The following awards will be announced and presented at this year’s 22^st World Conference on Disaster Management:

The Disaster Recovery Institute CANADA, Award of Excellence Program.  These awards, presented in 4 distinct categories, - Small, Medium and Large Businesses, as well as Governmental organizations. The award categories recognize organizations that have achieved a high level of excellence in the fields of Business Continuity Management in three professional areas: ▪ Continuity Management ▪ Technology Recovery (DR) ▪ Crisis Management.

Link to Awards Page: http://www.dri.ca/AWARDS/abouttheawards.asp

Ontario Association of Emergency Managers Student Awards Program recognizes students in an Emergency Management Post-secondary Program. The awards are available in three categories: graduate students in emergency management, undergraduate students in emergency management, and either graduate or undergraduate students in a related field having successfully taken at least one emergency management course.

Application form and web site information at www.oaem.ca/public/education.html

The APEX Award for Pandemic Planning Excellence, co-Sponsored by Roche Canada and Marsh Canada Limited. The Award is a national award to recognize Canadian businesses for the creation, development, and execution of a comprehensive, pandemic planning program. The Award shall be bestowed upon entities demonstrating the foresight to plan for a business disruption due to a pandemic outbreak while recognizing the economic and social impact of an influenza pandemic in Canada – and around the world.

Website: www.apexaward.ca

The Disaster Recovery Information Exchange (DRIE) will present their first DRIE Scholarships at this Awards Night to the active student(s) in a Canadian institution following the academic program to become a professional in the field of Emergency Management, Business Continuity or Public Safety.  The formal announcement of this scholarship program will be delivered during Business Continuity Awareness Week (March 21-25, 2011). At that time applications and selection criteria will be available on the DRIE website, http://www.drie.org/.

Student Reception

In 2011 we introduced the student reception with great success, in 2012 the student reception will be a large part of the Gala Awards Evening. The reception will provide an opportunity for students and recent graduates of university and college programs related to emergency management and business continuity to meet speakers, colleagues and peers to discuss future career opportunities and challenges following graduation.

Overview:

Until quite recently, most emergency management professionals in Canada (and in the US) had been selected for their experience in the military or one of the emergency response services. However, in the 1990’s there was a move to incorporate pre-disaster prevention/mitigation and preparedness as essential components of emergency management programs.  This trend has continued with the introduction of emergency management graduate and post graduate programs in a number of universities and colleges across Canada since the early years of the new millennia.

Graduates of these programs are entering the disaster management profession at an absolutely crucial time. Not only is disaster management becoming increasingly complex, involving many fields within the profession as a whole but the frequency and scale of large scale disasters is increasing at a time when globalization has made communities around the world far less resilient. They are also entering the profession at a time when many experienced emergency managers are close to retirement.