By Kenzie Capece, Senior Outreach Advisor, FirstNet

The FirstNet state and territory single points of contact (SPOCs) from more than 45 states and territories met via webinar on July 27, 2016 to hear updates on FirstNet’s shift to a customer care-focused organization and discuss the ongoing and future consultation efforts across the nation.  TJ Kennedy, President, and Rich Reed, Chief Customer Officer (CCO), opened the meeting by discussing FirstNet’s evolution from a start-up organization to a public-private partnership.  

A key focus of the meeting was FirstNet’s Metro Leadership Engagements.  FirstNet Director of Consultation David Buchanan stressed the importance of the timing and value of this effort for States, local public safety, and FirstNet.  He explained that these engagements will help educate and inform local public safety executives and leaders, who in many States are key influencers to the Governors. 

As one of the guiding efforts for this year’s consultation program, David emphasized that FirstNet is focused on substantive engagement at the local public safety agency level to share information on network planning, schedule, timeline, and deployment.  FirstNet seeks to schedule a formal Metro Leadership Engagement to dialogue with these eventual customers, address questions and concerns, and supplement the consultation that FirstNet has done to date in a meaningful manner.  With their outreach work in their respective states and territories, SPOCs are critical to the success of these meetings. 

David Soloos, the Oregon SPOC, added to the discussion by talking about the recent Metro Leadership Engagement in Portland, underlining the extremely high level of interest and attendance.  The engagement was one of a series of pilots, enabling FirstNet and Portland public safety agencies to discuss the eventual management of large amounts of data and applications and training around these issues.  In addition, Portland public safety agencies used the meeting to discuss data collected to date, as well as potential policies on bring your own device (BYOD) and procurement issues.  David encouraged other SPOCs to not only participate, but to take advantage of the availability of this intimate setting with FirstNet and maximize the participation at the local agency levels. 

FirstNet’s Regional Leads are coordinating now with the SPOCs to identify potential engagements and agencies to be involved.  FirstNet will then work with the local agencies on logistics and event planning.  FirstNet is looking forward to meeting with these stakeholders through these new engagements.       

We’d like to thank all the SPOCs for their active participation in a successful meeting.  For more information about SPOC events, please contact me at kenzie.capece@firstnet.gov.  To schedule a Metro Leadership engagement, please contact your FirstNet Regional Lead or email Consultation@firstnet.gov.  We appreciate your interest in FirstNet, and we look forward to the next in-person meeting in November 2016.

Thanks, Kenzie