Welcome to Beijing from TIEMS President

During the preparations of the 2010 TIEMS annual conference in Beijing, we have had the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile in the beginning of 2010 and still we remember the Wen chuan earthquake of 12th of May 2008 and other earthquakes happened around the world in the last couple of years. We talk about more than ½ million causalities and millions of people that had to leave their homes and in need of help. In addition comes many other disastrous events around the world.

The international community has stood up for the ones in need and has been ready and willing to help and this shows that we are living in a global world, where we also have an international contingency for helping each other after such devastating disasters.

However, how can we improve the alertness for such disastrous events and improve the ability of the emergency organizations to more quickly move in and help?
Furthermore, how to be better prepared through risk assessments of potential hazards and improve building structures and other facilities to reduce the consequences of disasters.

The upcoming TIEMS annual conference in Beijing 8th – 12th June 2010 is focusing on all these issues, and gives the attending international experts in emergency and disaster management the opportunity to meet and exchange experiences and hopefully find better solutions that can improve the international preparedness for disastrous events.

TIEMS is a Global Forum for Education, Certification and Policy in Emergency and Disaster Management and is dedicated to developing and bringing the benefits of modern emergency management tools and techniques and best practice to society for a safer world, through exchanging information of the use of innovative methods, technologies and operations to improve society’s ability to avoid mitigate, respond and recover from natural and technological disasters. TIEMS provides a platform for all stakeholders within the global emergency and disaster management community to meet and network, learn about technologies and operational methods, and exchange experience on best practice, and influence policy makers worldwide to improve global cooperation and establish global standards within emergency and disaster management.

The importance of TIEMS global events only grows and grows, and the Chinese TIEMS Chapter, with particularly Qu Guosheng, Zhang Ji as the most visible hosts for TIEMS annual conference in Beijing 2010, without forgetting all the other Chinese helpers, have made impressive preparations for this event, which is expected to be visited by more than 600 participants from all over the world. They can listen to keynote speaker describing emergency and disaster management activities in different countries and regions of the world, as well as presentations of papers and posters by international experts, and workshops focusing on key emergency and disaster management issues. The participants will be having a comprehensive program of more than 100 important presentations. Simultaneous translations English – Chinese, and with two co-chairs for each session, one international and one Chinese, will see to it that there will be a good exchange of experience between Chinese experts and international experts, which again may hopefully lead to even more global cooperation in emergency and disaster management. The participants will also one day visit the newly opened China National Training Base for Urban Search and Rescue. This base is the largest facility of this type in Asia and the delegates will experience an earthquake simulation, as well as watch a seismic emergency rescue drill. All above integrated with relaxing social events showing the ancient Chinese culture, will certainly make the 5 days at TIEMS annual conference 2010 in Beijing a memorable event.

The papers will be presented in the conference proceedings, and should give a broad international view of emergency and disaster management in an international perspective, and with these proceedings TIEMS like to stimulate to a continuous ongoing global dialogue on emergency and disaster management. Many thanks go to Nils Rosmuller, Chair of the Paper Review Committee, together with his co-chair Snjezana Knezic and their review team for doing an excellent job with reviewing the papers and preparing the proceedings. I trust that the authors at TIEMS 2010 appreciate this quality improvement of the event and the feed-back on their papers from the review team.

TIEMS is an international non political and not for profit NGO and has limited financial resources. TIEMS 2010 in Beijing had not been possible without the large financial support and help from the Chinese Government. TIEMS is very thankful to them.

I welcome all participants to TIEMS Annual Conference 2010 in Beijing 8th – 12th June 2010.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Oslo 15th April 2010
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　K. Harald Drager

TIEMS 17th Annual Conference will devote itself to continual improvement of our ability, both nationally and internationally to avoid, mitigate, respond to, and recover from emergencies and disasters.

Do not hesitate to join us and look forward to meeting you in Beijing!

Register Now!

Guosheng Qu,
Vice President of TIEMS China Chapter
Tel: +86 10 8825 5929
E-mail: qgsh@263.net

Jiewen Cai
Assistant Secretary
(TIEMS China Chapter)
Phone: +86 10 5873 2299-556
Fax:      +86 10 5873 2388
E-mail: zhangyang@hidrema.org
                caijiewen@hidrema.org