FEMA Blog

Posted by Dan Stoneking, Director, FEMA Private Sector Division

Over the last two days over 250 people gathered from across the country at the first national conference on “Building Resilience through Public Private Partnerships,” with an additional 700 or so viewers joining via live webcast.

The conference put on by FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Private Sector, the U.S. Northern Command and hosted at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Headquarters on Wednesday and the American Red Cross Headquarters on Thursday, provided participants not only an opportunity to hear from leaders and innovators in both government and the private sector, but to share ideas and build relationships.

The speakers ranged from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, to executives from the likes of Lowe’s and Target, to representatives from local government like Mayor Bob Dixson of tiny Greensburg, K.S., and his partner in recovery, Mike Estes, VP of BTI Corporation, a John Deere distributor serving Greensburg KS and surrounding communities, who together spoke eloquently about their community’s benchmark experience at rebuilding better and greener after total devastation.


Washington, DC, August 3, 2011 -- FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate giving the keynote address at the first national Public Private Partnership Conference in Washington D.C. Administrator Fugate reinforced the importance of the whole community in building resilience to better respond to disasters.


Washington, DC, August 3, 2011 -- Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano speaking at the first national Public Private Partnership Conference in Washington D.C. Secretary Napolitano addressed the private sector’s role as an important partner in strengthening the homeland security enterprise to better defend against evolving threats, including disasters.

For those of you who couldn’t be with us, you haven’t missed out – you can see the archived webcast for Day One and Day Two. For a schedule of the conference, you can check out the entire conference agenda.

Most importantly, this is not the end of the conversation. In the coming months we will share some of the outcomes of the working sessions that we called “Vision Sessions”, that tackled some of the sticker issues like information-sharing and credentialing, but in the meantime we also want to hear from you.

Send us an email (fema-private-sector@dhs.gov) with your thoughts on how you we can improve public, private partnerships.

I believe we all made a difference at the conference – and together we will make a bigger difference through an expanding discussion at the national, regional, and local levels.