Professional Development
PIO Training for Fire & Rescue
Most public information officer training is written for government generally — or worse, for law enforcement. SMIFR is a dedicated PIO training conference built only for fire and rescue communications: two days of sessions taught by and for people who post from firegrounds, answer reporters in turnout gear, and speak for a department their community treats as family.
October 6–7, 2027 · Embassy Suites by Hilton Orlando Downtown, Orlando, FL. Attend in person or join the live virtual stream.
What you'll be able to do
Every session is built around a skill you take back to your agency on Monday morning. After two days you'll walk away able to:
- Run a posting cadence for working incidents — what goes out at 10 minutes, 1 hour, and 24 hours
- Handle line-of-duty death and serious injury notifications with dignity and family-first sequencing
- Shoot fireground video that is scene-safe, policy-compliant, and HIPAA-aware
- Correct false fire cause, casualty, and evacuation claims before misinformation spreads
- Run on-camera media interviews in turnout gear and build lasting reporter trust
- Report analytics your fire chief and city manager actually act on
- Archive agency accounts and manage public records requests legally
- Turn your department's feed into a hiring pipeline that fills academies
Training tracks
The program runs six tracks across two days, from the opening keynote on the fire service voice online to the closing awards. Mix and match — most attendees build a custom path across tracks.
Crisis Communications
Working incidents, wildland and long-duration events, evacuations, joint information centers, LODD messaging, and rumor control.
Content & Fireground Video
Helmet cam policy, scene-safe capture, privacy on medical calls, and turning everyday runs into stories your community follows.
Prevention & Recruitment
Safety campaigns that change behavior — smoke alarms, lithium-ion batteries, seasonal hazards — plus recruitment content that fills academies.
Media Relations
Media staging on the fireground, staging-area rules, on-camera interview practice in turnout gear, and building reporter trust.
Policy, Records & Retention
Comment moderation, public records requests, legal archiving of agency accounts, and the policies that protect you and your chief.
Hands-On Bootcamps
Ninety-minute working sessions: running a one-person PIO shop with templates and approval workflows, and reporting to the chief.
See the session-by-session schedule on the full agenda.
Who this training is for
Whether you're the sole PIO at a volunteer department or part of a metro career agency's communications team, the bootcamp track has a dedicated session for running a one-person shop — and the roundtables seat you with agencies your size.
Details & registration
Dates: October 6–7, 2027, with a welcome reception the evening of October 6.
Location: Embassy Suites by Hilton Orlando Downtown, 191 E. Pine Street, Orlando, FL 32801. Hotel rate $179/night — breakfast & lunch included.
Format: In-person or virtual. Early bird in-person is $499 and virtual is $249; agencies sending four or more pay $475 per person. Optional hands-on bootcamps are a $149 add-on.