Conference

The theme for this year’s conference is “Diverse country. Common ground.”

Australia and New Zealand are diverse across their landscape, climate, population and social networks. However within this context the fire and emergency management industry has common goals and we share each other’s challenges. This conference is designed for delegates to explore, examine and debate key issues facing our sector.

The 2011 conference, held in Sydney, attracted more than 1400 delegates from across Australia, New Zealand, the Asia-Pacific Region, the US and Europe. Once again leading International and Australian experts will present at the Conference and Research Forum in Perth in 2012.

AFAC represents all fire, land management and emergency service agencies in Australia and New Zealand. The Bushfire Co-operative Research Centre is the peak research body for the fire industry in this region.

The 2012 conference will be staged at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, Western Australia from Tuesday, 28 August to Friday 31 August 2012.

The format across the four days includes a Science Day on the Tuesday, followed by a two day conference program on the Wednesday and Thursday. A Professional Development Program will be held on Friday.

The Conference program will address a number of principle topics. Science Day will feature research across all hazards and will explore the following major topics:

• Drivers shaping Emergency Management
• Diversity and Resilience
• Volunteering into the Future
• The Environments (natural, built, marine)
• Incident Management – leadership and accountability
• Research to Policy to Practice
• Research Projects

The program will include a mix of keynote and invited speakers, and speakers selected from abstracts received in response to the Call for Papers. Posters will once again be given a prominent location in the Knowledge Lounge, located in the main Trade Exhibition area.