We help you build  better emergency response and disaster recovery plans, and information sharing systems so you can save lives and reduce suffering.

How many times have you been involved in a post-event hotwash or debrief where the theme of “better communications and information sharing” has come up? The answer to that is probably almost all of them.

When it comes to sharing information for critical life-saving decision making and timely accurate situational awareness, there is no “one size fits all” common operating picture (COP) tool, despite what all the IT consultants and software vendors would have you believe.

Emergency and disaster management is far more complicated today than it used to be. There are more players with their own information systems in the game than ever before, and they are all demanding timely, accurate information for their critical life-saving decision making. They also have a bunch of valuable trusted information to share. Connecting all those business practices and information silos can be an overwhelming but necessary task.

Often, the smaller players are left out of the larger COP systems because the costs of belonging or participating can be quite high. But in emergency and disaster management, you should be an equal.

Being part of a good common operating picture for disaster or emergency management can make you that equal but you need to better understand how, why and where your organization will fit into it. You need to know what value there is in belonging, and what value you can bring in to the bigger picture decision making for situational awareness.

You need to start asking a few questions.

How will better plans and information systems for emergency and disaster response and recovery benefit you?

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Better Faster Decision Making

Make better informed decisions with shared, trusted information so you can act sooner and smarter to save lives and reduce suffering

Pre-Plan & Organize for Faster Support

Pre-plan and organize the right kinds of support so you can reduce delays and get help those people you serve when they need it the most

Track Everything Permanently

Track everything you do so you have a permanent record for continuous improvement through better performance and program analysis

What’s Different About Innomergence?

Right about now you might be asking “Why choose Innomergence? Why wouldn’t I just go with one of those larger firms with their standardized “one-size-fits-all-cut-and-paste emergency plan templates and staff with big city operations experience?” You might have just answered your own question…sort of.

At Innomergence, we speak small community and big government emergency management fluently. We’ve been there at site command. We’ve been there in community emergency operations centres. We’ve been there in the larger government operations centres as well. We’ve been at the highest level strategic planning tables. We know that your biggest challenge is often sharing critical, accurate, and timely information between all the stakeholders and support agencies. And we know that a “one size solution” doesn’t fit all.

At Innomergence, we’re not too interested in just coming in and doing a job. We’ll probably come if you ask us, but we’d rather come in and help set you up for short and long term success. Our success is when your community led response and recovery organizations are a success and where critical information sharing to save lives is the norm, not the challenge. To us, it’s all about helping you develop capacity so you don’t have to call us next time…unless you really want to.

At Innomergence we know that you should be an equal player in Emergency Management, no matter how big or small your community or organization is. And we know that with good information sharing in place, you can be that equal.

Our Promise to You

All clients can expect the following from the innomergence team

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Trust

We maintain an extensive trust-based network of friends, colleagues, clients and subject matter experts in other communities and organizations that can be called upon to help in time of need. If we can’t figure something out and they don’t know the answer, they probably know someone who does.

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Commitment and Confidentiality

We represent your interests with complete integrity, commitment, confidentiality and professionalism. Your success is our success.

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Operational Experience

Our leadership has over 30 years of operational experience in emergency response and recovery command and control in provincial, regional and community governments at site and in EOC’s. We view the world from a lens of practical, operational need and can figure out just about any situation with your help.

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Big Picture Thinking

We use strategic foresight, agile methods, and critical thinking in creative and innovative ways to apply technology to unique solutions. We see your tomorrow’s needs today.

We Love Happy Clients

Here Is What They Are Saying about us

“Newt. You’ve always been the maverick, the guy thinking outside the box, and the one that truly believed in challenging and developing staff. You’ve been a good friend, a great supporter, and you’ve always had an extremely practical way about you.”

Travis Abbey, Zone Wildfire Officer, Cranbrook Fire Zone, BC Wildfire Service
“Innomergence was instrumental in helping the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary recover from unprecedented flooding in the Boundary Region of BC in spring of 2018. Innomergence helped us to build a grassroots recovery team to ensure our residents were supported through the recovery process.

Steve’s creative approach of using his extensive contact list of emergency management professionals combined with innovative approaches to technology and information management ensured that the recovery team was able to focus on what mattered – helping those affected by flooding.”

Chris Marsh, Manager of Emergency Programs, Regional District of Kootenay Boundary
“From a foundation of senior experience as a wildfire and emergency management decision maker, Steve brings energy and innovation to all projects. His perspective and ability to connect the dots, coupled with strong leadership and a ‘build-the-team’ approach encourages team members to excel in achieving goals.”

Martin Torn, President, Selkirk Systems Inc.
“There aren’t a lot of people that have the same level of operational experience that Steve Newton (Newt) does. With more than 30 years of experience in all hazards emergency management, he’s successfully lead teams through all phases of emergencies, from preparedness and response through recovery.

Rarer still, though, is that Newt combines that operational experience with a strong understanding of new technology and innovation. Throughout his career he’s brought together bright, cross-discipline teams to build solutions that were ahead of their time.

He’s still doing that now, pushing to find new ways to establish or improve current best practices. From small communities to large organizations, Newt has applied that combination of operational practicality and new ideas in a way that minimizes disruption and promotes efficiency.”

