Conference review More than 1,000 people gathered in Long Beach, California, in March for SPE’s 2014 International Conference on Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE). In addition to the opening and closing sessions, the conference consisted of three plenary sessions, 13 panel sessions, and 44 technical sessions that presented more than 200 papers. Opening Session The grand ballroom at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center was nearly full for the opening session on 17 March. Roland Moreau, Conference Committee chairperson, and Kathy Kanocz, Executive Committee chairperson, introduced Jeff Spath, 2014 SPE President, who, in turn, introduced Leonard Marcus and Eric McNulty of the Harvard University National Preparedness Leadership Initiative. Marcus and McNulty presented the idea of what they call “meta-leadership,” based on their research into the responses to the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013, Hurricane Katrina, and the Macondo oil spill disaster in 2010. Meta-leadership, Marcus said, involves leadership that reaches “beyond the confines of your particular role or position.” Marcus and McNulty said that, during times of crisis, people’s brains respond by “going to the basement.” This refers to the instinctual responses of freeze, flight, or fight. During those moments, McNulty said, “all your brain is focused on survival. You can’t do any complex problem solving. You’re not very productive in terms of figuring out what’s actually going on.” The key to successful crisis management, he said, is to get out of the basement as quickly as possible in order to make sound decisions. “You, as a crisis leader, have to be smarter than your brain,” Marcus said. This return to rational decision-making can be made by sending a second signal to the brain. This second signal can be as simple as taking a deep breath or counting to 10. With practice, one can build a second neural pathway to speed one’s return to productive thinking.