Registration is now open for a full-day EMS conference that Norwich Township Firefighters IAFF Local 1723 is hosting on November 11 at the Norwich Township Fire Department, with organizers welcoming firefighters, EMTs, paramedics and other EMS professionals from across Central Ohio and beyond. Attendance does not require Norwich Township Fire Department membership, and the event runs from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm at 5181 Northwest Parkway in Hilliard.
The conference was announced Thursday in a Norwich Township Fire Department Facebook post directing prospective attendees to register through a QR code included in the announcement. According to the department's post, the day is billed as a full day of EMS education featuring keynote speakers from OhioHealth EMS medical directors, hands-on skills sessions, and networking opportunities for attendees. The post describes the sessions as covering real-world EMS topics designed to give attendees practical knowledge they can bring back to the field.
A Regional Draw Rooted in State Training Rules
The timing lines up with steady demand for continuing education among Ohio's EMS workforce. Licensed paramedics in the state must complete 86 hours of continuing education every three years across specific required topics to keep their credentials current, with up to 10% of providers subject to random state compliance audits, according to Ohio Division of EMS rules detailed by CE Solutions. Separately, state regulations that took effect in July 2024 consolidated instructor titles into a single Fire and Emergency Services Instructor credential, requiring continuing education instructors to have held active provider certification for at least five of the previous seven years, per reporting from Public Technologies — a standard meant to ensure conference presenters bring extensive field experience to hands-on skills labs.
The conference is being hosted at the same Northwest Parkway safety complex that houses Norwich Township Fire Station 81 and township administrative offices, located on a joint campus adjacent to the Hilliard Division of Police, according to the City of Hilliard. Norwich Township Fire Department itself operates four stations staffed by 113 full-time personnel — including five administrative staff overseeing prevention, training and emergency medical services — covering Norwich Township, the City of Hilliard and Brown Township in Franklin County, per the township's own figures. The department also holds an ISO Class 1 rating, the highest public protection classification issued by the Insurance Services Office, placing it among a small tier of top-rated departments statewide, as noted by The Hilliard Beacon.
Sponsors Reflect Central Ohio's EMS Manufacturing Cluster
The conference's list of sponsors doubles as a snapshot of Central Ohio's concentrated emergency services industry. Bound Tree Medical, Horton, Life-Assist, Nationwide Children's, Medicount, OhioHealth and Sutphen are all listed as backers of the event. Sutphen Corporation, headquartered in neighboring Dublin, is described as the nation's oldest family-owned fire apparatus manufacturer and operates a production facility in Hilliard that is directly protected by Norwich Township Fire Department, according to Firehouse.com. Horton Emergency Vehicles, based in nearby Grove City since 1994, purchased a $2.6 million, 20,000-square-foot facility expansion in November 2025 to expand its assembly and delivery operations for custom ambulances, Investing.com reported. Bound Tree Medical, also headquartered in Dublin under parent company Sarnova HC, operates as a national distributor of prehospital emergency medical supplies, pharmaceuticals and trauma equipment, per PitchBook.
That industry density sits alongside Norwich Township's own hiring standards, which set a high bar for the responders the conference is designed to reach. The department requires all full-time firefighter applicants to hold active dual certification as both an Ohio Firefighter II and an Ohio Paramedic before they can even apply, with starting salaries listed at $73,167, according to a job posting on National Testing Network. That dual-certification requirement allows Norwich Township personnel to deliver advanced life support care directly on emergency scenes.
Who's Organizing the Event
Norwich Township Firefighters IAFF Local 1723 is the AFL-CIO-affiliated union that serves as the exclusive collective bargaining agent for full-time firefighters and paramedics within the fire department, and it regularly organizes community outreach and professional development initiatives across Central Ohio, according to the IAFF Local 1723 website. The union's involvement follows other recent milestones for the department, including Norwich Township firefighters lighting the first live fire at their new training tower, which Hoodline covered in a story on the department's new live-fire training tower earlier this month.
Anyone interested in attending the November 11 conference can register using the QR code included in the department's announcement. Organizers have not specified a registration deadline or cost in the materials released so far.
