A Brief History of FEMTC

FEMTC, the Fire and Evacuation Modeling Technical Conference, began in 2011. Thunderhead Engineering noticed a lack of modeling-specific events in the industry and wanted to provide an opportunity for the community to share its progress with one another. It was always designed to highlight achievements through application, research, and experimentation. At that inagural event, Thunderhead Engineering co-founder Dan Swenson introduced the event and expressed its intent which has not changed.

As a global community, the FEMTC team supported those who could not travel to the US by live-streaming all of the presentations. This effort has carried forth throughout all FEMTC events including in 2020 when a virtual event was the only option. The 2022 event will provide a hybrid approach so that both presenters and attendees can participate virtually or in-person at Brno by their choice.

FEMTC originated as an event in Baltimore due to the relative proximity of the NIST office. In 2014, the event moved closer by finding its way to Gaithersburg. It went international in 2016 at Málaga, Spain as an acknowledgment to the audience outside of North America. From then, it was intended that the event would return to the US in 2018 (which it did) and revert back to Europe in the following event. As that was not possible, the 2020 plan for Brno has been resurrected for 2022.

At each conference event there have been at least 25 presentations advancing fire and evacuation modeling. FEMTC 2022 currently needs presenters who have made an impact, discovered a novel approach, or accomplished an otherwise noteworthy project in the field of fire and evacuation modeling. If that sounds like you, please consider submitting an abstract of 300 words or less.