Introduction to Workshops & PDF Summaries

MeyerFire University | M008

By Joe Meyer, PE

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TRANSCRIPT

We have a new addition to the MeyerFire University platform that I’m excited to introduce to you today – and that is our workshops. 

Learning content through the videos and visuals are great for exploring and diving into new topics, but in the real world we don’t just need to know the material, we need to be able to use the material. 

If just handing someone a copy of NFPA 13 or the International Fire Code was enough to make a great inspector or designer or estimator, then that’s exactly what we’d already be doing. But that’s not enough to make great pros in the industry. 

With this University platform, we want nothing held back. If you’re in, we want to be sure we are equipping you with every resource we can to help you do great work in fire protection.  

At the root of what we’re doing at MeyerFire is to help rise the tide of the industry. We want you to be excellent at what you do. Truly elite.  

When you raise your own bar, it raises others’ too. Your clients, your competitors, your coworkers. You do great work, and by that I mean quality, informed, intentional, efficient work, and others will notice.  

When you and I do that enough times, we start to raise the practice of fire protection overall. Less misses, more safe structures, better advocacy, better awareness, and more saved lives. Despite being around for a century and a half our niche industry, I truly believe, is just in its infancy. There is so much potential here.  

I say all that because the only way we move forward and really shape the industry is to change the paradigm altogether. 

We’re not here to give you a powerpoint and go home. We’re not just doing a few whiteboard talks and hoping you remember everything 2 DAYS, 2 WEEKS, OR 2 YEARS later. 

We want to TEACH, TO EQUIP, AND TO DEVELOP SKILL.  

We’re going about this with two new additions to the University platform. The first is one-page PDF summaries. Below each new video, you’ll see a link to a one-page PDF summary. This includes the most-important takaways from the session and provides you with links to specific code or standard sections that were mentioned.  

If you’re jumping back to that one specific section or that one specific topic, this is our way of helping you get what you need to find faster. 

If you want to revisit a topic you haven’t seen in awhile? Absolutely, check out and rewatch the materials as many times as you need. 

If you just need that one tip? Check out these one-page PDFs; I think they’ll be a great resource for you to have in your own toolbelt as you work in the industry. 

Those summaries are our way of equipping you and your team for quality work. 

The last piece we want is to develop skill.  

In our industry, developing skill is perhaps the toughest piece. All the research says that to develop a skill, what we need more than anything is to practice, get feedback, and practice again. Iterate and reiterate.  

Why can experience be so valuable? If we learn from it, experience can develop skill. It can develop the muscles we need to be helpful and efficient in what we do. 

Can we suddenly give you five years of experience with our training platform? No. But what we can give you is that opportunity to practice and hone your skill. 

And that’s where we have our newest addition to the platform. It’s been likened to a “FIRE PROTECTION ESCAPE ROOM” OR A “SIMULATOR” for fire protection decision-making.  

So what is it? 

It’s a simulation of real-world fire protection challenges.  

You see – as convenient as it would be to just have every question asked as an A, B, C or D multiple choice question – that’s not the real world.  

In the real world – we aren’t given all the options. 

In the real world – we aren’t even given all of the information we usually need. 

In the real world – we have to ask, we have to know who to ask, we have too coordinate. 

In the real world – we have to find the path that leads us to the answer. And that path isn’t always clear.  

In the real world – we have to do all of this, and do it as efficiently as we can. 

So, that’s where we created the simulator. It’s real-world fire protection questions that ‘simulates’ the challenges we actually face in the real world. 

Need to coordinate? Need updated plans? Need questions answered? Who do you ask? What if we don’t get all of the information? Can’t I find that on google? Is there a resource for that?  

Here – in the simulator – you’re given the challenge and some very basic preliminary information. The rest of you have to seek out for yourself. Need a furniture plan? Ask the architect. Need structural dimensions? Ask the Structural Engineer. Need the size of mechanical units? Ask the Mechanical Engineer.  

Here – we simulate what fire protection tasks looks like in the real world.  

Ok that’s different. Looks cool. But why does this make a difference? 

We’re only introducing this now, but these simulations or workshops or escape rooms are going to give us a chance to hone our skills. 

Have a job where we need to determine if sprinklers are required? Why not test exactly this challenge three times to learn how to do it? Five times? Ten times? 

What if the new hire that just joined the team had the opportunity to figure out whether a fire alarm system is required ten different times before they even started their first job? 

What if they were able to do a fire alarm layout for ten different jobs before their first layout? 

What about inspections? Or plan review? Or sprinkler layout? Or egress analysis? 

There is a ton of potential, and we’re only cracking open the door right now.  

To find these, go to the catalog page and click on Workshops. 

We are invested in helping push the industry forward, and the only way to do that is putting everything we have in your hands to help make you truly great at what you do. We don’t succeed unless you do, and we’re extremely excited to be bringing these new concepts to reality with MeyerFire University. 

Thanks for watching – and for being a part of what makes the fire protection community a great one. 

I am Joe Meyer, this is MeyerFire University.