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Disaster Zone Podcast: ‘Technology: What, When and How to Adopt’

Finding your technology path going forward.

How do you approach technology? Is it the be-all and end-all, or is it something to be dreaded? No matter what your answer is to the question, technology is not going away and its use in emergency management is only going to grow. Make that in all our associated disciplines too, fire, police, emergency medical services, public works, 911, everywhere, all the time.

Check out this Disaster Zone podcast, “Technology: What, When and How to Adopt.” It speaks directly to the challenges we face as individuals and organizations. We know we need it and don’t want to buy the wrong software and then “screw up its implementation.” My guest is Jim Featherstone, who has held very senior positions in one of America’s largest cities, both in the fire service and in emergency management. Definitely worth listening to Jim’s thoughts on all aspects of technology.

In this podcast we will talk about technology in general and more specifically about data, the use of data and how we can mine it and apply it to a variety of purposes, using tools like GIS.

Here is the show’s description:

“The podcast guest is Jim Featherstone. He is a native of Washington D.C. and a veteran of the United States Navy, Jim began his public service to the City of Los Angeles in 1986 with the Los Angeles Fire Department. He was later appointed Interim Fire Chief (2013-2014). In 2007, Jim was appointed General Manager of the Los Angeles Emergency Management Department, where he led a successful departmental reorganization and restructuring of Los Angeles’ emergency management protocols and processes. From 2008 to 2018, Jim chaired FEMA’s National Advisory Council.

“Today Jim is a Principal Consultant at Themata Strategic LLC, a crisis management consultant agency. Previously, he was the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), a position he assumed in March 2016 after serving the City of Los Angeles for thirty years. At HSAC, Jim worked to strengthen the greater Los Angeles region’s crisis readiness and resilience by convening and connecting the private, public, and civic sectors through collaborative partnerships and strategic alliances, emerging technology, and research.”
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.