PIMs ponder possibilities

A meeting of our Group's Public Information Managers, held in Feilding today, provided an excellent opportunity to share what is happening in the world of CDEM, learn from Exercise Regroup and think about where to from here.

Vince Cholewa from MCDEM provided an update on the Ministry activities including professional development opportunities in Christchurch later this year, disaster awareness week (2nd week in October, here is a link to last year's info), and a Te Reo version of What's the Plan Stan being launched this week.

I provided an update on CDEM Group activities, particularly the Plan review, review of the public education strategy, the exercise, use of Groove and answered lots of questions around g-mail and how we can exchange information during an event. Sharing information and helping each other out during smaller events will certainly help to make things smoother during the large events. The PIMS have agreed to share information about media contacts (and PIM contact details) in an effort to collectively become better informed. The introduction of Groove will help PIMS maintain contact data in future.

All-in-all, a really worthwhile meeting and all agreed to meet again later in the year to build on the meetings to date.