Bi-National Maritime Commerce Recovery Tabletop Exercise

I'm a big believer in regional action.  In this case it is a multi-state maritime effort.  The next step in forging a more resilient maritime sector is the tabletop exercise described below.  This effort is focused on the Pacific Northwest, but the intent is to take the planning to the East Coast and the Great Lakes regions in the coming years.  See the announcement below on the exercise being held soon.  I don't know how much room they have available, but if you are from one of the regions mentioned above attendance would give you a peek into what the effort is all about.

 

You are invited to participate in a bi-national tabletop exercise focused on maritime commerce recovery on October 2nd at 10:00 am to 4:00 pm in Everett, WA.  Participants of the exercise will include maritime and regional supply chain stakeholders as well as business continuity, and critical service providers from Canada and the US.

The exercise is designed to explore information sharing and communication requirements to expedite maritime commerce recovery following an emergency, disaster or disruption. The format of the exercise will be a scenario driven discussion designed to uncover gaps and requirements to quickly restore maritime commerce. The information learned at this event will be used to craft procedures for bi-national communications and information sharing to quickly restore maritime commerce after a disruption.

 

The exercise is part of The US-Canada Beyond the Border and Perimeter Security Action Plan to develop information sharing protocols to swiftly recover from any maritime disruption. Click here for more information about the Action Plan.

 

This exercise is the culmination of a series of regional workshops designed to examine bi-national commerce resumption. To read the full report of the July 10 workshop held in Seattle click here. 

 

 

The tabletop exercise objectives:

1. Examine the draft communications and information sharing protocol framework for gaps based on the scenario.

 

2. Examine situational awareness requirements and who owns the data. Recommend course of action (procedures).

 

3. Examine existing communication, information-sharing, situational awareness capabilities.  Recommend course of action (procedures).

 

4. Examine existing data standards (common alerting protocol, etc...). Recommend course of action (procedures).

 

5. Examine cross border interdependencies that could have cascading impacts on regional port operations and the economy

 

6. Determine next steps and timeline.