We help you build your common operating picture for disaster recovery so you have better, faster information sharing to save lives and reduce suffering.

Download Your Free Common Operating Picture Assessment Tool Here

How will this Benefit you?

Better Faster Decision Making

Make better informed decisions so you can act sooner and smarter to save lives and reduce suffering

Organized Faster Support

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 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 town 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 one size 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 success. Our success is when your community lead 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.
We know that you are 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

All clients can expect the following

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Commitment and Confidentiality

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

We maintain a trust-based network of friends, colleagues and subject matter experts in other communities and organizations that can be called upon to help in time of need. If they don’t know the answer to something, they probably know someone who will.
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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 innovative thinking to creatively creative and innovative ways to apply technology to unique solutions. We see your future needs today.

We Love Happy Clients

Here Is What They Are Saying:

“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?

Just follow these 3 easy steps

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Tell us about your challenge. Fill out a short form.

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

Join the Future of Emergency Management facebook group

How Much Does It Cost?

How much is it costing you right now to have an inefficient disaster recovery system 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 reach those in need, because of lack of communication?

A lack of efficient operating procedure in the case of disasters may already be costing you a great deal. Apply for a free consultation and I’ll see if I can help you out.

Contact Us

Fill Out the Form Below to Get Started

Steve Newton

Founder & 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 I retired out of the Provincial Government and 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 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 worked with some incredible people and 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 expertise to our many friends or sitting as Director in one of our 6 regional 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.

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. More recently, I was a finalist in the Premier’s Award for Excellence (to be awarded fall 2018).

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 are 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

Recent Work

We Have Been Featured In

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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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