Ecosystem Focus
I am writing this column following a very successful NFPA Conference & Expo in Las Vegas. Initially, my plan for this piece was the same as it had been in past years after the conference—to use this space to explain in words what our association has been working on.
But I decided that a picture, and our conference itself, could better explain what we’ve been up to.
In my address at the general session in Las Vegas, I described the Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem, which illustrates that there are a number of components that need to be in place in order to reduce loss. For the ecosystem to function, all of these cogs need to work together. When tragedies occur, we can point back to failures in one or more of the cogs of the system.
The Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem really resonated with our conference attendees, many of whom felt that the ecosystem model drove home the idea that the work they do is an integral part of a larger system. The ecosystem is the focus of our association, and you will hear us talking a lot about this going forward.
To learn more about the ecosystem, and to watch my general session presentation from Las Vegas, please visit us online.