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Please welcome Al Brisard, President and CEO of Exacom, as the newest member of the iCERT Board of Directors. Al was elected to the iCERT Board at the August 3, 2022 board meeting. Join with iCERT’s leadership in congratulating Al as he continues to give his time and service to iCERT as a member of the Board. Al has over 30 years of experience in the communications industry with a strong emphasis on bringing new technologies, product offerings and business models to the market. He has been very active in iCERT since Exacom joined as a member company in 2018. Al is currently co-chair of both the Public Safety Interoperability and Cyber Security Working Groups; he serves on the Policy Committee, as well. Al is an advocate for iCERT by recruiting new members and speaking on behalf of the organization. His experience as a leader in companies of all sizes, along with his wide breadth of industry knowledge, will prove valuable on the iCERT Board. Al currently resides in Concord NH, where he is an active member of the community and serves as a Board Member for the Boys and Girls Club of Central NH. We look forward to Al’s continued service to iCERT and are confident that his contributions to the Board in this new role will lead to beneficial results for the organization.

Washington, DC - The Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies (iCERT) applauds the House passage of the Spectrum Innovation Act (H.R. 7624), which establishes a Next Generation 911 (NG911) program at the federal level and provides for up to $10 Billion of funding. NG911 is critical to the safety and security of our citizens, communities, and country. iCERT thanks members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee for their bipartisan approach to successfully moving this critical bill through the House. We look forward to working with members of the Senate to continue advancing this important legislation, which makes NG911 deployment a national priority, so that all communities across the country have access to these critical life-saving advances in technology.

House Subcommittee Amends Spectrum Bill to Include NG 911 Funding The Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies (iCERT) appreciates the efforts of the Energy & Commerce’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology to provide funding for Next Generation 911 (NG911). NG911 is critical to the safety and security of our citizens, communities, and country. iCERT looks forward to continuing to work with the Subcommittee, the full Committee, and all of Congress on advancing legislation that makes NG911 deployment a national priority so that all citizens have access to these critical life-saving technologies.

We’re updating the video content on the iCERT website, so while we're all together at #NENA2022 we're filming at the iCERT Booth #930. Stop by and have as many takes as you'd like shooting 1-2 minute spots talking about your company and their iCERT experience. Our goal is to have these video testimonials from iCERT members bolster our recruitment efforts, refresh our website content and serves various promotional activities. You’ll have full editorial approval of all the video content prior to posting live.

Phase one report of two-year Data Integration effort highlights where further research is needed to achieve more effective public safety response In June 2020, the Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies (iCERT) launched a Data Integration Initiative (DII). We are incredibly grateful to the diligent work of the iCERT members who served on the various work groups supporting this project over the past two years. The DII set out to perform a current-to-future state process analysis of Public Safety data workflows to begin to identify areas in which true end-to-end dataflows can be used to improve Public Safety response. At the iCERT Spring Member Meeting earlier this month in Seattle, two of the DII project leaders, John Persano (AWS) and Matt Schreiner (Quicket), provided a briefing for those in attendance. Today, iCERT is releasing the final work product broadly via the iCERT website. The scope of the DII analysis was limited to the following areas, as they relate to public safety emergency response workflows: ● Data relating to the workflows ● Identifying the data integrations that currently exist ● Identifying topics that enable and inhibit data integration in the public safety incident management lifecycle, including, but not limited to: ● Technology ● Operational Requirements ● Governance ● Funding ● Proprietary considerations ● Legal/Regulatory ● Understanding the value of individual data elements ● Identifying future data integrations While a complete end-to-end process analysis was not created, the initiative identified areas that will need further development and work. By laying the groundwork for achieving a better understanding of data integration in Public Safety emergency response workflows, the DII has enabled further research into this critical topic. Only by identifying what is required to improve data integration, what role data value can play in prioritizing integrations, and exploring innovative future-state disruptive technologies, can we achieve a more effective Public Safety response.

The Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies (iCERT) hosted its Spring member meeting May 16-18 at the headquarters offices of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Seattle, WA. This was the first in-person member meeting iCERT has hosted since the fall of 2019, due to the impacts of the COVID pandemic. The iCERT Spring Member Meeting featured remarks by video from FCC Chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel, as well as informative presentations by state and local public safety officials. Presenters included Seattle Police Chief, Adrian Diaz; WA State Representative, Tina Orwall; and WA State 911 Coordinator, Adam Wasserman. In addition to the line-up of appointed and elected officials, iCERT members were treated to innovative and timely presentations and panel discussions on a variety of important topics, featuring industry leaders. Topics such as interoperability, NG911 Funding, 988/911 integration, updates from iCERT’s committees and working groups, and our always popular one-on-one networking meetings rounded out the agenda. iCERT has announced its Fall Member Meeting will take place in Washington, DC during the week of Dec. 5, 2022.

