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They came, they saw, they collaborated
Daily visitor attendance was up by 40% at BAPCO 2007
As the May issue of the BAPCO Journal went to press, the closing remarks were being made at BAPCO 2007, which were as inspiring as the opening keynote presentation. And, whilst the visitor numbers and delegates were still being ratified, we were advised that the exhibition and conference attracted some 40% more attendees than last year, underlining just how important this annual event is...
On the eve of BAPCO 2007, Simon Weston OBE, provided a graphic account of his injuries when the Sir Galahad was destroyed at Bluff Cove, Falkland Islands some 23 years ago. Speaking to a packed conference hall, his keynote presentation was more than inspiring, in fact words, simply can not do justice to the message he portrayed. And his message was certainly clear, accept change, take up the challenge faced both now and in the future and above all else - enjoy living in the skin you’re in. You could both see and sense the impact he made on every single delegate relating it to both personal goals and those on a national scale - the goal of resilience.
From such a rousing start, the event went from strength to strength and the opening address made by Bruce Mann, Civil Contingencies Secretariat, Cabinet Office had a clear message – the need for resilience and business continuity. He identified that there was a need to enhance the resilience of existing systems and promote greater inter-agency working for true interoperability. Whilst he accepted that the events to be planned for were low probability but would create maximum impact, in today’s environment, be the event a natural disaster or terrorist activity, putting in place the necessary information and communications technology along with business continuity planning were essential for overall public safety.
Integration of differing technologies as well as enhancing ‘standard’ emergency service communications (including Airwave) have all been recognised and plans are in place to assess and implement. Mann also pointed out that the MoD has increased and driven forward its own capabilities, identifying that the Cabinet Office needs to ‘catch up’ both in terms of landline, satellite communications and other forms of resilient mobile communications for voice and data traffic.
A further common goal for all emergency responders to fall in line with the CCA, was the real need for the secure sharing of information. He pointed out that this could well include all covert, classified information that would be cascaded and confirmed that exploratory discussions were already underway in identifying how technology could achieve this.
“We are coming from a long way back, and clearly we have a lot to achieve,” explained Mann. “Therefore prioritisation is required in order to meet each goal.”
Opening questions to the floor, Peter Prater from Hyder, asked Bruce Mann, how could BAPCO help the Cabinet Office in meeting these needs.” With a straight forward answer from Mann, stating, “Give me ideas, either with strategy, suggestions of areas we may not have considered, how technology can help. Let’s not get left behind again.”
Kevin Robson, European Project Manager, BAPCO, then raised the issue of Europe and whether the UK was involved and influencing the aspects of resilience at EU level. In response, Mann said, “Good question, there may be something we don’t know - however, I believe we have covered the issues raised at the various European project meetings. As yet we are not seeing Europe, as a whole, thinking of the very worst circumstances to be prepared for, just, possibly some R&D programmes from inside individual member states that could be expanded across the whole community. So in direct answer to your question, yes we are paying close attention, but the real question is perhaps, is the European debate at a high enough level to what we are striving to achieve?”
Following up with the question outside of the conference hall, BAPCO is now in discussions with the Cabinet Office to provide user views and requirements and supplier information to work together on a common goal of improving the resilience and collaboration of ICT systems within the public safety sector.
influencing the technology
The presentations that subsequently followed all covered the highlighted topics of how technology can help increase collaboration, interoperability and thus the high levels of resilience. Many of the papers also clearly identified that technology suppliers were continuing to work with users to understand the problems both potentially faced, and currently required to improve efficiency as well as productivity then build, or adapt the technology to suit. Yet whilst change is clearly a driver complete understanding and comprehension of the business need must come first in order to fully adhere to the demanding framework of the CCA.
The conference concluded with a super session highlighting the changing face of public safety service delivery. Tracy Thomas, Divisional Chief Operating Officer, Richmond Ambulance Authority, American Medical Response, Virginia, USA. The presentation reviewed the operation metrics designed to provide consistent, data-driven, real-time feedback, continual evaluation and improvement processes as well as exploring the collection and management of data and its transformation into useful information.
Yet perhaps, one of the most well attended and sought after presentations was that of Captain Stephen Gordon, Commander, 911 Centre for New Orleans Police Dept, USA. Providing an account on the survival and recovery of his personnel and the 911 centre following the devastating Hurricane Katrina, which swept through 90,000 sq miles of the US IN 2005. This was then, three weeks later followed by Hurricane Rita, and a storm surge causing the well-documented damage along the Louisiana and extreme southeastern Texas coasts completely destroying some coastal communities leaving the city flooded for many days without electricity. This double disaster slowed response to the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Captain Gordon, highlighted the emotional and trying times and explained how five different 911 centres were established in consecutive order with each having more capabilities than the previous centre.
All in all each paper during the two day conference raised a number of issues, with the over riding message, collaboration, resilience and business continuity in order to be prepared for the worst possible scenario.
supplying the technology
The exhibit hall also surpassed previous years, with a number of new exhibitors and even more importantly, a high level of product developments and launches announced. It perhaps came as no surprise, therefore that, not only had day visitor numbers increased exponentially but the quality of attendees was noticeably greater. Commenting, Steve Whitby, EADS, said, “The quality of visitors was extremely high this year and very knowledgeable. Furthermore, I’ve never been at an exhibition were our customers (DCLG) manned the stand.”
“Since the recent announcement of our contract win to provide England’s Fire and Rescue Services with a new networked control capability (FiReControl) we had a great deal of interest shown at BAPCO 2007. It was great that DCLG was on hand to answer all of the questions, that we would be unauthorised to do – it worked really well.”
Walking around the 80+ stands, it was also very noticeable to see the importance being placed on converging technologies and alliances between suppliers to meet the needs of the public safety sector. One particularly notable agreement, during the event, came from Frequentis and telent, when they confirmed their alliance in a move to focus on offering highly specialised solutions for safety critical applications. The decision to co-operate more closely, as pointed out by John Gurney, Managing Director, Frequentis UK, “Together with telent we can now focus on offering highly specialised solutions for safety critical applications.”
BAPCO 2007 also saw a vast number of products and services launched, such as the e-notebook from APD. Developed to remove paperwork from police processes and give officers greater access to police resources whilst out on the beat proved particularly popular. As did the host of announcements made by Arqiva, such as the launch of Tracer 2 a secure asset management solution that gives emergency services total control over the tracking and allocation of their communication assets. Mobilise 2, its second-generation, fully-managed mobile data solution for ambulances and the update of Formalise, its electronic Patient Report Form (ePRF) solution.
