By Gail Bergman
With a theme of “Innovative Solutions for a Modern World,” this year’s World Conference on Disaster Management (WCDM), which took place in Toronto June 19–22, delivered just that.
As hundreds of delegates from 35 countries gathered together — from emergency response and management, business continuity, risk management, public health, IT disaster recovery, security, the military and government — the consensus was clear: Our world is constantly evolving, and events like WCDM are critical in order to not only keep up with solutions, but to stay one step ahead.
Held annually for the past 21 years, WCDM is one of the pre-eminent events of its kind, representing all areas of disaster management through a comprehensive conference and exhibit of the latest emergency management and business continuity products, services, technologies and programs.
The conference, produced by Diversified Business Communications, is focused on providing solutions on how businesses, communities and government can prepare for emergencies and adapt to global and local threats, and catastrophic events. This year’s event emphasized four areas: the search for resiliency, innovations in the crisis field, real-life lessons and future threats.
“The feedback we received from delegates indicates that learning from the experiences of others in the industry, from educational sessions to networking, is one of the most effective ways to develop a plan for current and future issues,” said WCDM director Chuck Wright, explaining that international representation was exceptionally strong at this year’s event.
From the BP oil spill and Chilean mine collapse, to the Zhouqu, China, landslides and earthquakes in Haiti and Christchurch, New Zealand, to the Toronto G20 summit, H1N1 pandemic and severe flooding during Tropical Storm Ketsana in 2009, international experts examined each crisis from all sides, analyzing the positive emergency responses delivered and suggesting better practices for the future.
Delegates were offered presentations from 72 international speakers, supported by a range of interactive, educational workshops led by industry experts, all geared toward helping them prepare for the unexpected.
Plan B for a warmer world
Opening the 21st WCDM as this year’s keynote speaker was renowned author Lester Brown, founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute and recognized as one of the world’s most influential thinkers. Addressing a packed hall, Brown urged a tougher response to climate change to prevent natural disasters as he walked the audience through the material in his latest book, “World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse.”
“We’re now facing man-made natural disasters, those that are a result of human activity, and it’s time we recognize that,” Brown told attendees, each of whom took home a copy of his new book, courtesy of conference organizers. “If we don’t quickly restructure the energy economy and cut carbon emissions, we’re going to be facing problems on a scale we cannot now easily imagine.”
Brown’s “Plan B” calls for cutting net carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2020, to prevent concentrations of CO2 from exceeding 400 parts per million and to keep future global temperature rise to a minimum. The solution calls for investments in energy efficiency to stop global energy demands from increasing, the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, a restructuring of transportation systems to reduce coal and oil use, an end to worldwide deforestation, and ongoing tree planting and soil management to help absorb emissions. He also suggests stabilizing the population at a maximum of 8 billion, eliminating poverty and restoring ecosystem function as solutions.
“We can’t affect seismic activity and prevent earthquakes, but we can prevent some of the floods and the crop-withering heat waves, which is what we’re facing now if we stay with business as usual,” he said, using last year’s drought in Russia and floods in Pakistan as examples.
EM at home and across the globe
Other WCDM conference sessions included presentations by such industry experts as John Copenhaver, CEO of Contingency Management Group, and Gavin Love, director of Response and Recovery Services at WorleyParsons, who spoke about “How to put the ‘Community’ back into Community Resilience Planning.”
Copenhaver and Love maintained that a community is not easily outfitted with a “one size fits all” resilience plan from outside experts. To be successful, a community-wide plan must be built with members of the community and constructed as part of a larger community plan, such as a strategic growth or sustainable development plan.
Explaining that top-down planning for communities doesn’t work, they emphasized that key stakeholders, including individuals, the community, public and private industry, and government, must all be involved in some capacity in the developing the plan.
In a separate session, titled “EM4DR: Placing Emergency Managers at the Heart of Disaster Relief Efforts,” Richard Kinchlea, Director of Operations for the Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness, presented the need for neutral, non-political, non-aligned emergency management response teams for international disaster relief and response.
“Who can do a better job managing emergencies than emergency managers?” asked Kinchlea. Suggesting the creation of a pool of emergency managers to be deployed similarly to the Red Cross, he explained that emergency managers are a top choice for the post as “We’re focused on ‘pure’ emergency management… this is our job, we’re not biased, conflicted or aligned to any particular group, organization, association or government.”
Citing recent disasters, including the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, the 2004 tsunami, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Kinchlea explained that the involvement of multiple organizations at each event led to a lack of coordination and communication on the ground. In the case of the 2004 tsunami, the 170 international and government agencies and non-governmental organizations that offered assistance also created an oversupply of aid in some places, an undersupply in other places and instances of intra-agency competition.
Kinchlea proposed creating a response system that includes well-trained and experienced personnel trusted among international NGOs. He estimates that such a system, which would include sponsors and partners, would require about 60 months to create, from putting together the team, to conducting feasibility studies, to obtaining both seed and operational funding.
Projects and products
Among the highlights of the workshops was a full-day session headed by Scot Phelps, lead professor/facilitator at the Emergency Management Academy, with locations in New York City, Toronto and Sydney, on the topic of “Project Management for Business Continuity & Emergency Management Professionals.” Attendees learned how proper project management is the secret to business continuity and emergency management success, and came away with tools to better complete projects, limit unfunded projects, control change, and manage teams and stakeholders.
“While emergency managers need a lot of technical knowledge about disasters, they also need to be as efficient as possible,” Phelps explained. “Project management gives them that structure, so that they can focus on helping others in an organized way.”
On the tradeshow floor, more than 100 exhibitors, including such organizations as IBM, DRI Canada, eBRP Solutions, NORAD, U.S. Northcom, Coastal Environmental Systems, Marsh Risk Consulting and CriSys Limited, showcased their latest offerings in disaster management-related products and services.
Organizers have already begun planning for next year, setting the dates of June 24–27, 2012, for next year’s conference, themed “Global Threats – Local Consequences.” For more information, visit www.wcdm.org.