, the conference featured a combination of professional development workshops, individuals speaking on leadership or ethical decisions in public safety, and the Overland Park Fire Department’s physician detailing new trends in cardiovascular disease.
"For social events, we did tours of our emergency operations center and training center," Wilson says. "On the
second night we had a sponsor help with a trip to the World War I Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, which is the only one in the nation dedicated solely to World War I. It’s a fabulous museum. We had a miniature antique fire truck and catered in Kansas City’s own Gate’s Barbecue. They, along with Arthur Bryant’s, are the two truly famous Kansas City-style barbecues."
The group also held a golf tournament that utilized the city-owned Overland Park Golf Club, and had about 46 participate,
using a four-person scramble format, with a sponsor providing prizes. One vendor offered a $10,000 hole-in-one prize that nobody won. Another vendor helped out with golf balls with their logo.
In the end, even though the conference carried with it an air of "emergency," Wilson says working with the Overland Park hospitality community was anything but.
"In my prior work at the University of Missouri and at Kansas State, I’ve dealt with hotels and so on for last 20 years, but have never worked with a better group of people than here," he says. "Everything was done, it was done correctly, they could adapt on the fly, and their customer service was fabulous. Also, the food at the convention center was fabulous."
