The 2026 Crisis Negotiator Seminar & Challenge is a 3-day event hosted by the Bay Area Negotiator Group. This is a unique opportunity for hostage/crisis negotiation teams to attend a seminar and participate in a complex team negotiation competition.
Day 1 - Seminar / Training
A series of presentations and case studies relative to the contemporary issues in crisis negotiation.
Day 2 - Crisis Negotiation Challenge
A full-scale scenario involving your entire crisis negotiation team with live role players, incident command, intelligence workflows, and trained judges. Judging criteria will be provided to each team prior to the event.
Day 3 - Seminar / Training
A half-day of presentation, case studies, and awards presentation. The afternoon will be a network session encouraging teams to connect with each other in the Tampa Bay Area.
Agency leadership and tactical operators are encouraged to attend the seminar and the challenge for training and observation purposes. Individuals may register to be placed on an ad-hoc, multi-agency team or help facilitate the scenario. Early registration is encouraged.
Teams participating in the challenge must provide at least one person to the judging pool. Judges must have attended at least a 40-hour basic course and have 2 years of negotiation experience. All participants will receive a certificate of attendance. Although we cap the competition to 10 teams, individuals are encouraged to participate as observers, judges, role players, or facilitators.
This is a regional qualifying event for the National Competition held by NTOA. Refer to NTOA.org for more information.