Just two months into President Donald Trump’s second administration, the White House is already mulling changes to the structure of FEMA and federal funding for disaster response and preparedness may change significantly. But in a recent (entirely unscientific) poll we conducted on LinkedIn, 96 percent of emergency and crisis managers, training and resiliency directors, and other respondents said that tabletop exercises (TTXs) are more crucial for effective disaster preparedness than ever.

In the survey results, 70 percent of disaster preparedness professionals said that TTXs are essential, and they’d find a way to conduct them even if their funding was cut. A further 26 percent rated disaster simulations as important. Only three percent said TTXs would be the first thing to go if their budget was reduced, and one percent felt they weren’t valuable enough to continue in those circumstances.

Why Tabletop Exercises are Essential for Disaster Preparedness + Response + Emergency Management

When performed frequently, TTXs allow state and local government departments, hospitals, colleges, and other organizations to develop muscle memory. This way, they can respond to any crisis faster and more effectively.

This is just one of many reasons that TTXs and simulations should remain an essential part of emergency management plans, even if federal funding is cut. Here are some of the comments from experienced experts in the field who completed the survey:

“Any emergency manager who doesn’t do tabletop exercises is not doing their job.”

- AVP, Emergency Management and Enterprise Resilience

“Tabletop exercises are a low cost and highly valuable tool for stakeholders to learn more about the resiliency of their organization/program/system/infrastructure/etc.”

“The tabletops are more important when funding is slashed. You will need support that maybe you had in-house before. You need to have even greater awareness of what resources can come to bear in a situation.”

- Technical Lead

“Tabletop exercises are the most cost effective exercise to conduct and allow for great discussions.”

- Chief of Emergency Management

Problems with Not Doing Disaster and Crisis Response Tabletop Exercises

Some entities in state and local government, healthcare, K-12 and higher education, and other industries might be tempted to reduce the number of TTXs they conduct or stop doing them entirely if their funding is slashed. But doing so will increase risk, reduce readiness, and minimize the preparedness to protect citizens, patients, and staff in the event of a crisis.

Here’s what some of the survey respondents shared about these dangers:

“To cut such an important and low-cost tool like a TTX is like cutting out product testing just to push out products faster. You end up with more risk and creating silos of knowledge instead of bringing all of the knowledge into one area to share how they play a role in a scenario.”

- Emergency Management Program Manager

“Maybe you had an agreement with the next county over to provide communications support, but their funding was cut, and they went to minimal staffing and can't really support [you]. Some specific asset that only Frank can operate? Well, Frank retired early, and now you need to find someone in the next city or state or whatever. These problems often do not come to light until you start thinking through scenarios, which happens at TTXs!”

- Technical Lead

How AI Improves Disaster Response Exercises

There’s a clear consensus among emergency managers that no matter what happens with federal funding, TTXs will remain a priority. However, most organizations struggle with limitations like:

• Long planning cycles

• Repetitive tasks and manual documentation

• Limited knowledge of staff capabilities, redundancies, and crossover

• Incomplete and out-of-date information

• Disparate data spread between filing cabinets and multiple systems

An AI-driven platform like Preppr overcomes these issues, making exercise design faster, more productive and – crucially with budget cuts looming – more cost-effective. Monthly plans start at just $150, so you can use discretionary spending to get started now and cancel anytime.

See Preppr in action by booking a demo today.

And check back soon for part two, in which we’ll break down how AI can transform your TTX process.