What Happened at APCO 2025: Public Safety Innovation at its Finest

In July, over 5,000 attendees and 250 exhibitors gathered in Baltimore, Maryland for the APCO 2025 conference. With 132 educational sessions, it was this year’s premier event for public safety communications officials.

The conference brought together frontline telecommunicators, communication center managers, emergency responders, and technology providers from local, state, and federal agencies. Over four days, participants engaged in educational sessions, committee meetings and special events. Two full days were dedicated to exhibiting the latest innovations in public safety comms.

CentralSquare was proud to attend as a Gold Sponsor of the conference and a Gold Corporate Sponsor of APCO International. In fact, during the conference, CentralSquare was promoted as the #1 public safety software provider.

At the event, our team connected with agency leaders, demoed solutions and discussed the future of public safety communications. If you didn’t attend APCO 2025, keep reading for key takeaways, technology trends and session insights.

Showcasing Innovation

CentralSquare’s innovative solutions help public safety agencies work smarter, faster and more reliably. At APCO 2025, we showed our commitment through thought leadership and hands-on demonstrations.

Our Product Manager, Tucker Halverson, led the session “Elevating Innovation: CentralSquare’s AI-Driven Transformation and Cloud Migration for Public Safety.” His session highlighted how AI and the cloud are reshaping operations, improving response times and reducing risk.

On the expo floor, attendees explored five of our leading solutions: Public Safety Suite (OneSolution, Pro, Enterprise), Unify, and Vertex. Unify is CentralSquare’s CAD-to-CAD solution, helping neighboring agencies improve joint emergency response through true interoperability. Vertex, our 911 call handling solution, is both NENA i3-compliant and NG911 ready.

Each demo showed how modern, integrated technology empowers agencies to collaborate effectively, optimize workflows and protect their communities with confidence. At CentralSquare, innovation is more than a buzzword – it’s built into every product.

Building Community Beyond the Booth

During APCO 2025, our team wanted to build genuine connections beyond the expo floor. So we sponsored the Rest & Recharge Lounge, a comfortable space with couches, chargers and tables.

At the lounge, attendees could take a break, catch up on work or simply relax between sessions. This space gave public safety professionals a chance to recharge (both literally and figuratively) while connecting with peers on an informal level.

On the second day of the event, we also partnered with Prepared to host an evening reception for fun and relaxed networking. The happy hour brought together public sector pros, agency leaders and technology partners to share ideas and strengthen relationships. With a strong turnout and engaging discussions, the event extended the value of the conference well beyond the scheduled sessions.

Conversations That Matter

CentralSquare’s time at APCO 2025 was highly productive and engaging. Our 34 team members – representing Sales, Marketing, Product, and PreSales – worked together to connect with attendees and showcase CentralSquare solutions. Our booth drew steady traffic, leading to many insightful conversations with both prospective and current customers.

In fact, we exceeded our lead capture goal by a significant margin, ending the event with 548 scans (146 more than our goal). Beyond the numbers, the real value came from the quality of those interactions.

We met with agency leaders exploring new public safety technology, as well as frontline staff who offered valuable feedback. Even when it wasn’t our direct agency contact, connecting with other individuals from the same organization provided fresh perspectives and new relationships.

Overall, APCO 2025 reinforced the importance of listening and learning from the public safety community, as well as finding ways to collaborate and innovate for better outcomes.

Did you miss the APCO 2025 conference? It’s not too late to learn about CentralSquare’s innovative solutions. Schedule a discovery call today to learn how our Public Safety Suite, Unify, Vertex and more can transform communications at your agency.