NCT CBRNe Middle East 2014 – Post-Event Report

22 Dec 2014 • by Natalie Aster

LONDON – Taking place from December 9 to 11 at the 5-star Hilton Abu Dhabi, the UAE, NCT CBRNe Middle East 2014 greeted delegations and exhibitors from over 20 nations from all over the globe. For the first time ever, the Gulf Region’s governments and first responders from Oman, Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait amid others sent their representatives to Abu Dhabi to share firsthand information and advanced experience within the confines of such an explicit CBRN defense related event.

 

Day 1 - Challenges in CBRN defense and Regional Threats

Following the 1st networking day including an ice breaking reception with a striking panorama of the Abu Dhabi skyline from the Hilton Abu Dhabi hotel's Lake Garden, the way was paved for the 2-day exhibition and confernece. Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi opened the conference and greeted the region’s government delegations and international attendees with his keynote speech. He underlined the necessity of supporting regional collaboration in an area that is of considerable importance in the Middle East region. A broad scope of speakers and specifically the chairman Colonel Henry Neumann gave an outstanding introduction on the challenges in CBRN defense and pertinent regional threats on the first days. The region’s first responders were therefore capable of learning on challenges they will be faced with whilst strengthening their respective capabilities, and how they shall organise concerted response rapidly in the event of an incident. Of huge importance were also the presentations of Brigadier General Aref al Zaben and Colonel Hussein Al-Hameidi that have already stood up to respective threats in their country, Jordan, and have amassed wide experience and high-value expertise to share.

Additionally, besides showing their available solutions in the exhibition, leading industry stakeholders in the field of CBRN defense and response also shared their knowledge on how to augment CBRN defense capabilities globally. The first day of the conference was brought to a close by threat evaluations of such global experts such as Professor Aqab Malik and Colonel (Ret.) Dr. Fahed Alshelaimi on challenges including present-day and possibly future regional nuclear-weapon states and also ISIS and Al Qaeda’s policies with respect to the acquisition of materials and weapons of mass destruction.

 

Day 2 – CBRN Defense from Detection to Response

The 2nd day of the event went into specifics when it came to themes like medical response measures, civil defense approaches, CBRN decontamination challenges, and also the Ebola virus disease epidemic. The attendees could thus perfectly build on the lessons learned from the first day to boost their expertise in these particular fields. The conference came up with top international and regional experts in these fields, such as Colonel (Ret.) Ayhan Batur, Dr. Alexander Grabowski, Dr. Khalid Abu-Haimed, Georges Saad, Aayda Al Shehhi and Brigadier General Dr. Aamer Ikram. With presentations on burning topics such as potential biological hazards in mass gathering including Hajj, decontamination procedures in hot climatic zones, increasing emergency preparedness and CBRN monitoring in Turkey, and capacity building in radiation safety in the UAE, NCT CBRNe Middle East introduced the delegates to the prominent regional experts as well as contributed to the sharing of extremely relevant knowledge to a vast range of CBRN first responders.

 

Towards a Regional CBRN Community

NCT CBRNe Middle East 2014 was a big success. Specifically, it was a step forward to foster the Gulf Region’s CBRN community and placing them into contact to global experts and industry stakeholders. The chairman Colonel Henry Neumann made the absolutely suitable conclusion, outlining that the event was a wining starting point for regional collaboration.

In this vein, IB Consultancy invites you to be a party to this endeavor and attend the oncoming NCT CBRNe Middle East 2015 event in Jordan’s capital of Amman from October 5 to 7, 2015.

CONTACTS

The Market Publishers, Ltd.
Natalie Aster
Tel: +44 208 144 6009
Fax: +44 207 900 3970
[email protected] 
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