Disaster Management Initiative's 2nd Annual Workshop
Joint CMU-SV DMI/California MCC Rally: EmComm - Mobile Communications for Public Safety: Policy, Technology & Practice
Visit the event summary page for news, photos, videos and presentations.
In practice with the DMI spirit of moving from talk to action, we were delighted to coordinate our workshop with the 2011 California Mobile Command Center (MCC) Rally sponsored by the California Fire Chiefs Association (CFCA) and the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA).
This unique action-packed 2-day event, disaster communications was explored through testing interoperability with some 30 mobile emergency communications vehicles, hands-on experiments and demonstrations, and panels discussing what works and doesn’t in disasters.
Program Highlights
Learning - keynotes, panels, discussions
“Better Together – Public/Private Partnerships” - Michael Cummings, FEMA Region 9 Private Sector Liaison
“Burning Man: Temporary IT and Communications” – Joseph Pred, Communications Coordinator for Burning Man
“National Guard's Role in Emergencies” – Major General Scott Johnson, Commander - 40th Infantry Division, California National Guard
More...
Participation – classes, exercises, demos
“PlugFest” Disaster Communication Exercise - Cal EMA and Santa Clara County OES
Red Cross Communication - Planning and Practice – American Red Cross
Amateur Radio: Digital and Packet Radio Talk and Workshop – DMI
More...
Attendees came from across sectors ranging from FEMA to Burning Man, non-profits to volunteers and academia to private corporations.
Partners: CalEMA, California Fire Chiefs Association
Invited participants: Hastily Formed Networks Center at the Naval Post-graduate School, Monterey, CA.
Sponsors: Alcatel Lucent, American Red Cross (Silicon Valley Chapter), California Fire Chiefs Association (CFCA), the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA), IntraPoint, Motorola Solutions, the National Disaster Resiliency Center (NDRC), NASA Ames, and the Wireless Communications Alliance (WCA).
About the Event
The annual California MCC Rally has a strong tradition of bringing together formal emergency responders; the DMI chose to build upon MCC Rally’s community of first responders by inviting DMI’s community of researchers, volunteers and industry partners to collaborate on research experiments and demonstrations around emergency communications technology. Some 30 emergency communications vehicles from a wide cross sector including government agencies, non-profits, volunteers, and private corporations showed to compare notes and participate in exercises.
In addition to emergency communications vehicles, workshops, exercises, experiments, classes and demonstrations were held encompassing disaster data collection and management, communications interoperability, incident command, domestic and international multiple agency responses by public safety and volunteer/NGO resources, as well as technology specific presentations by vendors and sponsoring agencies.
The event featured new 4G LTE and WiMAX networks, solar-powered communications systems, novel monitoring technology, amateur radios, and a host of research and vendor presentations. The event was highlighted by a Sunday evening reception with a welcome from dignitaries, and two days of keynotes, workshops, brainstorming sessions, classes, and experiments and demonstrations pushing the boundaries of hardware standards, communication techniques, and training.
Resources and information spanning a variety of available and upcoming technologies and their suitability to diverse civilian, NGO and government needs were be available, and exercised in planned events. The interaction of technology consumers and providers in focused discussions, exercises, and informal exchanges closes gaps in expectations and service delivery to ensure the right information reaches those who need it, when they need it.Program
The two-day schedule includes several plenary keynotes and panels, a reception, and a rich program of parallel presentations, demos, classes, workshops, experiments, exercises and vendors, as well as a rally of some 30 mobile command center and communication vehicles.
Detailed Program - view activities and speaker details. Or view as a at-a-glance chart (.pdf).
