The third installment for the year of the Tangent Link Aerial Firefighting show was held in Lagonissi, Greece, on October 17 and 18, 2023, bringing industry professionals from Europe together with over fifty vendors to form the conference and trade show portion of this year’s Greece show held just outside of Athens at the picturesque Grand Resort Lagonissi.
Tangent Link, as organizers, put together yet another stellar event hosted on the Mediterranean beaches surrounding the resort. Attendees were in high spirits during the opening reception sponsored by AerialFire overlooking the sunset in Lagonissi. The mood continued through day one as the opening address commenced, given by event chair Lieutenant Colonel Zisoula Ntasiou, Duty Officer Unit 2, National Coordination Center for Operations & Crisis Management, Hellenic Fire Service, Greece & Professor Dr. Johann Goldammer, Director, Global Fire Monitoring Center, Germany to a packed conference room of industry professionals.
The conference portion of the event remained packed throughout the show as dozens of presenters provided valuable content focusing on critical topics that affect the firefighting fraternity throughout Europe and the world through three sessions.
Day one concluded with a demonstration of the abilities of the S-64 Erickson Air Crane in front of all conference attendees as the aircraft performed multiple drops in front of a wowed crowd, some of whom had never seen the Air Crane in action live. Erickson works as a key international provider of firefighting services, providing ten Air Cranes for firefighting operations in Greece annually. Greece suffered one of its most devastating fire seasons in 2023, spiking an increase in foreign aircraft usage nationwide.
Day two saw many vendor visits and interest on the trade floor from attendees meeting with dozens of vendors. At the same time, the conference entered its second day of multiple sessions that continued to offer valuable learning opportunities for attendees and continued interest from attendees on the trade show floor—the second and final day concluded with the event dinner, where those in attendance were given a presentation from X-Prize, an initiative to develop further firefighting technology to improve global firefighting response before dancing the night away.
“The global AFF mission is evolving rapidly in a multi-dimensional way. The mission and need are growing rapidly, structural shortages in critical areas need to be addressed, and new technologies are offering significant mission enhancements. Against this backdrop, Agencies and regulatory bodies are working hard to manage these needs and challenges. The Tangent Link global AFF series has the goal of supporting all stakeholders in their critical missions, and providing an environment for learning, collaboration and enhanced outcomes”. stated John Longhurst, CEO of Tangent Link
Despite having triple the workload of previous years, the Tangent Link team delivered yet another stellar event in Greece. Those in attendance will undoubtedly be looking forward to the next installment of the Aerial Firefighting Americas show in Sacramento, California, March 6-8, 2024.
View a some of the highlights from the show in the album below:
