About TIEMS

The International Emergency Management Society
Historie
1993
TIEMS was established in Washington, USA, as The International Emergency Management and Engineering Society (TIEMES) and registered in Dallas, Texas, USA, as a non-profit organisation. Among the group of founders were Jim Sullivan, USA (First President), K. Harald Drager, Norway (First Vice President), Suleyman Tufecki, USA (First Treasurer), Jean Luc Wybo (Board Member), France and Ross Newkirk (Board Member), Canada.
1996
The Society was reorganized and changed its name to The International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS) and its registration was moved to Florida, USA
2003
The Society's registration was moved to Zürich, Switzerland  in order to be close to other international organisations having operational centeres in Switzerland.
2006
TIEMS moved to Belgium, where TIEMS today is registered as an International, Independent and Not for Profit NGO.

 TIEMS Presidents
Jim Sullivan, USA, 1993 - 1995
Jean Luc Wybo, France, 1995 - 1996
Verner Andersen, Denmark, 1996- 1997
John Harrald, USA, 1997 - 2002
K. Harald Drager, Norway, 2002 - present

 TIEMS Annual Conferences
TIEMS arranged its first annual conference in Fort Lauderdale, USA in 1994, and have since then moved the conference venue around the world.
Sofia Antipolis
France
1995
Montreal
Canada
1996
Copenhagen
Denmark
1997
Washington
USA
1998
             Delft
Netherlands
1999
Orlando
USA
2000
Oslo
Norway
2001
Waterloo
Canada
2002
Sofia Antipolis
France
2003
Melbourne
Australia
2004
Thorshavn
Faroe Islands
2005
Seoul
Korea
2006
Trogir
Croatia
2007
Prague
Czech Republic
2008
 Istanbul
Turkey
2009
Beijing
China
2010
Bucharest
Romania
2011
Erbil
Iraq
2012
 Marseilles
France
2013
Niigata
Japan
2014
Rome
Italy
2015
San Diego
 USA
2016
Kiev
Ukraine
2017
 Manila
Philippines
2018
Seoul
Korea
2019
Paris
(On ZOOM)
France
2020
Paris
(On ZOOM)
France
2021
Atlanta
USA
(Hybrid)
2022
Makhanda/Grahamstown
South
Africa
(Hybrid)
 2023
            India
2024
Costa
Rica
 2025
New
Zealand
2026
       

 TIEMS Chapters
At the annual conference in 2002 in Waterloo, Canada, TIEMS Board of Directors decided to further internationalize the society by establishing local TIEMS activities through Chapters around the world. The objective was:
"Think Globally and act Locally"
Today TIEMS chapters are establsihed in:
 Romania   Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg (BeNeLux)   Korea 

China

Japan

Iraq

Middle East & North Africa (MENA)  Finland  India Italy

USA

Nigeria & West Africa (NWA) France Philippines
South Africa

Australia

(Under Development)

       
A dialogue is opened for establishing chapters in other countries.

 TIEMS Chapter Conferences and Workshops
Establishment of chapters resulted in increased local activity, and TIEMS Chapter workshops and conferences around the world. TIEMS first workshop was arranged in Washington in 2003, and then followed workshops and conferences all over the world:
 
Seoul
Korea
Moscow
Russia
Changsha
China
Magdeburg Germany
Berlin
Germany
Basrah
Iraq
Trogir
Croatia
Tilburg
Netherlands
Portland
USA
Arnhem Netherlands
Hattiesburg
USA
Hangzhou
China
Rome
Italy
Dubrovnik
Croatia
Orono
USA
Prague
Czech Republic
Chengdu
China
 Kyoto
Japan
Beijing
China
Shanghai
China
Oslo
Norway
Luxembourg Luxembourg
Guangzhou
China
Tokyo
Japan
Cluj-Napoca Romania
Zagreb
Croatia
Ales-Nimes
France
Nairobi
Kenya
Suleymaniyah
Iraq
Espoo
Finland
Antwerp
Belgium
Split
Croatia
New Delhi
India
Kiyv
Ukraine
Zhuhai
China
 

TIEMS Research & Technical Development (RTD) Projects and RTD Member Service
TIEMS was invited to participate in the NARTUS EU project, in the period 2006 - 2009, with responsibility for consensus building and establishing a European Forum for Public Safety Communication. The project was finalized in May 2009, reaching the goals of a operational self governed PSC Europe Forum, working with public safety communication in a global perspective.
 
Based on above experience, TIEMS launched its RTD project service for its members in 2011, with the aim of initiating RTD projects and stimulating its members to initiate RTD projects or participate in established RTD consortiums addressing issues for improving emergency and disaster management technology, methods and systems and operational practice. It is expected that this will be an increasing future activity of TIEMS, and very important to TIEMS members.
 
TIEMS has been invited into the Advisory or User Boards of the following EU projects; ACRIMAS, OPTI-ALERT, CRISMA, ARCHIMEDES, EDEN, PHAROS, TAWARA_RTM, DRIVER, RESCUER and TARGET.
 
TIEMS was a partner in two EU projects; ASSET (Action Plan on Science in Society (SiS); http://www.asset-scienceinsociety.eu/. Related Issues in Epidemics and Total Pandemics). The project started in 2013 and  finalized in 2017, and HERACLES (HEritage Resilience Against CLimate Events on Site); http://www.heracles-project.eu/, The project started in 2016 and finalized in 2019. TIEMS is now a partner in the IMPETUS Project (Intelligent Management of Processes, Ethics and Technology for Urban Safety); http://impetus-project.eu/. The project is a 24 months project ending in 2022.

TIEMS members constitute a large international multidisciplinary group of experts, with different educational background and various experience in the field of emergency management and disaster response. They represent an unique source of expertise and ideas, which are important assets for research and technology development activities. TIEMS also arranges workshops and conferences worldwide every year, and these events are excellent fora for RTD disemmination activities, together with its electronic Newsletters issued quaterly. TIEMS should therefore be an excellent partner in RTD projects.


Awarding Excellence in Emergency and Disaster Management
Bernd Rohrmann, Australia, contacted TIEMS President during TIEMS annual conference in Croatia in 2007, with a financial donation to establish TIEMS Rohrmann Student Scholarship Fund, which is to help and support students to participate in TIEMS events. This Fund is supporting two students each year to participate in TIEMS  annual conference as long as the Fund has sufficient financial means.
 
TIEMS Korea Chapter's President, Young-Jai Lee, announced during TIEMS annual conference in Croatia in 2007, that TIEMS Korea Chapter will give a monetary best paper award to the three best papers presented at TIEMS annual conferences in the future, starting with TIEMS annual conference in Prague 2008.
TIEMS China Chapter Vice President, Guosheng Qu, announced prior to TIEMS annual conference 2011, that TIEMS China Chapter will give a monetary best paper award to the three best papers presented at TIEMS annual conferences in the future, starting with TIEMS annual conference in Bucharest 2011.
TIEMS Japan Chapter by Norio Maki, announced prior to TIEMS annual conference 2013 in France, that TIEMS Japan Chapter will give a monetary  award to the best paper presented at TIEMS annual conferences in the future, starting with TIEMS annual conference in France in 2013. 
TIEMS President announced a new award at TIEMS annual conference in Bucharest in 2011, TIEMS President's Outstanding Achievement Award, to be issued each year in the future. The first 2010 Award was given to Jack Zhang, for his committment and achievement with the arrangement of TIEMS 2010 annual conference in Beijing.

International Education, Training and Certification Programs and TIEMS Academy
TIEMS launched its International Education, Training and Certification Program in 2011 with the following objectives:
  • Put International Focus on the Profession of Emergency and Disaster Management
  • Contribute to an International shared understanding of Education, Training and Certification in Emergency and Disaster Management
  • Contribute to education in Emergency and Disaster Management in order to promote the state of the art in technology, systems and methods available in the field
  • Contribute to education at all levels, from policy documents to courses in primary school education
  • Establish a TIEMS Certification of Qualifications in International Emergency and Disaster Management
  • Contribute to Capacity Building in Countries where little or no Education and Training in this field is available
  • Build up a TIEMS International Group of Experts (TIGE), to be available for assisting in global disaster preparedness
Since the beginning of 2011, TIEMS training workshops have been arranged in China,  Romania and Iraq.
 
TIEMS launched the GENERATE (Global Educational Network for Emergency Resilience and Training Excellence) project in 2015, concretizing how TIEMS Education, Training and Certification Programs could be offered worldwide on-line. The next step was including TIEMS international education, training and certification programs and the GENERATE project into TIEMS Academy in 2016.

The motivation behind TIEMS Academy is:

  • Educating the Public
  • Educating Children
  • Educating Officials
  • Improving Preparedness
  • Offering Courses and Training
  • Helping Certify Expertise
  • Build and Distribute Emergency Management Tools

TIEMS Academy goals are:

  • Develop an internationally shared understanding of emergency management elements, qualifications, and terminology
  • Help students find and connect with useful live and online educational resources
  • Make increasing amounts of emergency management knowledge available online, especially vulnerable societies
  • Provide a platform to share critical lessons learned from disasters and emergencies
  • An eLearning and Certification platform that will foster, across the international community, shared, common understanding of emergency management elements, standards, and terminology
  • A directory of educational resources, described within a common framework, including live and online degree programs, courses, workshops, and knowledge bases
  • An online portal that will make emergency management educational resources, from established educational institutions and initiatives, broadly available to students worldwide.

The TIEMS Academy will start out using FreeConferenceCall.com as its platform for eLearning:

    http://www.freeconferencecall.com/

FreeConferenceCall.com makes it easy to have online courses and meetings with up to 1,000 simultaneous participants. It also has local numbers for joining its meetings in 59 countries.


TIEMS Task Force Groups
TIEMS China Chapter suggested in 2013 to establsh TIEMS Task Force Groups where the expert TIEMS members could assist to UN OCHA or national authorities during disasters and crisis with their expertise. The following groups are established:
  • TIEMS Emergency Medical Committee (TEMC), see: TIEMS Emeregncy Medical Committee
  • TIEMS Education and Training Task Force Group
  • TIEMS Earthquake Disaster Early Warning Task Force Group
  • TIEMS Community Emergency Response Capacity Building Task Force Group

The leader of each Task Force Group will recruit experts to their group and define the context and operation goals of their Task Forec Group.


TIEMS Vision
The present focus and planned activities of TIEMS are according to TIEMS Vision, approved by the Board of Directors in 2011.