The Noggin Blog

No doubt about it, volunteer disaster and emergency response agencies have seen enormous strides in emergency and incident management technology. But have those gains kept up with the unprecedented rise in natural disasters and other emergencies?

Emergency managers out there, do you have just one pick for an emergency management conference to attend this year? Then, I’d strongly suggest attending the 2019 IAEM 67th Annual Conference & EMEX – Honor the Past, Treasure the Present and Shape the Future.

For some time now, the research points up clear challenges in interagency response to large-scale emergencies, citing delays in getting assistance and rescue underway, delays in decision making, and lack of clarity in command and control structures, etc. The key question is why, what factors explain the situation on the ground.

Been involved in large-scale disaster response? Then, you know all about the unique challenges of interagency operations, from delays in getting assistance and rescue underway to lack of clarity in command and control structures once on the ground, plus variable decision making throughout.

As many of you know, we decided, after a short sabbatical, to revive our User Conference initiative, so as to share best practices in safety and security management that we’ve learned over time, best practices which have also informed the development of our next-generation product, Noggin 2.0.

During an incident, emergency managers need to deploy materials, supplies, technologies, and people to the emergency site as quickly and efficiently as possible. Unfortunately, getting resources to the right place at the right time is only half the battle.

Australasia’s largest, most comprehensive emergency management conference and exhibition, AFAC19, is right around the corner, hosted by the likes of Country Fire Authority, Emergency Management Victoria, Forest Fire Management Victoria – Department of Environment Land Water and Planning, Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board, Parks Victoria, and Victoria State Emergency Service.

The value of an Emergency Operations Center (EOC), a physical (or mobile) hub where Emergency and Incident Management teams coordinate information and resources during low-frequency, high-risk incidents, is pretty clear. The EOC supports incident management activities, up to and including on-scene operations.

Airports have never been busier. But luckily, thanks to the professionalism of airport operators, traffic flows smoothly; passengers get processed efficiently; and the planes themselves come and go.

The case for interoperability, especially the efficient transfer of relevant data between agencies, couldn’t be clearer. For one, any number of after-action reports have cited a lack of interagency cooperation as contributing to mission setbacks, even historic failures.