Looking back: Emergency Preparedness Seminars from 2016
Nicole Sirpilla, Trade Show & Event Coordinator at Alertus, share insights and experiences from this year's Alertus Emergency Preparedness Seminar Series.
Florida State University - April 18, 2016
David Bujak, Emergency Manager FSU gave a comprehensive overview of their emergency preparedness plan, which includes multiple systems. Before implementing solutions from Alertus, it took FSU over 60 minutes to activate all of the various systems that they had in place. Serving as the single point of activation for all of their notification systems, Alertus helped reduce activation time down to less than one minute!
The highlight of this seminar was the keynote presentation by David Perry, Assistant Vice President for Safety & Chief of Police at FSU. Chief Perry’s presentation offered deeper insight into the November 11th, 2014 shooting at FSU and how the proactive measures the university took prevented this shooting from turning into an even worse tragedy. Chief Perry had every single attendee’s undivided attention for the hour and a half presentation.
A special thank you to all the attendees for making our first Alertus Emergency Preparedness Seminar such a success; especially those who drove as long as four hours to attend this event!
Keynote speaker David Perry, Assistance Vice President for Safety & chief of Police for FSU presenting at the Alertus Emergency Preparedness Seminar at FSU
Washington University in St. Louis – April 21, 2016
Just a few shorts days after our opening event, Alertus joined WUSTL in St. Louis, the “Gateway to the West.”
WUSTL kicked off this event with a presentation of their emergency preparedness plan, followed by a live technology presentation and demonstration from Alertus, featuring Simplex and how the two systems work together.
Steve Malter, Associate Dean & Director for Undergraduate Programs at Olin Business School delivered the keynote address. Steve, who leads an annual study abroad trip to Israel, gave an engaging presentation on the importance of communication and having an emergency plan in case things don’t go according to plan when traveling with students.
This event closed with a roundtable discussion led by Ben Brewer, Senior Director of Professional & Client Services. It was great to see the attendees so engaged in this discussion.
Thanks again to Washington University in St. Louis for hosting this seminar!
Kwantlen Polytechnic University – June 3, 2016
At the beginning of June, Alertus put on our first seminar outside of the United States. Kwantlen Polytechnic University hosted this event at their Richmond Campus, which is about 30 minutes outside of Vancouver, BC.
In true Canadian fashion, this event started out with breakfast sandwiches and coffee from Tim Horton’s.
KPU opened the event with a presentation on their comprehensive emergency preparedness plan. Erik Ekstrand, Director of Higher Education Sales for Alertus, followed with a presentation on the importance of incorporating interoperable mass notification in your institution’s emergency preparedness plan.
“Erik from Alertus was balanced and professional in his presentation. The use of equipment to demonstrate the capability of the Alertus system was very helpful!””
The day wrapped up with a keynote presentation by Diane Radymski of CCEM Strategies & Mike Franklin of Lions Gate Risk Management Group. Diane and Mike spoke on the importance of strengthening an organization’s overall preparedness through implementing robust, comprehensive emergency and continuity management programs.
Attendees at the Alertus Emergency Preparedness Seminar at KPU during a Q&A session
Emergency managers from all over British Columbia attended this event, and we look forward to hosting our second seminar in Canada in 2017! Please stay tuned for more details regarding our March 10th, 2017 seminar at the University of Saskatchewan.
Thank you again to all attendees and to our gracious hosts. We look forward to hosting seminars across the US and Canada in 2017! For more information on hosting an event, please contact Nicole Sirpilla at nsirpilla@alertus.com. We will be adding 2017 dates for the Alertus Emergency Preparedness Seminars on our events page, or you can subscribe to our email list to receive news about upcoming webinars, seminars, and tradeshows we'll be attending.