CHICAGO — The annual FDIC (Fire Department Instructors Conference) International took place at the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium April 7-12 this year, bringing together thousands of attendees and exhibitors for the leading fire and rescue trade show and conference in North America.
By the Numbers
Produced by Clarion Events’ Fire & Rescue Group, FDIC International saw year over year growth in the standard key metrics.
| % Change YOY | 2025 | 2024 | |
| NSF | 7.59% | 533,420 | 495,749 |
| Exhibitors | 12.72% | 948 | 841 |
| Attendance | 1.49% | 37,081 | 36,537 |
Robust Education and Training Programming
This year, FDIC’s educational attendance grew by 2%, reaching 15,764 attendees across 377 sessions, all reviewed and vetted by the show’s educational advisory board.
“The week begins with Hands-on Training (H.O.T.) Evolutions, where attendees are transported from the Convention Center to 63 immersive H.O.T. Evolutions across 14 locations in the Indianapolis area,” said Lauren Ocoma, Group Vice President, Brand Strategy & Commercial Development, Clarion Events, Fire Rescue. “In order to make this happen, FDIC’s education team relies heavily on contracted logistics teams consisting of firefighters from around the nation, and mutual aid from our outstanding partner the Indianapolis Fire Department to make these events possible. While the training provided through our conference program is noncommercial, sponsors play a crucial role by supplying gear and tools for training, such as personal protective equipment, air packs, and nozzles, etc., ensuring that the training is realistic and safe.”
Serving Specific Sub-Sections of the Audience
FDIC’s summit programs provide high value by giving opportunities to learn in a collaborative and peer-to-peer setting among specific audience segments based on attendees’ roles and interests. This helps to foster a sense of camaraderie and increase knowledge sharing in a setting where they are working together to serve their communities and not competing with each other.
FDIC’s summit programs have been growing across various sectors, including Metropolitan Chiefs and Officers, Airport Firefighting, EMS, NextGen Technology, Industrial Firefighting, Tall Buildings & High Rise, and Women in Fire
“The Metro Officers Summit, for example, was created during the COVID pandemic to address the specific needs of chiefs and officers from metro departments who wanted to discuss challenges related to PPE and staffing shortages by connecting with their peers,” Ocoma said. “We launched the first summit virtually that year and it has grown exponentially over the past three in person events. Since the Summits are held earlier in the week at FDIC, before the exhibit hall opens, they provide decision-making attendees with more content and value.”
New Show Features for 2025
This year, FDIC 2025 introduced several new features to enhance the attendee experience and provide more diverse training opportunities.
FDIC partnered with the Firefighter Cancer Support Network and one of their exhibitors, Redline Mobile Gear Cleaning, to store and clean dirty contaminated firefighter protective clothing from H.O.T.
“This had never been done at any fire service event and never imagined on this scale. As a result, 792 sets of dirty gear were kept out of hotel rooms, cleaned and returned to our attendees. FDIC has now set the bar in firefighter cancer prevention,” Ocoma said.
The team also introduced two new Summits, the Technology Summit and the Industrial Firefighting Summit, which were both received with high praise. The Technology Summit spent the second half of the day out in the field, seeing sponsors’ technology being utilized in real situational training.
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“Due to popular demand, we increased from a handful last year to 45 Hybrid Hands-on Workshops: half classroom, half hands-on training utilizing spaces near the convention center, such as buildings, parking garages, stairwells, and ceilings at Lucas Oil Stadium for rope rescue,” Ocoma said.
The show also offered training opportunities for all attendees outside of the conference program by doubling the size of the Drill Yard activation on the Lucas Oil Stadium exhibit floor which featured 46 sponsored sessions.
Leveraging Technology and Data for Future-Focused Activations
Ocoma shared that valuable data from the past two years helped to shape the show’s activations and plans, and helped contribute to the growth of traffic across all the areas of FDIC, which includes the Convention Center, outdoors and Lucas Oil Stadium.
“This data also led to an increase in exhibit numbers, with sponsors building their own activations in partnership with FDIC,” Ocoma said. “To track attendee participation in activations this year we used CDS’ [Convention Data Services, now Maritz] digital backpack feature for self-scanning and provided branded coins that attendees could exchange for swag.”
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