Comments of the visitors 2008

Gassama Sadio, Minister for Internal Security and Civil Protection, Mali

The Conference is of high importance for me, because there is a strong connection between the topics and my position as the Minister of Internal Security and Civil Protection. One important point is the exchange of experiences between different organisations, authorities and countries. This conference helps us to benefit from the experiences European countries already made in this field. We learned about preparedness and logistics here and we highly appreciate the opportunity to get in touch with experts and enlarge our network.

Mamy Razakanaivo, Commissioner of the Prime Minister for Prevention and Emergency Management, Madagascar

Wile my visit in Germany, I had the idea to cooperate with the THW. This why I gladly accepted the invitation to attend this conference. Here you can find all relevant personalities in the field of Civil Protection and you can get important new contacts. The information exchange is of high importance for us and we hope to establish a “small THW” in Madagascar soon.

Wilfried Gräfling, Head of Berlin Fire Brigade

I am her for the second time because I am interested in the topics of the conference and have meetings with important persons and executives from other countries. The conference gives me the opportunity to get in contact with my national in international colleagues and allows me to discuss about the handling of emergency situations. This networking is of high importance for me.

1.372 delegates from 53 nations, hereunder 13 Ministers and State Secretaries, came 2008 to the 4th European Congress to Bonn.

The conference offers enough time for discussions and bilateral meetings. Here: the Romanian State Secretary Paul Victor Dobre (left) in discussion.

International audience in Bonn: Even Madagascar, Mali and Haiti send delegations to the former German capital.

Richard von Hazebrouck, Federal Technical Relief Agency (THW)

The speeches and the panel sessions are the most important thing at this conference. Also the exhibition is interesting to get information about new technologies. In this year our expectations at the conference were fulfilled, there are in case much more visitors then we expected.

Thomas Adenauer, Bonn Fire Brigade

The Congress has an international flair, based on the high numbers of foreign visitors. I met delegates from Kuwait, Mali or Russia at this meeting. Furthermore you have the opportunity – besides the good speeches – to find known and new contacts here. Another positive thing is that there are not too many people – this allows you to get directly in touch with those persons you are searching for.

The evening reception of the conference provides an ideal opportunity for networking.

One of the key figures of the conference is to enlarge the network and make new contacts between politics, authorities and industries from all over Europe.

The company 3M presented technologies against pandemics, where also German State Secretary Peter Altmaier (right) was interested in.

Götz Stamm, 3M

In this year we were very comfortable with the organisation. We are here at the second time as an exhibitor and I can say that here are all relevant persons dealing with Disaster Management and Civil Protection. The conference meets exactly the segment of customers, we would like to address here.

Bernd Petzold, German Weather Service

This is our third time here as an exhibitor and my personal opinion is that the conference becomes better each year – especially the quality of the visitors becomes better and better. This conference gives us a good platform to get in touch with our customers and make new contacts – here you can really find all relevant people for Civil Protection.

Daniel Büchner, e*Message

We were very surprised about the quality of the conference and the visitors. The conference was well organized and the visitors were experts in their fields. We are exhibiting here for the second time and the conference proofed once again that it is an ideal platform for networking.

The Bundeswehr and other European Forces were present with their experts for NBC-Protection.

The Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) presented a NBC-Detection vehicle in the outdoor exhibition.

The Karlsruhe Fire Brigade showed a mobile control centre – a modified Bus.

Jörn Müller, Head of the Fürstenwalde Fire Brigade

As a Fire Brigade close to the border we are especially interested in cross-border related topics that we can find here especially in the panel discussion rounds and in the dialogue with colleagues from other nations. I visit this conference for the fourth time and I will be there in 2009 as well, because here I can find the information and the information exchange we need.

Colonel Jaffke, Bundeswehr NBC Protection

I expect from this conference to learn something new at the technological level and find some information about NBC-protection. This conference is always a good opportunity to get background information – the information you receive here with the direct contact are much more precise than in official statements.

The THW showed its vehicles and technologies inside and outside of the conference centre.

Between the Programme there was enough time to get in touch with the visitors, speakers and delegates.

State Secretary Altmaier (right) informed himself about the water-purification-systems of the Federal Technical Relief Agency.