Making Disaster Preparedness Fun

I've found over the years that we need to work to make the notion of disasters and how people can become better prepared for them not so boring.

Earlier today I had the opportunity to address Seattle Rotary 4 club (my club). This is the world's largest Rotary Club with around 700 members. Approximately 500 show up for lunch each Wednesday. The challenge I had was I was the opening act for Bonnie Dunbar astronaut and now President and CEO for the Boeing Museum of Flight. That gave me a total of eight minutes to talk about the hazards in the Central Puget Sound and a little bit about what they can do as Rotarians and citizens.

My goal is to always work some humor into the presentation. Tell a few stories that relate to the topic, put a smile on their faces and have a message behind what you are saying. Hopefully I had an impact. Since I had to talk and run--to another meeting I wasn't able to get much feedback.

Disasters, preparedness and entertainment should not be topics and techniques that are contradictory. My goal is to be invited back as a speaker to have more time to provide better more comprehensive information, and allow time for Q&A. We'll see what happens!