First Day of Civil Protection
For the first time ever, Germany’s federal government and the state of Brandenburg jointly hosted a Day of Civil Protection on June 24, 2023. The initiative aims to strengthen the population’s capabilities to help itself in cases of emergency and to attract talent for civil protection agencies. We are pleased that awareness of this issue is growing. There are plans to organise an annual nationwide Day of Civil Protection as of 2024. We regard this as an important initiative worth supporting. With our Modular Warning System (MoWaS), which we are operating for the German Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), we are an important player in the segment. We help to ensure that the population in Germany can always be reliably warned of dangers. At the same time as the Day of Civil Protection, a state-wide Alert Day also took place in Brandenburg on June 24, which was a great overall success.
Network meeting of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Research thrives on exchange. Therefore, we were pleased to be part of the networking event hosted by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in June 2023. The ministry had invited the people in charge of various research projects to Bonn. This included those responsible for project MIRKKOMM, in which mecom is involved as a practice partner, together with the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and several universities. The project investigates the risk and crisis communication of governments, authorities and health protection organisations during the corona pandemic. Our colleague Michaela Weber represented our MIRKKOMM team on site in Bonn. The main focus of the BMBF event was networking with the leaders of other projects. Topics of exchange included (risk) communication with the public, the population as an affected party and actor, the transformation caused by the corona pandemic as well as multi-level politics and governance. Other subjects of debate were social media and cross-sectional issues such as interdisciplinary cooperation. In addition, the effectiveness of the projects and possible cooperations were discussed, so that even more profitable synergies can be created between the projects in the future. In the photo (from the left): Dr. Annett Schulze (BfR), Katrin Schleicher (TU Ilmenau), Prof. Dr. Martin Löffelholz (TU Ilmenau), Bettina Boy (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie KIT), Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Bucher (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie KIT), Fabian Brand (BfR), Alena Biegert (Bfr), Michaela Weber (mecom).
European Police Congress 2023
On May 3 and 4, 2023, the European Police Congress (https://www.european-police.eu/) took place in Berlin. Our colleagues Baha Kutup and Wolfgang Jurksch attended the meeting in order to exchange ideas with decision makers from public authorities and institutions and take away new impulses for our work. The European Police Congress is organised by Behörden Spiegel , the leading German newspaper for public authorities. Once a year, decision makers from the police, security authorities and industry meet at the international congress. Opening speeches were given, among others, by Dr. Katarina Barley, Vice President of the European Parliament. A topic of particular interest for us at the Police Congress: Security authorities are increasingly digitalised. This also increases the relevance of safety-critical communication, an area in which we are ideally positioned and already provide extensive support to public authorities.
mecom member of OASIS OPEN
How can digital standards improve and become more uniform? This is what the non-profit consortium OASIS Open deals with. We are pleased to be a member of OASIS with immediate effect. The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, OASIS for short, is an international organisation for the development of open interoperable and globally applicable standards for markup languages (SDO). The standardisation of alerts is another issue to which OASIS dedicates itself. For instance, the OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee (EM-TC) developed the standard Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). CAP is a simple but common XML format for the exchange of emergency warnings and public alerts via all kinds of networks. This standard enables the simultaneous distribution of consistent alerts via many different warning systems, which increases the effectiveness of the warning and simplifies the alerting process. For mecom, this is a very relevant topic close to our hearts. Consequently, we became a part of OASIS and our technical consultants contribute their expertise to the international project.
CP Conference Berlin
mecom at the Crisis Prevention Conference On March 30 and 31, 2023, the CP Conference took place in Berlin. The event is organised by the specialist portal Crisis Prevention, which focuses on topics such as hazard prevention, homeland security and disaster relief. The motto of the conference: “Crisis prevention as a task for society as a whole – only together are we strong enough”. Baha Kutup, Wolfgang Jurksch, Gudrun Menze, Michaela Weber and Inga Wilkens of mecom attended the conference in Berlin. We were particularly interested in all topics related to critical infrastructure and national crisis management. Another highlight was the lecture by Dr. Annett Schulze of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), our partner in the implementation of the MIRKKOMM project. In the context of risk and crisis communication, she spoke about topics such as uncertainties, transparency and trust. Our conclusion: exciting lectures, interesting encounters and abundant networking opportunities. A very successful event indeed.
BBK Specialist Congress
mecom at the BBK Specialist Congress “Research for Civil Protection” in Bonn What role do research and science play for civil protection? This was the topic of the Specialist Congress hosted by the German Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BKK) in Bonn from January 12 to 14, 2023. Our colleagues Inga Wilkens, Michaela Weber and Wolfgang Jurksch attended the event.The Specialist Congress “Research for Civil Protection” took place for the first time and was completely sold out. Not surprising, since a diverse and varied programme awaited the participants. We were looking forward in particular to the lecture on the topic of “Government risk and crisis communication”, scheduled for Friday morning. What is the state of risk and crisis communication at federal, state and municipal level? And which opportunities and optimisation potentials exist in this area? The speakers included: Alena Biegert of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Martin Löffelholz, Kathrin Schleicher & Johanna Radechovsky of Technische Universität Ilmenau as well as Hans-Jürgen Bucher, Bettina Boy & Johanne Mayer of Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT). They presented the first results of the MIRKKOMM research project for the optimisation of risk and crisis communication in Germany, in which mecom is involved as a practice partner.
