TIEMS

                           The Participants gathered before the Gala Dinner

TIEMS 15th Annual Conference took place in hotel Tristar-Olympik in Prague, Czech Republic, 17th - 19th June 2008.  The conference was attended by approx 150 participants from 25 countries and was another successful TIEMS event. The conference theme was "Global Cooperation in Emergency and Disaster Management" with the following TIEMS 2008 Annual Conference Program and the following keynote speakers:

• Jean Luc Wybo, France
• “Organizational Learning in Emergency Management from Theory to Practice”
• Geary Sikich, USA
• “Pandemic: The Second Wave. How prepared are we? A Simulation Introduction”
• Bernd Rohrmann, Australia
• “Risk perception, risk attitude, risk communication, risk management: A conceptual appraisal ”
• Alun Evans, UK
• "The Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreak in Great Britain 2007:  Learning Lessons from the Past.
• Ji Zhang, China
• "System Integration and Information Sharing for the Emergency Response Systems of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
• Chantal Bonardi, France
• "ETSI / EMTEL Emergency Communication Activities"

A special feature this year was a simulation exercise on "The Second Wave of an Influenza Pandemic" that took place during the conference . Introduction to the Influenza Pandemic Simulation was done in a Keynote the first day of the conference. Further simulation updates were given during the conference and the simulation was concluded at the end of the conference with a simulation sum up and critique.

A panel discussion on "Natural Hazard Mitigation" was arranged the third day of the conference with the following prepared presentations:

• "Natural Hazard Mitigation"; K. Harald Drager, TIEMS President, Norway
• Presentation by Charles Kelly, USA
• Presentation by Nina Frolova, Russia
• Presentation by Ji Zhang, China
• Turkey in Disaster Management by Himmet Karaman, Turkey

TIEMS Korean Chapter donated US$ 100 each to the three best papers selected by the Paper Review Committee. The 2008 winners listed below, received their award from Young-Jai Lee during the Conference Gala Dinner:

• Jonas Borell and Kerstin Eriksson from Lund Univesrsity, Sweden with the Paper; “Strengthening Learning From Emergency Responses”
• John Tiefenbacher and Ron Hagelman from  Texas State Univesrsity, USA with the Paper; “Bi-national Responses to Emergencies and Disasters: Cooperation between Mexico and the United States"
• Susan Smith and Linda Peoples from The University of Tennessee, USA with the Paper; “Disaster Response: Community Mental Health Service Capacity In The United States"

TIEMS - Rohrmann Student Foundation aslo selected  two students for financial support for the TIEMS 2008 conference. The winners listed below, received their award from Bernd Rohrmann during the Gala Dinner:

• Carmit Rapaport from Israel Institute of Technology, Israel with the paper; "Business Continuity as an Adaptive Social Process"
• Seth Stoughton from Florida State University, USA with the paper; "A Meta Analysis of Fiscal Loss and Fraud Prevention in Disaster Recovery Consumer and Victim Populations"

The Paper Review Committee in coopeartion with the Chief Editor Jean Luc Wybo of the International Journal of Emergency Management (IJEM) has selected 10 papers from the conference for publication in a special issue of IJEM.

     Professor Alexandru Ozunu receives TIEMS recognition to TIEMS Romanian Chapter

TIEMS Workshop in Luxembourg on "Fuel Safety and Disaster Management" in cooperation with Q8 Oil Company was attended by 40 participants from 13 countries, and was held at Hilton Hotel in Luxembourg 26th and 27th September 2008.




An simulation exercise took place the second day of the workshop, where it was simulated a fire and explosion after collision between two trucks in Q8 gasoline depot in Luxembourg. The depot staff as well as Luxembourg police and fire brigade participated, and with TV and newspapers present for covering the event.

Program for the event, and detailed reporting and pictures are found here!


Pictures from the exercise are found to the right.

TIEMS Workshop in Romania on "Environmental Quality and Safety at the beginning of the 21st Century" was attended by more than 200 participants from 13 countries, and was held at "Babes-Bolyai” University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania 17th and 18th October 2008.

The Workshop report and detailed program are found here.




In the pictures to the right, Professor Alexandru Ozunu is opening the conference (top), and some of the audience at the conference (bottom). TIEMS registration officer Giedo Van pellicom is sitting in the first row (middle).

A two-day international TIEMS Workshop in Croatia 2008 entitled ''Dealing with Disasters – any Improvements?'' was held in Zagreb, Panorama Hotel, on 28 and 29 October 2008. A number of international experts (from Norway, France, Slovenia, Check Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal and Croatia) from various fields, scientists and institutions representatives engaged in rescue and protection actively participated in the Workshop through numerous presentations and discussions.





The full report and workshop conclusions are found here.

The photographs to the left show a group picture (top) of the participants and Workshop Chair Stiven Vladislavic with presenter Teuta Derek from RCADR (bottom), presenting the paper "Caulerpa Taxifolia - The Biological Invasion of the Adriatic Sea".

Full report from the 8^th December TIEMS Workshop in Beijing are found here