Conference & C4P
Panel Sessions
Panel sessions are designed to engage delegates by providing opportunities for discussion amongst delegates and with speakers and Chairs. Panel sessions run for 90 minutes with each panel session speaker allocated 10 minutes each. This is then followed by a discussion, facilitated by the Chair, with delegates encouraged to get involved by asking questions or making statements relevant to the topic.
Eight panel sessions will be held as part of the 2012 conference, as detailed below, and in response to the Call for Papers.
1.
In our modern day environment is the emergency service ethos of shared responsibilities being overwhelmed by the competing priorities and responsibilities of individuals and communities? How does participation in hazard awareness, planning and preparedness escalate the lengthy queue of demands that are integral to people’s everyday lives? How can we make opportunities to engage more attractive to those who have, to this point, chosen not to engage with us?
2.
Live and dead vegetation becomes the fuel for bushfires. Managing vegetation in the landscape is fundamental to hazard management, bushfire mitigation and community protection. In fire-prone environments, natural ecosystems depend upon, or are maintained by, appropriate fire regimes. However, there is often a conflict between prescribed fire to mitigate the wildfire threat, and fire regimes to protect and sustain biodiversity values. This panel will address this tension and seek to provide solutions and identify trade-offs.
3.
A panel drawing on different perspectives that explores the current and emerging trends that will drive the future of emergency management, and how governments, industry, the community and emergency services will need to adapt to these new circumstances. Some of the areas that will be explored include: What are the sources of risk and how are we best to address these? What changes to our environment can we anticipate? What are the change management considerations?
4.
A considerable proportion of natural disaster research has been focussed on either the physical event itself, or post impact recovery. Yet as the community becomes more independent in decision making, it is critical for emergency responders to gain an insight as the basis for human preparedness and response to risk information and threat appraisal.
5.
Urbanised areas throughout Australasia have experienced significant growth in the area of high density residential and commercial developments. This has resulted in the proliferation of more medium and high rise apartment style developments in capital and regional centres, together with infill activity in older residential areas. These trends are showing that higher population concentrations are occurring within these communities with resultant risks posing a concern for fire authorities.
In recent years we have moved to a better understanding of fire behaviour in the natural environment through a number of collaborative research projects focussing on bushfire. But while contemporary building codes and standards have enhanced life safety through the mandating of higher construction standards for fire, what new fire fighting innovations are currently being investigated and/or implemented by fire authorities to address risks posed by high density urban development?
6.
With the move towards globalisation, a number of high profile security events have been held in Australia over the past 12 months, including CHOGM in Perth, and the visit of the US President Barack Obama to Canberra and Darwin. These events require extensive security planning by both state and federal governments, and this panel will consider these challenges and the arrangements put in place by fire and emergency management agencies.
7.
An exploration of multiple pathways to get from an idea to use. How do we move from research through policy and into practice? This panel will consider commercialisation routes including venture capital and internal commercialisation, and will include case studies and discussion from various leaders in these fields.
8.
The EM industry has been faced with an ever increasing number of legal and government inquiries in recent years. Each inquiry brings with it an exhaustive list of recommendations that agencies are required to implement, often within very short timeframes. This panel will explore how these inquiries are driving and shaping the emergency management sector, and what happens when recommendations from one inquiry contradict those of another.