NCT Virtual Europe took place on September 22nd and 23rd, in partnership with the JCBRN Defence Center of Excellence. Created with the objective of enabling the CBRNe, C-IED and EOD community to gather at a time where public gatherings are discouraged across the world, this second edition of NCT Virtual confirmed the success of this new platform. For this European edition, representatives of the CBRNe, C-IED, EOD community coming from 59 different countries gathered over the duration of two days, showing their willingness to keep the CBRNe community connected! NCT Virtual Europe not only saw the participation of European stakeholders, but also of delegations from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Singapore, and the Philippines.
During this two-days event, high-level speakers shared their knowledge during multiple conference sessions chaired by BG (Ret.) William King, while the virtual exhibition gave our over 340 attendees the opportunity to learn about the current technologies available. The realistic and interactive NCT Virtual environment also offered multiple networking opportunities and possibilities to interact with speakers, delegates and exhibitors through private chats, group discussions and video conversations.
NCT Chairman
BG (Ret.) William King
Former Commander, 20th CBRNE Command, U.S. Army, USA
For this European edition, different European organizations working in the CBRNe field were given the chance to promote their work and current projects, within dedicated National Pavilions. Delegates had the opportunity to visit the JCBRN Defence COE Pavilion, C-IED COE Pavilion but also national pavilions from Italy, France, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, and Turkey.
The following organizations were represented in the pavilions:
– JCBRN Defence Center of Excellence
– C-IED Center of Excellence
– Fire and Rescue Service – Czech Republic
– Population Protection Institute – Czech Republic
– 7th CBRN Defence Regiment – Italy
– Red Cross – Italy
– Milano Fire Department CBRN Unit – Italy
– Fire and Rescue Service 59 (Nord) – France
– Fire and Rescue Service 67 (Bas-Rhin) – France
– Fire and Rescue Service 68 (Haut-Rhin) – France
– Fire and Rescue Service 73 (Savoie) – France
– National Federation of Firefighters – France
– International Security and Emergency Management Institute (ISEMI) – Slovakia
– Federal Administration of Civil Protection – Bosnia & Herzegovina
– Mine Detection Dog Center – Bosnia & Herzegovina
– Institute of Explosives Engineers – United Kingdom
– CBRN Defence – Association of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defence Policy Development – Turkey
– Medical CBRN Department of the University of Health Sciences – Turkey
By spending an average time of 13hours 34minutes on the virtual platform, attendees proved again their interest in our virtual platform and its intuitive way of navigating. With more than 4600 Booth visits and more than 900 chats initiated, NCT Virtual Europe surpassed NCT Virtual USA in terms of interactivity and engagement. The newly developed NCT Virtual leaderboard contributed to the interactivity of our platform, by promoting actions of our delegates within the virtual platform (like visiting booths, downloading content, or initiating chats). For each action, our delegates could earn points and compete against their peers for a nice reward!
We also wanted to thank you all for your presence during our conference sessions! An average of 120 attendees were simultaneously connected in the conference room over the two-days. If you attended the event, the recording of presentation will been made available in the event report mailing. Alternatively you can contact us for more information.
Conference Day I
September 22nd
The Conference began with the opening remarks from NCT chairman BG (ret.) William King, along with Mr. Ilja Bonsen and Ms. Anna Paternnosto from the CBRNe Society. Following the opening remarks, our distinguished speakers have delivered presentations on the topic of ‘Adapting to the Ever Changing CBRNe Threats’. COL David Martinek, Director of JCBRN Defense Center of Excellence, COL José Antonio Cruz Moro, Director of C-IED COE, Dr. Jason Roos, Deputy Joint Program Executive Officer, CBRND (USA) and COL Klaus Schiff, Commander of the Bundeswehr CBRN Defense Command (Germany) gave their respective analyzes on the topic.
During the networking break, the networking lounge in the online environment provided attendees with the opportunity to get together through multiple public chats. Attendees interacted with one another on the topics of medical countermeasures and decontamination, detection and identification, EOD, C-IED and demining, PPE, and other CBRNe related topics. The break was also the occasion for the delegates to discover our newly developed Resource Center and learn about our different media partners. The Resource Center was visited 574 times by our attendees.
After the break, our speakers discussed about improving preparedness and response for future epidemic crises, in relation to COVID-19. The first speaker of the session CPT Daniele Del Gaudio, Head of the CBRN Specialized Support Office presented the preparedness and structure of the 7th Regiment of CBRN Defence ‘Cremona’, Italy. Following CPT Daniele Del Gaudio’s presentation, LTC Jean-Paul Monet, Division Chief Quality Management of the Bouches du Rhône Fire Brigade (SDIS 13), France, talked about how to anticipate and monitor the COVID-19 epidemic peak, and the lessons learned from a French fire department. Then, Dr. Dennis E. Hruby, Chief Scientific Officer at SIGA talked about the lessons from the COVID19 pandemic and the need for effective medical countermeasures in the event of an outbreak. The session closed with the expert insights of LTC Edoardo Cavalieri D’Oro, Head of the CBRN Unit, Milano Firefighters, Italy, who shared his field experience of the epidemic management and response.
Conference Day II
September 23rd
On the second day, Mr. William Alberque, Director of NATO WMD Arms Control, Disarmament, and Non-Proliferation Centre (ACDC), gave an opening keynote speech. Following its speech, LTC Guy Moverley, Military Adviser Counter-Explosive Ordnance at the Defence & Security Organisation in the United Kingdom, talked about how supporting the eradication of the global threat from explosive ordnance. Lastly, Inspector Jose Manuel Navas Garcia, Chief, EOD-CBRN (TEDAX) Unit, Spain, shared his experience of the fight against IED in Spain.
The last conference session was dedicated to the topic of strengthening european CBRNe Defense. LTC Joseph Kopcha, NATO CBRN Defense OPS Standards and Concepts Officer at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), provided an overview of the NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) COVID-19 Response. COL Wolfgang Reich, Deputy Director of the JCBRN Defence COE presented the cooperation between the JCBRN Defence COE, NATO and the EU. Following COL Reich, two speakers Dr. Alan C. Samuels, Chemical Analysis & Physical Properties, CCDC CBC, USA and Mr. Jonathan Bartel, IEW ECD Lead, JPdL IEW, JPM CBRN Sensors, JPEO-CBRND, USA, gave a joint presentation on the topic of ‘Sense, Integrated Early Warning, Reconnaissance, and Surveillance and Integrated Threat Awareness – Coalition’. Lastly, Mr. Pedro Basto, Project Officer C-IED at the European Defence Agency gave us an overview of the current European projects in CBRNe Defense.
To conclude this second and last day of NCT Virtual Europe, Chairman BG (ret.) William King delivered the event’s closing remarks, together with Mr. Ilja Bonsen, and Ms. Anna Paternnosto. As for the first day of the event, the networking lounge and the exhibition were open for delegates during and in between each conference sessions.
We would like to sincerely thank all the delegates and speakers for their participation, as well as our sponsors, Heyl, Meridian and SIGA who made this event possible!
