READY AT A MOMENT’S NOTICE CONFERENCE

A Conference on Emergency Response + Military Preparedness + Disaster Mitigation

April 9, 2015
Breakfast Keynote

From Fires to Floods to Summer Snowstorms the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) at the City of Calgary responds to the call. Our keynote speaker will explain the CEMA’s role in the community and provide examples of the response to challenges they have faced.

Tom Sampson, Director, Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA), City of Calgary

Making the Plan

Emergency response teams develop a plan of action by preparing for a wide variety of potential scenarios. This session will explore how to prepare a Disaster Response Plan, identifying the risks, and possible responses.

Moderator: Dr. Linda Vennard
How to prepare a Disaster Response Plan
Martin Pollard, Business Continuity and Emergency Management Planner, Water Services, City of Calgary
Knowing the Risks and Making a Plan
Mike Luchia, Business Continuity & Recovery Planner at Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA), City of Calgary
Pandemic Planning
Steve Armstrong, PARATUS Education

Networking Break (Sponsored by the Calgary Airport Authority)

Being Prepared

Being prepared for an emergency means developing expertise and executing realistic training exercises. This panel will share examples of training exercises and will discuss how organizations work on manage resources in order to actively respond when an emergency occurs.

Moderator: Dr. Linda Vennard
Training Exercises
Cameron Nicolson, Director, Safety, Calgary Airport Authority
Bruce Gilkes, President, C4i Consultants
Silvio Adamo, Protective Services Manager / Fire Chief, Town of Banff
Managing Resources
Tom Shebrek, Director, Business Continuity, Loss Prevention, Walmart Canada

Lunch Keynote

The Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) responds to worldwide disasters, Major Michael Percy was the Deputy Commanding Officer when the DART was deployed to the Philippines following the earthquake and tsunami in 2013.

Major Michael Percy, Deputy Commanding Officer of the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), Canadian Armed Forces

Operational Response & Recovery

An emergency has occurred and it is time to act. This session will highlight the tools and logistics skills that are involved in an emergency response.

Moderator: Steve Armstrong
Keith Carter, Senior Vice President, Operations for ATCO Gas
Major Andrew Beauchamp, Plans Officer, 41 Canadian Brigade Group
Reeve Dene Cooper, MD of Bighorn No. 8

Community Response & Recovery

During the middle of a disaster emergency responders are often faced with volunteers that are keen and eager to assist, as well as citizens who want to donate items for the cause. How do you communicate with them and you organize them? This panel with discuss these situations and provide advice in managing this uncommon logistics matters.

Moderator: Steve Armstrong
Asset Management — Dealing with Donations
Donn Lovett, Partner, Social Media ROi Inc.
Volunteer Management
Brent Davis, Emergency Response Management, Samaritan’s Purse
Communicating in an emergency — Hurricane Sandy
David Black, Director, CrisisCommons

Dinner Keynote (Sponsored by the ATCO Structures and Logistics)

How does Canada’s leading humanitarian relief, development and advocacy organization manage to be ready at a moment’s notice when disaster strikes? In the majority of emergency situations around the globe, World Vision is among the first responders. Michael Messenger, World Vision Canada’s Incoming President and CEO, explains why advance planning, collaboration, innovation, and advocacy are all factors in mounting a strong response

Michael Messenger, Incoming President and CEO, World Vision Canada

April 10, 2015
Breakfast Keynote

This Keynote speech will showcase the Canadian Red Cross mobile hospital and its recent deployment to the Philippines.

Munir Momtaz, Senior Manager, Supply Chain and Logistics, Canadian Red Cross

Resiliency

Being able to return to normal after the emergency is resolved is crucial, this session will examine how to evaluate responses, update plans, and take care of your employees

Moderator: Jason Cameron
Updating Plans
Shane Schreiber, Managing Director, Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA), Government of Alberta
Building Resiliency:
Christine Arthurs, Director, Office of Recovery, City Manager’s Office, City of Calgary
Support services for front line and community workers
Dr. Michael Trew, Chief Addiction and Mental Health Officer, Alberta Health Services

Recovery and Mitigation

FEMA defines Mitigation as “the effort to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters. Mitigation is taking action now—before the next disaster—to reduce human and financial consequences later (analyzing risk, reducing risk, insuring against risk).” This panel will examine these factors.

Moderator: Jason Cameron
Business Recovery
Adam Legge, President and CEO, Calgary Chamber of Commerce
Early Warning and Risk Mitigation Systems
Dr. Chan Wirasinghe, P. Eng., Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calgary and Dr. Samanthi Durage
Education and Training:
Jean Slick, Director of the School of Humanitarian Studies, Royal Roads University

Lunch Keynote: Room for the River Report

In the 18 months since the 2013 floods occurred in Alberta, a wide range of mitigation options for the Bow River Basin have been identified, studied, and implemented by the Government of Alberta (GoA), municipalities, non-government organizations, and others. With a number of options still under consideration, the GoA announced in the fall of 2014 that it wanted to look more closely at the approach taken by the Netherlands to manage flooding in the Rhine River branches, called the Room for the River program. A pilot project was undertaken in the Bow River Basin to consider the Dutch program and measures and the extent to which they could be adapted and applied here to reduce vulnerability of people and infrastructure and improve the overall environmental quality of the Bow and Elbow rivers. Potential “no regrets” opportunities were identified as well as observations on how a broader Room for the River- type program might be effectively applied in Alberta. In this talk, we will review the results of this work and what happens next.

Kim Sturgess, CEO, Alberta WaterSmart

Computer Based Tabletop Exercise

In an emergency situation, critical decisions must be made quickly with incomplete information. Very often, these decisions are being made by people thrown together without any experience of working with one another. In this final session, we hope to demonstrate the necessity of training under realistic conditions with those individuals before a major event occurs. With the assistance of C4i consultants, participants will experience a major event in Southern Alberta and work to resolve it under the watchful eye of the latest in training technologies. The session will close with a very brief “lessons learned” discussion.