As firefighters become company officers, chief officers and then heads of fire/EMS departments, the tasks pile up. There's an entire industry of software builders who make digital tools every day that could make the average fire/EMS leaders' jobs easier. In this presentation, we share a few from 2017 and answer a few questions that might help move productivity and efficiency forward.

1. Use These Digital Tools To
Make Your Job Easier
Tim Hopkins, IAFC

2. Tim Hopkins
Assistant Director, IAFC Digital Center
(Technology, GIS, Analytics, Digital Strategy)
Liaison, Human Relations Committee
Project Lead, IAFC Diversity Executive Leadership
Program (iDELP)

3. What tools did/do you rely on most
as a firefighter every day?

4. What tools do you rely
on as a BOSS every day?

5. What tools could make you
more efficient every day?

6. Fire/EMS Leaders
+
Digital Tools
(Especially those who wear LOTS of hats)
Photo by Flickr user djking

7. Project + Task Management
• Asana – asana.com
• Trello – trello.com
• Planner – tasks.office.com
What to use them for:
– Community event planning
– Inspections
– Weekly check-ins
– Daily/Weekly Monthly Reminders

8. Lay Of the Land (Reading)
• Feedly – feedly.com
• Pocket – getpocket.com
• IAFC + KnowledgeNet – iafc.org
• Kindle – amazon.com
• Boomerang – boomerangoutlook.com
What to use them for:
– Efficient curation of fire/EMS news
– Mobile-friendly readers
– Set and "read later" items

9. Reports
• PowerBI – powerbi.office.com
• Proposify – proposify.com
• Sutori – sutori.com
• Canva – canva.com
What to use them for:
– Efficient creation of monthly, quarterly reports
– Data visualization beyond Excel charts
– Custom templates ready for plug-and-share content

10. IAFC Public Safety GIS App
MyHelix.org/App/Gis/NationalViewer

11. Social Media
• Tweetdeck – tweetdeck.twitter.com
• Hootsuite – hootsuite.com
• BuzzSomo – buzzsomo.com
What to use them for:
– Reading and sending scheduled social media posts
– Reputation management (good for professional developmenet)
– Finding and sharing trending content

12. Video Conferencing
• Zoom – zoom.us
• Skype for Business – skype.com
• Facetime – apple.com
What to use them for:
– Simultaneous video conference across stations
– Face-to-digital-face conversations

13. What's missing that you wish you
had at your fingertips?

14. What tools do you use every day?

15. Thank you.
You can reach me at:
tim@iafc.org
703-896-4842