EMS Region III Conference & Expo

EMS Region III Conference & Expo

Most recent confirmed edition: 27 April - 3 May 2026 (exhibitor show 1-3 May 2026) Venue: Ruidoso Convention Center, 111 Sierra Blanca Drive, Ruidoso, NM 88345, United States Organiser: Eastern New Mexico Emergency Medical Services Corporation (EMS Region I & III), a 501(c)(3) non-profit Official site: https://emsregion3.org/

About the event

The EMS Region III Conference & Expo is the annual gathering of New Mexico's eastern emergency medical services region. It is produced by the Eastern New Mexico Emergency Medical Services Corporation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose stated mission is "the promotion of region-wide community-based emergency medical service and trauma care system that reduces premature death and disability from acute illness, medical and traumatic emergencies through the coordination of local and regional resources."

Organisers describe the conference in these terms: EMS Region III "carries a tradition in bringing the national stage to New Mexico with the best EMS educators and exhibitors from across the country." For the 2026 edition they were "expecting more than 900 total participants," with "a week of activities beginning April 27th and ending on May 3, 2026, at the Ruidoso Convention Center in Ruidoso, NM."

Format

The week mixes continuing-education classroom sessions with a trade exhibition and a handful of side events that have become fixtures of the conference:

• Exhibitor Show - held at the Ruidoso Convention Center, running Friday 1 May through Sunday 3 May 2026. Vehicle set-up takes place on Wednesday 29 April and booth set-up on Thursday 30 April. Because exhibit-hall space is limited, the organiser asks vendors to register early; sponsorship packages cover conference shirts, conference bags, bottled water and badge lanyards, and must be committed by mid-January.
• Inaugural EMS Skills Competition - launched at the 2026 conference on Thursday evening, 30 April. Teams work through "fast-paced, realistic emergency scenarios" testing clinical knowledge and problem-solving, with prizes, refreshments and a DJ.
• Golf Tournament - revived for 2026 on 30 April at The Links at Sierra Blanca, held in memory of Melinda Shaw (an EMS Region III board member killed in a 2023 line-of-duty motor vehicle accident), with proceeds benefiting the Jacob Shaw EMS Scholarship. Four-person scramble, 10:00 a.m. shotgun start, lunch included, $500 per team, with Platinum / Gold / Silver sponsorship tiers.
• Jacobs-Shaw Memorial Scholarship - originally created by the EMS Region III board to honour Jerry Jacobs and renamed in 2023 after Melinda Shaw's death, the fund reimburses part of the training costs of newly licensed EMTs in New Mexico.

Continuing education

Outside the conference week, EMS Region I & III sell NM EMS Bureau-approved online licence refresher courses (a state rule caps asynchronous online hours at half of the required continuing education, the rest must be classroom-based):

| Refresher | Hours | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| NM First Responder (EMSFR) | 10 | $50 |
| NM EMT-Basic | 20 | $80 |
| NM EMT-Intermediate & AEMT | 25 | $100 |
| NM Paramedic | 30 | $130 |

Registration for these is handled by phone through the regional office (575) 769-2639.

Next edition

To be announced by the organiser. At the time of checking (23 September 2026) the official site had rotated back to its regular content - refresher enrolment, scholarship applications, the 2026 drug / operations / procedure / treatment guidelines and the online licensing portal - and no 2027 dates had been published. The conference has historically been held annually in the spring.

Note for researchers

The URL previously attached to this record, naco.org/event/2024-naco-annual-conference-exposition/schedule, is the National Association of Counties annual conference schedule and has nothing to do with this event - it is a mismatched link carried over from an upstream aggregator. The correct organiser domain is emsregion3.org. This event is also unrelated to the Michigan EMS Expo or EMS Update, which are run by different organisations.