In May 2020, the NCT teams started developing its brand new NCT Virtual platform to allow the CBRNe community to connect at a time where knowledge exchange on Non-Conventional Threats had become crucial in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, NCT Virtual has hosted 4 successful events, the last in date being NCT Civil – Military Response “Mutual Aid in Crisis Response” hosted in February 2021. Let’s go back to 2020 and to some highlights of the first NCT Virtual Events.
NCT Virtual USA 2020
July 21-22
The very first NCT Virtual USA event took place on July 21 – 22, 2020. The new platform was welcomed with enthusiasm from the audience in a time where public gathering restrictions had started to be imposed across the world. For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the American CBRNe, C-IED, EOD community gathered over the duration of two days, showing their willingness to keep the CBRNe community connected!
High-level speakers shared their knowledge during multiple conference sessions chaired by BG (Ret.) William King, while the virtual exhibition gave our over 350 attendees the opportunity to learn about new technologies in a realistic and interactive environment. An average of 150 attendees were simultaneously connected in the conference room over the two-days. The first day of the conference marked the last participation of Mr. Douglas Bryce in an NCT Event as the Joint Program Executive Officer for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense JPEO-CBRND. We were honored to have him participate in the session addressing “National CWMD Strategies and Implementation”. The conference was also the perfect platform to discuss US interagency responses to the COVID-19 crisis, and share some lessons learned at the very beginning of the crisis.
During the conference breaks, the networking lounge provided attendees with an amazing opportunity to get together through multiple public chats. Attendees interacted with one another on the topics of Medical Countermeasures and Decontamination, Detection and Identification, PPE, and other CBRNe related topics. By spending an average time of 8 hours 50 minutes on the virtual platform, attendees proved their interest in our newly developed platform and its intuitive way of navigating. More than 3000 booth entries were made, demonstrating the simplicity of navigating the platform; eliminating the need to walk long distances to access the material of our exhibitors and chat with them!
NCT Virtual Europe 2020
September 22-23
NCT Virtual Europe took place on September 22 – 23, 2020 in official partnership with the JCBRN Defence Center of Excellence. Thought to enable the European CBRNe, C-IED and EOD community to connect and network, this second edition of NCT Virtual confirmed the success of the newly launched NCT platform. 59 different countries gathered over the duration of two days welcoming delegations from all over Europe, but also from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Singapore and the Philippines.
The conference was once again chaired by BG (Ret.) William King, while the virtual exhibition gave our over 340 attendees the opportunity to learn about new technologies. The conference break was 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.
The other innovation of this second edition of NCT Virtual, was the opportunity given to different European organizations working in the CBRNe field 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.
NCT Virtual Asia 2020
November 12-13
NCT Virtual Asia took place on November 12-13, 2020 in official partnership with the ASEAN Regional Mine Action Center (ARMAC). For this Asian edition, representatives of the CBRNe, C-IED, EOD community coming from more than 30 different countries gathered over the duration of two days. NCT Virtual Asia not only saw the participation of Asian stakeholders, but also of delegations from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, the Middle East and Europe.
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 attendees the opportunity to visit industry booths and interact with the sales representatives.
Multiple Asian organizations working in the CBRNe field were given the chance to promote their work and current projects, within dedicated Pavilions. Delegates had the opportunity to visit the ARMAC Pavilion, the ANAMA Pavilion, the Counter Terrorism & Jungle Warfare (CTJW) College Pavilion.
By spending an average time of 5 hours 22 minutes on the virtual platform, attendees proved again their interest in our virtual platform and its intuitive way of navigating. With more than 2700 Booth visits and hundreds of chats initiated, NCT Virtual Asia was a success in terms of interactivity and engagement.
For the first time in 2020, the NCT Virtual leaderboard contributed to the interactivity of our platform by promoting actions of our delegates within the virtual platform (visiting booths, downloading content, or initiating chats). For each action, our delegates could earn points and compete against their peers for a nice reward!
NCT Virtual Asia was the last event of 2020 and concluded a challenging year requiring adaptability and innovation. The NCT Team will continue to provide the opportunity to enable the CBRNe community to exchange knowledge and interact on the NCT Virtual Platform. We are happy to make the platform available to any organization eager to enhance internal interactions or develop their relations with external stakeholders.
