14 – 15 April 2011, Australian Emergency Management Institute
How do people learn to prepare for disaster and protect themselves, their families and their communities? Once they might have relied on the local emergency services or the mainstream media, but increasingly, they are likely to turn to social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter for information, getting their views from blogs or their favourite online communities.
The face of communication in Australia is changing. Communities not only want to hear from those charged with their safety, they want to talk back and be listened to. In recognition of this shift, all around Australia emergency management organisations; government and non-government, public and private are developing projects, publishing protocols and working with a whole web-full of new media tools to engage, inform and support Australia’s communities to become more resilient to disaster.
For the emergency management sector new media offers the opportunity to build better connections, develop trusted relationships; share information and ideas and draw on the knowledge, experience and understanding of communities to assist us all to create a more engaged, better informed, better prepared and more resilient Australia.
Connect! will enable the emergency management sector to explore the way new media impacts how they work, communicate, engage and inform.
This workshop will bring people together to showcase projects; brainstorm the opportunities and challenges and develop shared values in using new media for building disaster resilience.
The Connect! workshop will be held at the Australian Emergency Management Institute at Mt Macedon Victoria on 14 – 15 April, 2011.
For further information on the workshop visit www.ema.gov.au/aemi
email aemi@ag.gov.au or phone 03 5421 5100