Region Hosts 2nd Annual Public Affairs Workshop 

Release Date: April 4, 2003
Release Number: R5-03-00b

Brian Quirke briefs attendees at the Public Affairs Workshop. FEMA photo.
Brian Quirke, Public Affairs Officer from the Department of Energy, briefs attendees at the Public Affairs Workshop. FEMA photo.

Patrick Glitherow moderated tabletop exercise at the Public Affairs Workshop. FEMA photo.
Patrick Glitherow, Region V Assessment and Exercise Branch Chief, moderated tabletop exercise at the Public Affairs Workshop. FEMA photo.

Representatives of nearly thirty local, state, and federal agencies attended a Public Affairs Workshop on April 1-2 at Region V headquarters in Chicago. Attendees included state emergency management and other state agency public affairs officers, federal public affairs officers representing Emergency Support Functions, as well as agencies now part of the Department of Homeland Security.

The annual workshop was designed last year as part of an outreach effort by Region V to foster better communication between agencies responsible for response, recovery and preparedness. "The workshop serves as forum for building relationships among public affairs teams and establishes a platform for sharing ideas and problem solving" said Regional Public Affairs Officer Linda Sacia, who organized the program.

The first half day of the workshop featured briefings on Homeland Security, the Incident Command System, Federal Response Plan, and the upcoming Top Officials Exercise (TOPOFF-2). The full day session included presentations on selecting and training organizational spokespersons, selecting a disaster media briefing location and video segments from a pre-TOPOFF exercise on responding to acts of terrorism.

The workshop concluded with a Table Top Exercise, during which participants reviewed the TOPOFF-2 scenario and discussed potential challenges they would face during an actual terrorism related incident.

Last Modified: Friday, 18-Apr-2003 12:51:03