CBRN / HazMat Training Blog

Plan your visit to CBRNe Convergence 2019

Written by Steven Pike on 25 July 2019

CBRNe-Convergence-Tennessee-2019The 12th annual CBRNe Convergence will take place in Nashville Tennessee this November 2019 - providing a showcase for the largest CBRNe exhibition in North America, as well as a packed programme of workshops, presentations and hands-on events for CBRNe and HazMat professionals.

This year's event is themed around the merging of civilian and military response to CBRN and IED threats.

Day one of the congress will begin with a series of plenary sessions covering Countering WMD Terrorism; Homeland Defence and the Evolution of the CBRN Response Enterprise; Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) CBR Capability; and the Turkish Emergency Management System for Chemical Warfare Agents.

Over the course of the two days, participants will also have the opportunity to attend lectures on regional and national CBRNe, homemade WMDs, extremist WMDs, bio detection, integrated response and CBRNe drones.

In this blog post we highlight a selection of the planned events - beginning with the 'High Threat' exercise which will take place prior to the congress on November 5th:

2019 Convergence Pre-Congress Workshop

The 2019 CBRNe Convergence pre-congress 'High Threat' exercise will once again be led by Gareth Roberts who this year will be joined by his colleague from the Welsh Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit (WECTU), Hugh William Jones

Participants will be split into two teams on the day, to enable them to experience both the classroom teaching element of the workshop and the off-site hands-on training exercise.

The activity is billed as the perfect training opportunity for law enforcement or military units who may be required to carry out discrete operations to thwart CBRNe attacks.

Conference programme highlights

Regional CBRNe/ HazMat

  • Lt. Scott Bird from the Nashville Police Department discusses the History and Current Configuration of the Metro Nashville PD SWAT Team
  • The Director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, Patrick Sheehan, speaks on the development and future plans of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA)

National CBRNe/HazMat

  • An exploration of the HazMat Implications of Hurricane Harvey, led by Bob Royall, the Assistant Chief, Emergency Ops Harris County Fire Marshall's Office
  • Post Incident Decon and Recovery, presented by Paul Kastner (Chief, CBRN Response Team) and Ron Dicks (Brach Chief, Mail Screening Facility Pentagon Force Protection Agency)
  • A presentation from Det. Patrick Halligan of the All-Hazards Regional Multi-Agency Operations and Response (ARMOR) Task Force, Nevada Department of Public Safety (NVDPS) - Investigation Division

Homemade WMDs

  • An overview of the Applications of Portable Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry in Fire and HazMat Response, presented by Dr Ross Harper from FLIR Systems
  • Common Items, Uncommon Uses and Recognition of Homemade WMDs, led by Kevin Richards from the Virginia State Police Counter Terrorism WMD and HazMat Unit

Extremist WMDs

  • An exploration of Iraqi CRN Teams vs ISIS Mustard Agent, presented by Col. Mahmoud Delli, CBRN Expert and Iraqi Civil Defence
  • Bill Guglielmo from Cristanini/ITL speaks on Innovative Decontamination for Sensitive Surfaces

Bio Detection

  • A discussion of bio-threats, biological agents and bio-active chemical aerosols led by Dr. Wayne Bryden, CEO of Zeteo Tech
  • Dave DiGregorio, Director of the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services HazMat Emergency Response Division speaks on the state of the opioid crisis with Massachusetts

DoD Response Capabilities

  • The CBRN response capability of the US Department of Defence and how to integrate the DoD into the overall civilian response - presented by Casey Collins, Deputy to the Commander, Joint Task Force Civil Support (JTFCS)
  • Hybrid decontamination - bridging the gap from dry to wet decon - featuring insights from Chris Hodge from First Line Technology

Integrated Response

  • Samantha Ollerton from Rapiscan discusses the challenges and experiences of deploying trace detection equipment in theatre
  • David Musgrave, Director of Treaties and Partnerships Department DTRA, explores the benefits of strengthening alliances to detect, disrupt and dismantle CWMD proliferation networks

CBRN Drones

  • How drones are being used for improved targeting and supported attack planning of CBRN threats - led by National Security Researcher Zak Kallenborn

Building CBRN Capability

  • The use of the broad spectrum decontaminant D7 for first responder and military applications, presented by Chief Scientific Officer for Decon7 Dr Mark Tucker
  • Captain Irvin Hiblaer, Platoon Leader of the Philippine Armed Forces discusses terrorism, WMD and multi-agency collaboration in the Philippine context

Practical Approaches to CBRN

  • An introduction to the range of screening tools used in potential bio threats, presented by Ryan Gregerson from BioFire Defense

See simulator detectors in action

Argon Electronics will be exhibiting at the CBRNe Convergence Exhibition - providing an opportunity for attendees to view a wide variety of simulators for in-service CBRN detection equipment, as well as Argon's instrumented live training system PlumeSIM.

Plan your visit to the 12th Annual CBRN Convergence

When: 5 - 7 November, 2019

Where: Nissan Stadium, 1 Titans Way, Nashville, TN 37213, USA

Conference Programme: the full programme of events is available to view and download on the CBRNe Convergence website

Download how to source simulator detectors for CBRNe & HazMat training

Topics: Exhibitions

Steven Pike

Written by Steven Pike