Most exercises are pageantry. They rehearse what people already know, fail safely, and produce after-action reports nobody reads. Fenix EM designs HSEEP-compliant exercises that actually stress the seams of your operation — the ones that will fail under real conditions, the ones your AAR/IP needs to find before an event finds them for you.
Cities, counties, and tribal governments executing HSGP-, UASI-, or EMPG-funded exercise requirements — or building a multi-year IPP that progresses from discussion-based through full-scale.
Agency-specific exercise programs covering pandemic response, mass casualty incidents, active threat, and inter-agency coordination scenarios across public safety disciplines.
Hospital systems facing CMS Conditions of Participation requirements, utility operators preparing for NERC CIP exercises, and critical infrastructure operators rehearsing cyber, physical, and integrated scenarios.
Casinos, stadiums, festivals, and large enterprises validating crisis response, business continuity, and active threat plans through executive tabletops and operational exercises.
The HSEEP exercise progression spans seven types, each calibrated to test a specific level of capability. Most engagements begin where your program is and progress upward.
Informal, instructor-led overview of plans, policies, or capabilities. The right starting point when staff are new to a topic or doctrine has changed.
Structured working session producing a deliverable — a draft plan, an updated SOP, a refined policy. Discussion with output, not just discussion.
Scenario-driven discussion in a low-stress setting. Stress-tests decisions, authorities, and information flow without real operations. Most common entry point.
Simulated decision-making against a competing or adapting opponent or system. Useful for cyber, threat actor, and adversarial scenarios.
Single-function or single-team rehearsal. Tests one thing — alert and warning, evacuation, mass dispensing — under realistic conditions.
Multi-function, multi-team simulation in real time. Tests EOC, command, and coordination without deploying field resources. Significant inject library required.
Multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency, in-the-field exercise involving actual deployment of personnel and equipment. The most realistic — and most resource-intensive — exercise type. Typically the capstone of a multi-year IPP.
Every HSEEP-compliant exercise follows the same disciplined arc — design grounded in real risk, conduct that stresses the seams, and post-exercise work that drives actual change.
We start with what you actually need to test — not what's easiest to design. Capabilities-based objectives tied to real risk, scenario design grounded in plausible events, and an inject library that forces decisions under stress. The Concept & Objectives Meeting (C&O) is where most exercises succeed or fail before they begin.
The exercise itself — facilitated, controlled, and evaluated to HSEEP standard. We staff facilitator and controller roles directly or train your team to run them. Evaluation is structured around capability targets, with data captured in real time for the after-action.
The phase most exercises skip or do badly. We build an AAR that names actual findings — not platitudes — and an Improvement Plan that converts each finding into a tracked corrective action with owners, deadlines, and validation criteria. Then we follow up.
Engagement scales to the type of exercise, scope of participants, and whether this is a one-time event or a multi-year program. Most clients begin with a single exercise and expand into a program from there.
A single seminar, workshop, tabletop, or game. The right entry point for executive-level rehearsal, plan validation, or grant-required exercise compliance.
A complete operations-based exercise — functional or full-scale — including all design, conduct, evaluation, and post-exercise work. Pricing scales with participant count, jurisdictions involved, and inject complexity.
A complete multi-year exercise program built on HSEEP doctrine — building block progression from discussion-based to full-scale, aligned to capability targets and grant cycles.
The test of an exercise isn't whether it ran on schedule or whether participants enjoyed it. It's whether the AAR named real findings, whether those findings were converted into tracked corrective actions, and whether something in your program is meaningfully better six months later.
Fenix EM designs exercises with that test in mind from the C&O meeting forward.
One of the most rigorous exercise design credentials in the field — earned through demonstrated competency, not coursework alone.
Active HSEEP Instructor and FEMA Adjunct Instructor credentials. Exercises are built by someone who teaches the doctrine, not someone who learned it for the engagement.
Scenarios informed by sixteen years of actual deployments — Kerrville, Helene, Milton, Hawaii, COVID, Route 91. Injects designed to mirror what actually happens, not what's supposed to happen.
Most exercises are designed around the exercise day. Ours are designed around the corrective actions the AAR will generate — because that's where the value actually is.
Below are the questions that come up most often in pre-engagement conversations. If yours isn't here, the discovery call is the right place for it.
Thirty minutes, no pitch deck, no contract pressure. We talk through what you're trying to test, what's driving the timeline, what your participants will tolerate, and whether a Fenix EM exercise is the right fit. If it is, we'll discuss scope and structure. If not, you'll leave with a clearer view of what the right next step is.
Both Fenix EM diagnostics surface exercise-program currency as a domain. Free, immediate.
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