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Schedule

Download a zip file of all panel presentations

Thursday, February 19th

7:30 – 8:30 Registration

8:30 – 9:00 Introduction and welcome to the conference PDF
Gary Schuster, Georgia Tech Provost and Interim President
Chelsea “Chip” White, Chair, H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Ozlem Ergun, Pinar Keskinocak, Julie Swann,Conference co-chairs

9:00 - 10:15 Disaster preparedness, response, and post-disaster operations

9:00 - 10:15 Disaster preparedness, response, and post-disaster operations
Moderator: Nancy Brockway American Red Cross
Roland Tomasini INSEAD PDF
William “Eric” Smith (FEMA Logistics Management Directorate) PDF
Bert Thornton (Waffle House) PDF
Rosemary Parnell American Red Cross PDF
David Gazashvili CARE USA PDF

10:15 - 11:00 Break and poster presentations

11:00 - 12:15 Long term development and humanitarian aid
Moderator: Michael Best Georgia Tech
Bob Emrey (USAID) PDF
Santosh Vempala (College of Computing, Georgia Tech) PDF
William Hyde (International Medical Corps) PDF
Nathaniel Hupert (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Cornell University) PDF

12:00 - 1: 45 Working lunch
Group discussions and summary presentations

2:00 - 3:00 Plenary
Amer Daoudi (World Food Programme) PDF

3:00 - 3:30 Break and poster presentations

3:30 - 4:45 Intra- and inter-organizational collaboration in disaster planning and long term humanitarian aid
Moderator: Leigh McCook Georgia Tech Research Institute
Prashant Yadav (MIT Zaragoza Logistics Center) PDF
Michael Marx United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs PDF
Becky McCorry Manager, Disaster Operations Center, American Red Cross PDF
Richard Owens (John Snow Inc. and The Partnership for Supply Chain Management) PDF

4:45 – 5:00 Concluding remarks PDF

5:30 – 7:00 Reception

Friday February 20th

8:00 – 8:30 Registration

8:30 – 12:00 Concurrent workshops

Workshop 1 - Managing Performance in Humanitarian Logistics

Presenter: Maria Rey
Executive Director, Center for Emerging Logistics and Supply Chains

In the for-profit logistics world, key logistics objectives are the maximization of profitability and customer satisfaction. In the humanitarian logistics space, in addition to minimizing cost while optimizing delivery times, the KEY concern is the impact of performance as a determinant of the survival of the affected population. Therefore logisticians have to manage a different set of rules when allocating inventory, deciding transportation modes, and selecting vendors or stocking locations. In addition to this complexity, most humanitarian organizations have a large set of stakeholders that care about the organization performance, thus complicating the designing of metrics when balancing the needs of donors, beneficiaries, suppliers and internal management. The objective of this workshop is to present participants with a proven framework to manage and measure performance in humanitarian logistics operations. We will review the parameters for metric design, will identify the appropriate metrics for logistics performance, and explore the management applications of performance measuring systems such as benchmarking, self-assessments, financial justification and project analysis.

This workshop will be led by Maria Rey, expert in designing logistics and supply chain performance measurement systems and with experience in designing such systems in humanitarian logistics environments for organizations like WorldVision (Central America), Pan-American Health Organization (Washington, DC), FUSAL, MINCI (Colombia), and leading workshops like this for multiple humanitarian organizations' logistics operations as part of the Fritz Institute's Humanitarian Logistics Conference in Geneva.

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Workshop 2 - Pre-Planning and Response to Large-Scale Domestic Events

Presenters: Dan Stowers, Planning Director
Georgia Emergency Management Agency

William R. (Ray) Doyle, Senior Research Scientist
Georgia Tech Research Institute

The country has been struck by large-scale natural and manmade disasters many times over the past few years. Most recently, events like the southeastern floods of 1994 associated with Tropical Storm Alberto, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina have brought such events to the national forefront.

Even though such events are varied and seem unrelated, experience has demonstrated that the skills required for planning and responding to any type of large incident are similar. This workshop will identify general requirements and issues associated with response to large-scale incidents and then provide two example scenarios to be used as a basis for comparison. The attendees will participate in a discussion of the elements of responses that are similar and unique to each type of incident.

Overview of Response Organization: (~1.5 hours)

• Brief history -emergency planning (From Civil Defense to ESFs and All Hazards)
• Overview of the NRF, NIMS and ICS (CFLOP - Command, Finance, Logistics, Operations, Planning). How these are based on successful business models and how they can be applied in all events.
• Overview of the ESF system and how it streamlines the process of getting the right subject matter experts to the forefront to plan for, respond to, and recover from all types of disasters.
• How are NGOs and Private Industry seamlessly integrated into a response under the ESF concept and why they should understand the basics of the NIMS, ICS, ESF concepts. (World Trade Center- Day 1, Police, Fire, EMS, Day 2 Police, Fire, EMS, Private Steel Cutters, Private Crane Operators, Private Air Monitoring Specialists- "We Can All Be Responders")

Facilitated Discussion of Responses to Varied Incidents: (~1 hour)

Guided discussion of the differences and similarities associated with preparations and response to a widespread flooding event across several states (100s of square miles) and a domestic terrorism attack in a major metropolitan area.

• Which is more valuable, a detailed response plan for each of these two events or a solid emergency management program in which the primary and support agencies for each ESF understand their area of responsibility and participate in planning and preparedness activities?
• Which ESF / Personnel would coordinate Transportation for these two events?
• Which ESF / Personnel would coordinate Medical Operations for these two events?
• How would preparations for these two events be similar or different? Why?
• What types of skill-sets would be required for each type of response?
• How would mobilization vary?
• Once on scene, what types of support would be needed for each incident? Could your organization assist in each type of event?
• What types of mission assignments would be expected for each type of event?
• Would the physical and emotional needs of your responders vary in each case? Why or why not?
• Would staff deployment times/schedules vary for each type of incident?
• Would overall deployment time (i.e. time for recovery to be fully underway) vary for each? Why?
• Would differing tactics be necessary for demobilization?
• Would long-term follow-up for responders vary for each type of incident?
• What issues would your organization have in planning and responding to these or other types of events?
• How can good, tested procedures be institutionalized in your organization?
• What kinds of obstacles could be expected in this process?
• What best-practices can you share with the group?

Wrap Up

Following the discussion, a wrap-up of findings and opinions will be presented and time for questions allowed. An evaluation form will be available and feedback requested.