The 11th Annual TCIP Conference is next week

Next week is the Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness Conference, more commonly known as TCIP. There will be lots of interesting sessions including a keynote address from White House CTO Aneesh Chopra . Jim Smalley, an experienced emergency responder and blogger on EmergencyManagement.com blogged about the upcoming conference:

The Power of GIS, Virtual USA, and More!
January 23, 2010

How many conferences have you attended and wished you’d stayed home, doing something more productive, like counting paper clips? Well, that won’t be the case in this conference! And it’s free!!

The event is the 11 th Annual Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness (TCIP) Conference and Expo in Philadelphia, February 2-4, 2010.

For me, the highlight of this year’s conference will be the opening session on DHS’s recently announced Virtual USA initiative (an effort supported by the NAPSG Foundation to advance data interoperability/sharing for emergency responders) and the ‘Power of GIS’ panel session for which the NAPSG Foundation’s Vice-Chair Rand Napoli will serve as the moderator. (Insider tip: Rand is also a member of the Virtual USA GIS Working Group along with NAPSG Foundation Chairman Chief Keith Richter).

The conference includes sessions on prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery and the technological and training tools available for the emergency response community to effectively manage future hazards and incidents. The conference is an opportunity attendees to have directly meet with Federal agencies and members of the public safety community on current emergency response challenges and the brainstorming of potential solutions.

The event is sponsored by the DHS Science & Technology Directorate and co-hosted by the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Defense (DoD). The National Alliance for Public Safety GIS Foundation (NAPSG Foundation) is a partner organization. (Check out my 1/12/10 blog for more information.)

Key speakers include White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, Philadelphia Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison, and Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers.

I’ll be there, too, and look forward to meeting my readers (both of you!). Stop by the NAPSIG Foundation exhibit booth and say hello.