Sixteen members of the regional IMT came together in State College, Pennsylvania on Thursday, July 8, 2010 to participate in an exercise using the two simultaneous Arts Festivals occurring in the area that week as a backdrop. The purpose of the day was multi-faceted:

• serving to exercise current festival emergency response plans
• identify and propose solutions to gaps in those plans
• create an opportunity for the newly formed IMT members to function together for the first time by working through a complete operational period

Individuals representing multiple counties in the Task Force comprised the team. This exercise allowed many of the members to utilize ICS position specific training for the first time outside of the classroom setting. Even though the day revolved around a real time incident, the stress level remained calm and relaxed providing the ability to work through difficulties as they arose.