For the 7th year, the National Defense University is staging a mashup of innovative technologies for disaster assistance and development out in an open field. From October 1-4 more than 70 civilian groups or businesses will set up with no water, no power, and no shelter but what they make for themselves. Non-profit organizations, citizen associations, specialized vendors and others will be showing off their best ideas and tools to help people post-disaster, post-conflict or in extreme poverty.
The demonstration, held on campus at Ft McNair in Southwest Washington DC, is an offshoot of the TIDES (Transformative Innovation for Development and Emergency Support) research project at the National Defense University. TIDES focuses on cross-cutting emerging technologies and sustainable solutions to support a variety of DOD missions. More than just static exhibits, different inventors and field operators exchange insights and experiences, promoting public-private cooperation through speakers, workshops and just simply hanging out. It is TIDES "Burning Man" for the bottom billion.
Lunch-time speakers will discuss cross-cutting issues for everything from logistics and soft power, to info-sharing and community-based solutions. In addition, there will be discussion groups open to the public that will address a variety of pertinent issues centered around this year's theme: "Innovate | Improve | Imagine: Operational Support for Stressed Environments" throughout the week.
If you are interested, please register as an Exhibitor at http://tidesdemo13.eventbrite.com/ For questions or inquiries, contact Amy Gorman at [email protected], 202-685-3916.
KEY EVENTS
Tuesday 1 Oct 2013 (9am-5pm)
10-10:45am: Facilitated Discussion: ICT, Open Source & Unclassified Info Sharing (Fay Cuevas, Special Operations Command Africa and Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, Revolution and Peace Stanford University Stanford)
12pm-1pm: Lunchtime Speaker Series: Building Long-term Capacity (Dr. Walter Dorn, Canadian Forces College)
3-3:45pm: Facilitated Discussion: Design in Building Capacity (LT Anne Gibbon, Former Deputy Director of the Commander's Initiatives Group at Naval Special Warfare Development Group)1700: Exhibit Closes
Wednesday 2 Oct 2013 (9am-5pm)
10-10:45am: Facilitated Discussion: Compatibilities & Logistics (Scott Sklar, President, The Stella Group, LTD.)
12pm-1pm: Lunchtime Speaker Series: Mr. Dennis McGinn, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment)- Lunch provided for first 200 people with Authentic Ethiopian dishes by Babington Technology, Inc. at their Disaster Relief Mobile Kitchen Trailer.
3-3:45pm: Facilitated Discussion: Soft Power (Sheldon Himelfarb, Director, and Center of Innovation: Science, Technology and Peacebuilding at United State Institute of Peace)
Thursday 3 Oct 2013(9am-5pm)
10-10:45am:Facilitated Discussion: Interoperability Gaps
12pm-1pm: Lunchtime Speaker Series: Cross Cutting Solutions (Chris Albon, Director of Data Projects, Ushahidi)
3-3:45pm: Facilitated Discussion: Community Based Solutions (John Crowley, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and TIDES)
Friday 4 Oct 2013 (9am-noon)
I hope that you are able to make it to this year's demonstration!
