Symposium Objectives

Within the context of new ICTs, data interchange formats and a growing body of knowledge gained from post-2004 activity in the Tsunami regions of South Asia, we see a valuable window of opportunity to invite a limited number of experts from the stakeholder community to contribute to the discussion on opportunities to improve ‘last-of-the mile’ warning not only for specific locations, but also for the entire region.

The Symposium has three primary objectives:

• To bring experts and key stakeholder groups together to build relationships, share knowledge and encourage long term thinking about coastal public warning and emergency communication systems;

• To identify strengths and weaknesses of current and ‘next-generation’ emergency communication options, and

• To improve applications of these systems through generating a series of new pilot projects.

The symposium will be limited to 35 participants who represent a broad cross-section of the tsunami warning community-of-interest within British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Invitees include representatives from rural and remote communities and regional districts, First Nations, provincial, state and federal programs, industry and public health.

The symposium will consist of a small number of brief overview presentations followed by breakout sessions. The morning will be directed towards summarizing current coastal communications issues and options, followed by the introduction of new concepts and associated implementation issues and requirements. The afternoon sessions will be devoted to framing a project action plan, including establishing a planning group and targeting funding sources for a series of small-scale pilot projects.
Post-event activities will include preparation and distribution of a final report and project proposal for final comments and submission.