That's volcanic!!

Today is the anniversary of the eruption sequence that began on Ruapehu in 1995. It seems appropriate that yesterday we had a meeting of the Central Plateau Volcanic Advisory Group. The CPVAG (which really rolls off the tongue) has met several times now since the the 18 March 2007 dam break lahar and is really the next generation for volcanic hazard research and planning co-ordination. The Group meets 6 monthly to discuss a range of issues and is divided into three focus groups for science, emergency planning and communications.

At yesterday's meeting, we were updated on recent volcanic activity (or lack thereof), some of the improvements to warning systems and recent research activities. The Group has all but signed off on the Volcanic Strategy and is starting to think about the Contingency Plan. This work is intended to build on the good work taken in preparation for the dam break lahar and to cover awider geographic area.

For memory sake, this video was shot by crazy cameraman (and all round adrenalin junkie) Geoff Mackley (good on you Geoff!). You see the video on YouTube - it's quite good!

Social Media and Technology Breakthroughs for H1N1 and Seasonal Flu Communications

The following webinar is being conducted on Thursday 24th September 07:00 - 08:00 NZST. Here is a link to the registration page.

Hear from leading social media, technology, crisis communications and health experts on quick, proven and cost-effective ways to communicate with the public, your emergency response team and government officials for seasonal flu and a potential H1N1 outbreak.

Panelist include Dr. Marsha Vanderford, Director of Emergency Communication Systems, CDC; David Stephenson, Principal, Stephenson Strategies; Nigel Snoad, Lead Capabilities Researcher, Microsoft Humanitarian Systems; and Phil Dixon, Business Product Manager, Google.

Who should attend? Public health officials, healthcare practitioners (physicians, nurses, emergency medical services), public safety responders (fire and police), emergency managers, and government communicators.

All in attendance will obtain innovative social media strategies and technology solutions for immediate implementation.

Cost to participate: FREE

The Center of Excellence for Risk and Crisis Communications at Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. is pleased to co-host this special webinar to provide you with state-of-the-art social media and technology solutions. Co-hosts include the American Public Health Association (APHA), International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC).

West Coast Exercise ShakeOut

At 10:10 a.m. on Friday 18 September 2009, thousands of New Zealand West Coasters will participate in the regions largest earthquake drill ever! The purpose of the ShakeOut is to practice how to protect ourselves during earthquakes, and to get prepared at work, school, and home.

Everyone can participate - why not you? Check out the web site set up for this exercise here.

I think this is a great initiative and good luck to everyone on the Coast - check out the video they've had made - good job team!

What's with these calendars?

Eventually, the calendars below will roll off the screen - you can find them again by clicking on the link under important stuff. This is a little bit of an on-line experiment I must admit. By putting the calendars up in this form, we can update the calendar in real-time. We don't need to wait for changes to be published, and then passed on for putting up on the website.

Depending on the up take, it also means that anyone with permission can edit information contained in the calendars. The end goal here is to have a consolidated calendar that is updated in one place. If member councils choose to, they can have the calendar showing up on their website or blog too - the data will come from the same place so the calendars will all say the same thing (no out of date stuff on the sites).

Once the CDEM Group website is live, we'll have the calendars there too - there won't be any double or triple handling, just linking to the source. Let's see how it goes.

Meeting calendar

Training calendar

Its taken ages to come up with AEGIS

We've been planning a mapping portal to integrate near-real time data from agencies with static base data through a web page for a while now - I'm sure you've heard... For about the last month Adrienne (our BA) has been saying what are we going to call this thing???

Well... (trumpet flourish)... AEGIS MAP “Aegis” an ancient reference to a cloak or shield that symbolises protection by a higher authority.

AEGIS also stands for Agency Enhanced Geographic Information System.

So, we've talked about it, designed it, talked about it some more and redesigned it, tweeked it and talked about it some more. Told people we're doing it, blogged about it, made a website about it, got a cool name for it...

Can we build it??? YES... we can! (thanks Bob). Edward has returned from the US and is champing at the bit to start writing up the code. I'm sure that in the very near future we'll have a prototype to test drive. We'll keep you posted.

Group Plan milestone

The Joint Standing Committee met today and endorsed the draft CDEM Group Plan, we've been working on for the past 18 months, to go out for public consultation. For me this is a great benchmark and I'd like to thank everyone for the help they've provided in getting the Plan to this critical stage.

Next steps include a month for public consultation, followed by a hearing on the 16th October. We then send the proposed Plan down to the Minister for a bit of bedtime reading - he gets a month for that. The Plan then comes back and goes up for final approval on the 4th December.

If you'd like a copy of the draft Plan, you can get that here. We've also provided some guidance on requirements for the submission - there are a few basics we need but didn't want to go to the extreme of providing a form to fill in. You can pick up the submission requirements here.