It feels like just yesterday the R&R team, and some event staff at BNP Media, got together for the first call to discuss launching a brand new event in the disaster restoration industry. After months of careful research and planning, we are now less than one month away from the inaugural event. Booth and exhibitor space sold out early, and attendee spaces are filling up.

If you are on the fence about attending, I would like to personally encourage you to come and check it out. Preparing to Respond is all about training restoration teams how to respond to every aspect of a disaster. Disasters don’t just hit far from your home base. They do not always require massive travel.

Sometimes, disasters strike our own back yards. Think about all the companies in California currently dealing with massive wildfires. Or towns on the East Coast dealing with massive localized flooding. Likewise, there are towns in the Great Plains that have been devastated by tornadoes, and cities in the Midwest severely damaged by heavy snows, ice storms, and bitter cold. In any of these instances, your call volume sky rockets. Are you prepared? Do you know how to effectively dry dozens of structures at once? Do you know how to write the most complete and accurate estimates possible to be sure you get paid? Do you know how to handle a large volume of contents jobs? (Annissa Coy is hosting a three-hour pre-conference workshop on making $100,000 in 10 days in a new market!) What if there is a mass casualty event in your town? Are you prepared to clean up a crime scene at a local school or elsewhere? These are just a few of the questions that will be answered at Preparing to Respond.

You can find out more information on the event, including a promo code to save you some cold, hard cash when you register, sprinkled throughout this issue of R&R! Plus, you can find out a whole lot more on www.preparingtorespond.com. There, you can find the agenda, networking opportunities, sponsor and exhibitor information, and of course all about the spectacular golf resort where Preparing to Respond will be held!

Looking forward to seeing you at Innisbrook in Palm Harbor next month!