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White HouseInnovationBrainstorm for
Disaster Responseand Recoverya FEMA Think Tank event
August 27, 2013
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The Vision
The Innovation Brainstorm for Disaster Response and Recovery was convened in partnership
between the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) to connect and mobilize resources from diverse backgrounds.
Participants pushed the traditional bounds of emergency management and included Broadway
producers, micro-financers, grass roots community organizers, engineers, scientists, government
employees from all levels and first responders, amongst others. This diversity set the stage for
seeking innovations through multiple lenses and experiences with the purpose of fostering
actionable dialogue in a collaborative environment.
The goals of the event were to lay the foundation and establish commitments from participants to
integrate before, during and after a disaster.
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Coordination & Connections
with the Health and Energy
Sectors
Richard Serino, Deputy Administrator of FEMA
and Todd Park, Assistant to the President and
U.S. Chief Technology Officer, welcomed the
participants and shared that the day was
intended to generate ideas from those closest
to the disaster. The focus throughout the event
would be to look at innovation and need from
the eyes of the survivor.
Dr. Nicole Lurie , Assistant Secretary, HHS and
Patricia Hoffman, Assistant Secretary , DOE
shared the perspectives from the Health and
Energy Sectors. Their remarks both spoke to
the need for help from the broader
community to connect people with needs withthose in the community who can help.
Survivors with need for electricity to support
medical devices were identified as a urgent
need and challenged the participants to find
creative solutions to provide lifelines and
technologies that can bridge the gap in current
capabilities.
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FEMA Innovation Team Accomplishments
Serino and FEMA Chief Innovation Officer, Desi Matel-Anderson shared the journey of the FEMA InnovationTeam over the past year and the great advances that had been made building partnerships with federalcolleagues, communities, industry and innovators from all sectors during the Hurricane Sandy and Oklahoma
Tornado events and as a result of Think Tank conversations and field trial experimentation.
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FEMA Innovation Team Accomplishments, continued.
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Serino then shared that all great ideas start on the back of a napkin, and asked everyone to take a few moments,write their idea on a napkin and then share it with the group at their tableand to then develop two or three BigIdeas for each table that represent where the group wants to focus to make an impact. These ideas were presentedto the larger group and then everyone voted on the ideas to indicate which concepts they applaud and would like to
see further developed.
Brainstorming Ideas standing in the shoes of the Survivor
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Brainstorming Innovations for Disaster Response & Recovery
Graphic recorder Stephanie Brown from the Federal Performance Improvement Council, captured all the ideas
shared by the group in a mural that will serve as a collective memory of the ideas generated by the group in the
spirit of designing for innovation.
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Top 10 Ideas
After voting on all the ideas ten were selected for prototyping. Participants joined together around the topics
they had the most interest and could potentially commit to continue working on following the Think Tank
Innovation Jam event.
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Rapid Prototyping
The groups further developed the ideas
where some broke out in song, others
wrote code, and others used scraps of
paper, glue and other materials to buildvisual prototypes of the ideas. The groups
then pitched the ideas to everyone, which
included a physical demonstration of the
human powered Power-Go-Round and a
prototype of a real-time communication
platform.
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Rapid Prototyping
Graphic recording of the ten prototypes pitched by the group. By show of hands the participants indicated
their enthusiasm for each of the ideas and a champion stepped forward to sign the mural to show their
commitment to lead the project forward.
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Success!
The event served to foster a Whole Community approach that will enable faster, more efficient engagement
of transformative response and recovery solutions. Overall this approach to emergency management enhances
FEMAs ability to learn, innovate and improve AND it was a lot of FUN for everyone!
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