Dan Erickson, Chief Operating Officer, Lightshipworks.com

How Does it Work Here at Innomergence?

We’re happy to email you or call you back if you like. Just let us know what works best for you.

Tell us what's on your mind

Share with us what you’re curious about or what your challenges are around planning and/or better information sharing. We’ll ask you a couple of short questions on a form to get some context, and then get back to you by email with some thoughts and ideas.

We’ll contact you and set up a call if that’s what you’d like

If you would like us to give you a call, leave us a some info on the best way to contact you, a time that works best for you, and tell us a little bit about what’s on  your mind. Facebook Messenger video or Skype work best for us.

Join the "Best Technology Practices in Emergency Management" facebook group

Become part of a community of experts that cares about helping people and has a passion for using new and emerging technologies for disaster and emergency management. Learn about best practices. Share your experiences and help others. Find out what’s going on and where the opportunities are.

What is the True Cost of Poor Planning & Information Sharing?

How much is it costing you right now to have  outdated or inefficient emergency response and disaster recovery plans in place?

How many disaster victims are not receiving the relief that they need? How many people are suffering?

How much time is it taking your organization to help those in need, because of poor communication and/or information sharing practices?

A lack of efficient operating procedures in the case of disasters may already be costing you a great deal more than the money you spend in some budget commitment each year.

Give us a call and we’ll see if we can help you out. Our contact info is below.

Contact Us

Fill Out the Form Below to Get Started

Steve Newton

President & CEO

Since my earliest childhood memories, one of the strongest values that my parents instilled in me was to help others. I remember at an early age walking around the neighborhood with a wagon full of pumpkins for sale just before Halloween to help a family who had lost their home in a landslide. I think my siblings and I raised about $11 to donate.

Fast forward and I find myself recently retired after 30 years serving the public in some form or another of emergency management. Helping others is what I do. After a thoroughly enjoyable and motivating career in emergency management response and recovery serving the people of British Columbia, and with the full support of my wife Fiona, in May 2018 we  started Innomergence Solutions Inc.

The name Innomergence is a hybrid of the words “innovation” and “emergent”. Combining them was Fiona’s idea and it speaks to two of my primary career passions: (1) creative, innovative systems thinking with a future lens; and (2) embracing emerging challenges with enthusiasm. Those who know and/or have worked with me will agree that this pretty much sums up what I’m about.

My career began about 50 pounds ago when I started out on a wildfire initial attack crews. Exciting and fun times for sure. Over the years, I progressed through the ranks and gained experience in just about every operational position in the British Columbia Wildfire Service, including Incident Command, Operations and Planning roles on the Provincial Incident Management Teams. (I might have put on a couple of extra pounds over the years as my wildfire career advanced). My final 4 years in the BC Wildfire Service was spent leading the Provincial Aviation Management Section.

I have worked with some incredible people. I’ve learned from the best, many of whom worked for me. I participated as a field operations expert in some interesting technology projects supported by the Canadian and European Space Agencies. I was also fortunate enough to be the only field operations member of an 8-person team that developed the wildfire program for the State of Sabah in Malaysia, and part of a small team that designed and delivered an extensive wildfire training program to the State of Nuevo Leon in Mexico. (my Spanish is still a bit rusty)

For the last 7 years of my public service career, I worked as a Regional Manager for Emergency Management BC (EMBC), which is the Province of British Columbia’s primary agency for coordinating all government support to First Nations Communities and Local Governments. When I wasn’t providing daily guidance and subject matter expertise to our many friends or sitting as Director in one of our 6 provincial regional emergency operations centres, I was engaged in projects related to the application of enabling technologies to demonstrate that the elusive true common operating picture for emergency management already exists. And just for kicks, over the years I pursued graduate studies in leadership and strategic foresight. More recently, I’ve been engaged in studies about data science because I absolutely see its value in the future of emergency and disaster management.

A couple of highlights in my career certainly include being the recipient of the first ever Director’s Award for Mentorship (2006), a peer nominated award in the BC Wildfire Service. In October, 2018 I was part of a small team that was awarded the Premier’s Award for Excellence for work done supporting First Nations Communities and Local Governments in the then-historic flood and wildfire events of 2017. I was a volunteer fire department member for 3 years in a small town before I moved on, and sat on the provincial executive of our national Civil Air Search and Rescue Association for 6 years. At the end of the day, what really matters to me the most is that I am able to help others to the best of my ability.

At Innomergence, we know that you should be an equal player in Emergency Management, no matter how big or small your community or organization is. And we know that with good information sharing in place, you can be that equal.

Steve Newton, President, Innomergence Solutions

What got you here won’t get you there

It Can Happen To You

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FREE COMMON OPERATING PICTURE ASSESSMENT TOOL

 

Breakdowns in communications and information sharing are almost always the cause of major problems during emergency events.

A Common Operating Picture (COP) can be the solution but it means something different to every organization. Many vendors will try to sell you what they think you need without ever fully understanding what you really want.

This Disaster Recovery COP assessment tool will help you better understand your information sharing needs and what your current practices are.

It will help you become that equal in emergency management.

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