NEW ORLEANS – More than 200 National Guard leaders, planners and emergency management partners gathered in New Orleans March 31 to April 2 for the Louisiana National Guard’s Emergency Response Workshop, aimed at strengthening coordination for large-scale domestic disaster response.

The event, hosted at the Higgins Hotel, marked the evolution of the longtime All-Hazards Coordination Workshop, now refocused on rapid, integrated response capabilities across all 54 states, territories and the District of Columbia.

The workshop serves as a key planning forum to align mutual aid agreements and synchronize National Guard response requirements for fiscal years 2026–2027, ensuring faster and more effective support during emergencies nationwide.

Throughout the three-day event, participants collaborated in regional breakout sessions to share best practices and lessons learned from recent disasters. Discussions centered on identifying capability gaps and improving coordination across mission areas, including security, logistics, engineering, communications, medical support, transportation, aviation and general-purpose forces.

The workshop also included vendor exhibitions highlighting emerging emergency response technologies and equipment, as well as the coordination of Emergency Management Assistance Compact agreements to pre-identify resources and capabilities for interstate support.

“The Louisiana National Guard Emergency Response Workshop enables lifesaving mutual aid for hurricanes, wildfires and other disasters, as it has for nearly two decades,” said Col. William Saint, director of strategy and policy for the LANG. “This week’s sessions and the relationships we strengthen as Guardsmen will make us even more effective in 2026 and beyond.”

The Emergency Management Assistance Compact is the nation’s mutual aid system, allowing states and territories to request and provide assistance during emergencies or disasters.

The workshop traces its origins to lessons learned following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, when more than 65,000 personnel from 48 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands deployed under EMAC. The Louisiana National Guard has since hosted 18 workshops to strengthen interstate coordination.

“In an era of increasing frequency and complexity of natural and man-made disasters, the Emergency Response Workshop strengthens the Guard’s role as America’s primary domestic response force,” said Lt. Col. Patrick Boling, deputy director of strategy and policy for the LANG. “When help arrives from outside a neighboring state in the aftermath of a disaster, the public may not realize it, but it was planned and coordinated during this workshop.”

Since 2018, the National Guard Bureau’s Plans, Policy and International Affairs Directorate has also hosted the National Joint Planners Course for many of the same planners and leaders who attend the workshop.