This week on the EMS One-Stop podcast, Rob Lawrence sits down with emergency management and large-scale exercise expert Mike Marsh to explore what really goes into preparing agencies, communities and public safety partners for major events.
With the FIFA World Cup underway, America 250 upon us, and countless local events happening every weekend, the conversation focuses on the practical realities of planning, exercising and pressure-testing emergency response systems before the big day arrives.
| MORE: Training hard and fighting easy. Creating an effective tabletop training exercise for pre-planning MCI response
Drawing on decades of EMS leadership experience and his current work through Marsh EMS Consulting, Mike shares how agencies can move beyond “grant compliance exercises” and build meaningful operational readiness.
From tabletop exercises and ROC drills, to stakeholder coordination, communication failures and after-action reviews, Mike provides a masterclass in how to build resilient systems from the operator up.
His central premise is simple: exercises should be designed to break the system in a safe environment so weaknesses can be identified and corrected before a real incident occurs.
Whether you’re preparing for a World Cup match, a county fair, or simply reviewing your MCI plans, this episode offers practical lessons for agencies of every size.
Notable quotes
- “Our team is hired to break your system and rebuild it together.” — Mike Marsh
- “The scene will be bigger than they are. And it is OK to ask for help.” — Mike Marsh
- “We don’t walk in and say, ‘You don’t understand ICS.’ Actually, you do understand ICS, you just don’t know that you’re using it.” — Mike Marsh
- “Identifying and learning are two different activities; and they have to be cemented in.” — Rob Lawrence
- “Trust your people, know that you can’t do it all, get a team together, train them, drill them, pressure them.” — Mike Marsh
- “Prior preparation and planning prevents pathetic performance.” — Rob Lawrence
| MORE: 5 lessons for special events standby services and emergency response
Episode timeline
00:00 – Introduction and why major events require planning, exercises and preparation
02:25 – Mike’s journey from California EMS leadership to emergency management consulting in Texas
04:53 – The biggest misconceptions about exercises and tabletop planning
06:30 – What frontline EMTs and supervisors need to know when the incident is bigger than they are
08:07 – The first questions Mike asks when planning a major event
10:13 – Communication, stakeholder engagement and identifying operational gaps
12:16 – Translating ICS and NIMS concepts into practical operational language
17:08 – Planning a county fair exercise: where to start and why capability gaps matter
19:46 – Who should be at the planning table and why executive participation matters
21:23 – The role of public works, politicians, emergency managers and public information officers
22:29 – The best and worst exercises Mike has ever experienced
25:29 – How to challenge leaders who believe their plans don’t need testing
28:01 – Exercise planning for small and rural systems with limited resources
30:22 – After-action reviews and turning lessons identified into lessons learned
32:11 – Advice for agencies that have never exercised their plans before
33:54 – Mike’s biggest leadership lesson from a career in EMS and emergency management
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