The registration deadline has been EXTENDED for the 2022 iCERT Spring Member Meeting. There is still time for you to join us in Seattle. Make your plans quickly and meet with your fellow colleagues at Amazon HQ May 16-18, 2022. Registration is open to ALL iCERT Members on the iCERT Events Page: https://www.theindustrycouncil.org//upcomingevents . We are finally going to be able to meet in person once again and the Planning Committee is working on a great event for our membership! The Spring Member Meeting will feature keynote presentations from our sponsor, Amazon Web Services, and local public safety officials, as well as innovative and informative presentations and panel discussions, and special guests. Topics to be covered include interoperability, NG911 Funding, 988/ 911 Integration, and much more! Additionally, the agenda will include updates from iCERT’s committees and working groups, an in-person open discussion for the first time in over two years as well as plenty of networking time built into the schedule. All current iCERT Members are eligible to attend the Spring Member Meeting and REGISTRATION IS FREE NOTE: The iCERT team is inviting "prospective" non-member companies to our meeting so they may experience iCERT - suggestions are welcome at: executivedirector@theindustrycouncil.org

Make your plans to attend the iCERT 2022 Spring Member Meeting at Amazon HQ in Seattle, WA – May 16-18. Registration is open to ALL iCERT members on the iCERT Events Page: https://www.theindustrycouncil.org//upcomingevents . NOTE, the registration deadline to be included in One-on-One Networking Meeting requests is Friday, April 15th, and it is fast approaching. We are finally going to be able to meet in person once again and the Planning Committee is working on a great event for our membership! The Spring Member Meeting will feature keynote presentations from our sponsor, Amazon Web Services, and local public safety officials, as well as innovative and informative presentations and panel discussions, and special guests. Topics to be covered include interoperability, NG911 Funding, 988/ 911 Integration, and much more! Additionally, the agenda will include updates from iCERT’s committees and working groups, an in-person open discussion for the first time in over two years, plenty of networking time, and the always popular one-on-one networking meetings. All current iCERT Members are eligible to attend the Spring Member Meeting and registration is free. Meeting attire is business casual. NOTE: The iCERT team is inviting "prospective" non-member companies to our meeting so they may experience iCERT - suggestions are welcome at executivedirector@theindustrycouncil.org COMING SOON: One-On-One Member Networking Meetings - iCERT member meetings feature optional member-to-member 15-minute, private networking meetings arranged during a fixed time period. This arrangement is designed as a catalyst and to add structure to the networking process, and occurs in two parts: As part of the registration process, you'll be asked if you’re interested in having one-on-one meetings (either which you will request, or in which other member companies will request to meet with yours) Through a registration process opening soon for those who have indicated interest, we'll list receptive companies. There, you'll have your choice of options for members/attendees you would like to meet with. We will make every effort to accommodate all matching requests, however, the number of meeting requests we can accommodate will depend on the total number of meeting requests, total available meeting rooms, and total time we have for this process.

As our nation celebrates National Telecommunicators Week, the Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies (iCERT) wishes to extend its deepest gratitude to those men and women that answer our 9-1-1 calls. These professionals provide critical life-saving assistance by connecting each of us to police, fire, and emergency medical services during times of emergency. While it is important to acknowledge the selfless efforts of our 9-1-1 telecommunicators during this national week of recognition, it is even more essential to ensure they have the most advanced 9-1-1 systems available to perform their jobs. Consequently, iCERT urges Congress to make the deployment of Next Generation 9-1-1 across our county a national priority and to provide state and local authorities with the resources needed to effectively protect our citizens, communities, and nation. Funding full nationwide NG9-1-1 deployment requires a major investment by the federal government, as such iCERT applauds and supports FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s recent proposal to use spectrum auction authority and future auction revenues to fund NG9-1-1. This approach would promote two critical national objectives – providing a spectrum pipeline to support future 5G and 6G wireless development and upgrading our nation’s emergency response infrastructure. Our 9-1-1 professionals and our nation’s citizens deserve nothing less.

Over the past two weeks many of iCERT’s members and the iCERT team have attended and participated in NENA’s annual Washington, DC fly-in, known as Goes To Washington (GTW), as well as the annual IWCE Conference and Expo in Las Vegas. At GTW, the iCERT team and members participated on two panels, in addition to participating in nearly a dozen meetings with Members of Congress. Even with significant restrictions still in place on Capitol Hill, it was great to see the turnout to the week’s events from iCERT members. In addition to contributing to the important policy discussions, we want to give a special recognition to iCERT’s member companies who participated and sponsored the associated events of both the NG911 Institute and Women in 911 (WIN). At the IWCE Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, it was equally impressive to see so many iCERT member companies participating as speakers, exhibitors, and attendees. In fact, in addition to iCERT, a dozen iCERT members companies had exhibit booths in the expo hall. Additionally, iCERT members participated on multiple panels throughout the week, lending their expertise to the discussions. We look forward to seeing iCERT’s members at our upcoming Spring Member Meeting in Seattle, May 16-18. Meeting registration is OPEN and FREE for all iCERT members. REGISTER FOR THE SPRING MEETING HERE

Bringing the Z-Axis into and through the NG9-1-1 ecosystem Please join in welcoming Rob Clark and NextNav to the iCERT family. In July 2020, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) finalized a mandate requiring that E911 data include “floor-level” altitude information. NextNav and its partners are now rolling out new technology to fulfill this mandate, with coverage in over 100 of the largest metropolitan areas, covering 90% of the buildings greater than three stories. NextNav’s precise z-axis exceeded the FCC requirements in independent tests, providing the highest degree of confidence in urban environments where this is “Must Have” for First Responders. NextNav is building partnerships with software solution providers who can incorporate altitude information into the systems PSAPs and First Responders use in their day-to-day operations. By leveraging investments in agency technology, NextNav focuses on empowering providers equally, delivering the data to their application layers, which will allow them to provide the vertical location for both 2D and 3D views.