TechChange Partners with The Wilson Center for “Connecting Grassroots to Government for Disaster Management” Event

If you’re interested in mobile applications for disaster response, consider taking our course Mobiles for International Development, starting September 24th.

In the last five to ten years there has been a surge in disaster management innovation. As new technology is being developed, what are the challenges and benefits that the federal government must consider before taking advantage of them? Can a crowd of relatively inexperienced citizens report incidents more effectively than a group of experts?  Despite the many obstacles in working with these technologies, many institutions have been successful in quickly generating quality data to understand emergency situations and mitigate damage. This Thursday and Friday (9/13-14), The Wilson Center will be hosting a policy roundtable entitled, Connecting Grassroots to Government for Disaster Management to discuss these issues and propose solutions to help practitioners and governments create a broader community of interest.

We are thrilled to host the webcast of the two keynote discussions and direct the social media engagement of the event.  The keynote sessions are:

• Keynote Discussion: Agency Vision and Decision-Maker Needs on Thursday, September 13th, from 8:30 – 10:00 AM Eastern, and
• Keynote on Connecting Grassroots to Government through Open Innovation on Friday, September 14th, from 1:00 – 2:00 PM US Eastern.

We will be taking questions from the online audience via the Twitter discussion on #DG2G, the comments area of the webcast pages, and by email at DG2G [at] techchange [dot] org. In addition to the Keynote sessions described above, the Wilson Center will be making the rest of the panel discussions available over the web. Click on the links below to watch them live and to download copies of the agenda and background materials.

• Day 1: Thursday, September 13th from 8:30 AM to 5:35 PM Eastern, and
• Day 2: Friday, September 14 from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM Eastern

ICT4D practitioners, crisismappers, digital volunteers, and policy makers and researchers are invited to participate to help recognize best practices and expand them to resolve the most pressing issues in the field. We look forward to seeing you online!