WASHINGTON — FEMA, in partnership with organizations that collectively represent the emergency management profession, today released the first video presentation from the inaugural PrepTalks Symposium, Dr. Dennis Mileti’s “Modernizing Public Warning Messaging.”
PrepTalks are 15-to-20-minute presentations by subject-matter experts and national and international thought leaders, designed to spread new ideas, spark conversation, and promote innovative leadership for the issues confronting emergency managers now, and over the next 20 years.
“Emergency management is an increasingly challenging and complex field. To be effective, we must incorporate research and insights from many disciplines,” Deputy Administrator Daniel Kaniewski said. “The PrepTalks forum provides an engaging way for us to expand our perspective, challenge our thinking, and help foster a true culture of preparedness.”
The inaugural PrepTalks symposium occurred January 29, 2018, at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Eight thought leaders representing a variety of disciplines challenged the audience to embrace new perspectives and innovation in the field of emergency management.
Dr. Mileti’s PrepTalk presents research on how to design and disseminate alerts and warning information that encourages public action. He also emphasizes that “multiple dissemination channels for public disaster warnings yield quicker and more comprehensive audience penetration,” he said. “One technology is insufficient because you need multiple technologies to reach different sub-populations in an at-risk audience.” He is the author of more than 100 publications.
The video of Dr. Mileti’s presentation and an accompanying Discussion Guide are available at https://www.fema.gov/preptalks. The next video presentation is scheduled for posting later this month.
Upcoming PrepTalks include pandemics, lessons learned about disaster survivors, and the importance of social capital in disaster mitigation and recovery. The next PrepTalks Symposium is tentatively scheduled for fall 2018.
PrepTalks are a partnership between FEMA, the International Association of Emergency Managers, the National Emergency Management Association, the National Homeland Security Consortium, and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security.
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