Behind the Booth: First NFPA C&E with MeyerFire

by Jocelyn Sarrantonio, PE
​Technical Director, MeyerFire

Last week, I had the annual pleasure of attending the NFPA Conference & Expo, this year held in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Throughout my career and various workplaces, I’ve attended my fair share of conferences, because education and learning about new things is important—especially in fire protection, where it’s easy to get complacent in your tiny sliver of the world and forget the rest of the varied organizations and parts of the industry care about.
 
FAMILIAR EVENT, NEW ROLE
At the NFPA C&E, I learn so many things and have great conversations, simply by wandering the Expo. Even for a semi-introvert like me, I find it invigorating.

This year was different, though. It was my first year on the exhibitor’s side.
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I joined MeyerFire in May, and one of my first questions for Joe was, “Do you want me at the NFPA Conference?” The answer, of course, was yes! As an exhibitor, this is the marquee event to meet and talk to people in person, whether they’re old colleagues or new friends.

My new hat from a new friend, Chris Logan, Host of the Fire Sprinkler Podcast

IN-PERSON VALUE
Attending this year as an exhibitor, and my first as MeyerFire’s Technical Director, was quite a different experience.

First and foremost, you don’t have to be up at 8 a.m. for Technical Sessions! But most importantly, this was my first time meeting my new coworkers in person. 

The three of us at MeyerFire work remotely, and remotely from each other.

Erik is in Kansas, Joe is in Missouri, and I’m in New York.

This is my first experience working a fully remote job, and I know there’s no replacement for meeting people face-to-face.

Even at former employers, I encouraged staff to attend conferences not just for training, but to connect with each other.

​In today’s remote environment, many teams work “together” day after day via Teams, but have never met in person. It’s invaluable to create those real-world connections that help people see how they fit into the industry as a whole.

Erik, Joe, and myself (Jocelyn) at the MeyerFire Booth - NFPA C&E 2025

BRINGING MEYERFIRE TO LIFE
This year’s Expo experience gave me the chance to see the people behind the usernames—those who post on the forums, enroll in the courses, and engage with the MeyerFire platform. It brought all those things to life.

Like many of you, I’ve interacted with MeyerFire content for a while—who hasn’t? Experiencing that relief when you Google an obscure fire protection question and see a MeyerFire forum post as the first hit, you know you’re going to get your answer, or at least a good discussion!

It was exciting to talk about fire protection education with existing superfans, people new to the industry grabbing nuggets of information for their supervisors, or those eager to sign up their interns for our training. And while I enjoy a good, long conversation about training, I equally appreciated when people stopped by just to say they were fans of MeyerFire before heading on their way.

I loved meeting from the Forum, people who took the classes to study for (and pass!) the PE, or who just came by to say “Hey, you put out some really good stuff.” I got to see the cross-section of the community that MeyerFire has built, everyone in their own ways working toward a common goal of improving the industry. 

I took lots of notes—and I can’t wait to incorporate these new ideas into courses and content in the coming year.

I heard you: more fire alarm, special hazards, site fire protection, and inspection checklists!

Coming from the consulting engineering side, it was also enlightening to talk to folks in the insurance industry and AHJ’s, to hear how they interact with the tools and what sort of learning they are thirsty for. That’s a perspective I haven’t been exposed to very much, so I’m looking forward to continuing those conversations and incorporating those perspectives into courses.

Specifically, we want training on being able to identify equipment in the field.

Most of us can probably remember our first job site visit, and being completely overwhelmed by everything in front of us. I’m looking forward to developing some content that can break down systems, so learners can identify the fundamentals, and those first site visits aren’t so intimidating. 

THE BOOTH!
Pulling back the curtain and seeing the Expo from the vendor side, it was kind of like watching your parents cook dinner or fold laundry.

As a kid you may have taken it for granted that food just appears on the table or the clean clothes magically end up in your drawer, but watching how the sausage is made was pretty amusing.

Even though I was a self-proclaimed booth princess and Erik and Joe did most of the work, I have a lot more appreciation for how these things get put together! Nothing just appears; everything has to be planned well in advance, down to knowing how much power you need for everything in your booth (want to upgrade to 10 amps? Two outlets?).

And you either fly with everything you’ll need, carefully packed with your homemade packing guide so as not to exceed airline weight limits, you buy it there on site, or it’s hauled in from the loading dock (also not free). Either way it’s all set up and ready to go just in time.

Hosting a conference in Las Vegas is a whole industry unto itself. If you ever want a deal on TVs, chairs, or carpet squares, just show up on conference breakdown day! 

​I can also see why they’re so strict with not letting folks into the hall beforehand, there’s such a flurry of activity before and after, you might get run over by a forklift if you’re not careful.

Behind the scenes, pre-setup.

The booth, in all its glory.

THE CHATS
Other than learning what a rockstar Joe Meyer is (seriously, at some points there would be a line of people waiting to talk), I just really enjoyed talking to people about learning, teaching, and training new staff.

In my experience as a manager, it was something I felt acutely, the challenge of how to train new staff and bring them up to speed quickly.

You start teaching new employees how to space VESDA sampling ports in data centers, but you have to keep backing up and teaching fundamentals of air-aspirating detection, fire alarm systems, and code pathways in order to get there. That’s the great part about what MeyerFire University offers. The focus is teaching those fundamentals, so that the training conversations with your new employees go so much further because you can focus on the things that are specific to what you do.

I’m grateful to have a job where I can contribute to creating industry-wide impact. In the short time since I’ve been here, I’ve been simultaneously impressed with how much work goes into the content, and also how quickly good ideas create a spark and can come  together really quickly. MeyerFire is a pretty lean operation, but when you focus on using your resources, efficiency and skills, it’s amazing what you can accomplish!

I’m happy to be along for the ride, and I look forward to sharing my perspective and helping to bring to life the course roadmap we’ve put together.  

Some of our Instructors and friends from MeyerFire University after hours at NFPA C&E

TECHNICAL SESSIONS & FUTURE TOPICS
In addition to representing MeyerFire at the Expo, I was able to attend a few Technical Sessions. I’m always impressed by the industry’s willingness to share new developments for the good of us all.

As a manager, I used to encourage my team to not only attend sessions relevant to our work, but also one “out there” session on something completely new or interesting.

Some of my most memorable sessions have come from these choices, because often, no matter how different the topic, the fundamental challenges are the same.

One of my favorite sessions ever was in San Antonio in 2018, where the fire marshals from Coachella and Burning Man led a panel discussion about fire safety issues at large festivals. No kidding!

And you know what it all boiled down to?

Open and honest communication between AHJs and the public to come together and meet the goals of the attendees and manage risk.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Outcomes are much more positive when the stakeholders communicate honestly with each other about what they’re trying to achieve.

And as a recovering design consultant for mission-critical facilities, I always attend every session I can on data centers and energy storage systems, and there was no lack of those this year.

There are new challenges in mission-critical facilities as the world adopts AI. Data centers with AI computing have increased power density and are adopting liquid cooling strategies, so I am interested in how this impacts fire protection system design strategies. I’m also eager to see where we go as an industry to protect against the explosion hazards presented by lithium-ion batteries.

More on that in the future, I’m currently working on my next course, which will get deeper into energy storage system requirements.

LET'S CONNECT
If we didn’t get the chance to connect at the NFPA C&E, I’d love to hear from you! Connect with me on LinkedIn or shoot us a note here in the comments below.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, stay safe, and always check your worksets!

- Jocelyn