Firefighters train all year, but most of it is death by PowerPoint. Evan Sitler-Bates and Drew MacNeil, co-founders of XpertVR, are building a different answer: immersive virtual reality simulations where firefighters actually do the work instead of watching someone describe it.

Hello Smart Firefighting Community!

Welcome to another episode of covering real world innovations via interviews with fire service and technology industry experts that empower YOU to develop your very own Smart Firefighting strategy.

In this episode, Kevin sits down with the XpertVR founders to dig into how their platform works, what fire departments are actually using it for, and why lived experience sticks when lectures don't.

Topics covered:

- Why XpertVR chose first responders over corporate training

- The "training is lived, not lectured" philosophy and what it means in practice

- How sandbox environments let departments customize scenarios to their specific community risks

- The San Diego Fire Department case study: 350+ firefighters through VR training in 21 days

- The Ontario College result: best-prepared pre-service students in 13 years

- Memory retention research: 20% from a PowerPoint vs. 80% from VR after a year

- Lithium ion fire scenarios and what they reveal about modern fire training gaps

- Hardware, software, and data: what XpertVR captures while firefighters train

- How to actually implement VR in a department, not just buy it and shelve it

- Where VR fits in the training ecosystem: and, not or

So take a listen to hear what they have to share.