Special Features
APCO To Host World Congress In Dubai 2011
The APCO Global Alliance has announced the APCO World Congress, taking place in Dubai, June 6-8, 2011."The inaugural APCO World Congress will display the latest innovations and thinking in public safety communications," said Gavin Hayes, chair of the APCO Global Alliance and vice president of APCO Canada. "Exhibitors from around the globe will showcase groundbreaking technologies and trends to a worldwide audience who use these products and services to enhance public safety on a daily basis."
The first APCO Global Congress (6-8 June) is a three-day event whose aims are two-fold – to provide high quality educational programming and to showcase the latest in public safety technology.
The event is being hosted by the APCO Global Alliance, which is formed by BAPCO (UK), APCO Australasia, APCO Canada and APCO International. “One of our goals was to host a global event in an area where none of the organizations currently had a footprint – so that’s where the Middle East came in,” explains Lisa Williams, Senior Manager of Events & Corporate Outreach for APCO International: “This area has a lot of potential and we are hoping that after this Congress has taken place, a new Middle East chapter will be set up to carry on with the training and standards – and hold an annual event there.”
The Middle East is not new to APCO International, and the organization has in recent years been carrying out training for call takers in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Loredana Elsberry Schwartz, Communications Center & 9-1-1 Services Manager for APCO International, explains more: “We are taking to the Middle East a lot of our US-based training such as Public Safety Telecommunicator (PST) 1 and Active Shooter courses. A lot of these courses are based around standards we’ve developed and which have been nationally certified through the American National Standards Institute.
“We’ve had some of our adjunct instructors in Saudi Arabia and Jordan for a significant period of time, working with the agencies there.”
There does appear to be a demand for formal training in some parts of the Middle East, says Loredana, particularly in areas such as call taking, where there can be a lack of common procedures for both planned and unplanned events. “It is a matter of providing a more formalised procedure for both daily situations and crisis ones.”
As for the event itself, the Global Alliance is expecting some high-profile speakers to be heading towards the InterContinental Dubai Festival City Hotel. These include the Head of Command Control at Amman Jordan, Col. Zied Al-Zobi; the former Assistant Commissioner in Charge of the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit, Bud Mercer; the Operations Manager for the Air Ambulance, Victoria (Australia), Paul Holman; and Robert LeGrande, former chief technology officer, Washington DC.
A number of commercial organisations are also expected to carry out some presentations, and there will also be some participation from Middle East agencies at both local and federal levels.
Attendees will notice from the schedule for the three-day event that a number of networking sessions have been built into the timetable: “We did not want to inundate delegates with sessions alone, because although sessions are wonderful and worthwhile at the same time the person next to you might be experiencing the same type of situation as you – and they may have found a solution. At any type of event we organise, we encourage networking and purposefully include it in the schedule,” comments Loredana.
Around 35 companies are expected to exhibit their technology, including platinum sponsor OnStar, Motorola, PowerPhone and Harris. “We are also already making plans for 2012,” adds Lisa Williams.”
Lisa is optimistic that the event will grow – and with around 500 delegates expected, and with some agencies committing to sending up to 50 visitors, there is every chance it will do so.
