The intriguingly titled Updated Workshop 0 was held in The Hague between the 6th and 9th November and has been roundly hailed as another successful event in the DRIVER+ calendar.
The first Workshop 0 was held eight months ago, before any of the Trials had taken place. This latest planning meeting of the project partners was an ideal opportunity to review the two Trials that have already taken place and to absorb any lessons identified into the planning process for the remaining two Trials in the DRIVER+ project. The first of these is scheduled for May 2019 in The Hague and will focus on a severe flooding scenario, so the planning is already in full flow. The final Trial will be held later in 2019.
Delegates were also briefed on the updated Trial Guidance Methodology (TGM), which is used by the Trial hosts to help their teams plan for and run the actual Trials themselves. This approach ensures a consistent approach across all the DRIVER+ activities. The Guidance Tool itself, which will play a prominent role in both the third and fourth Trials, as well as in the Final Demonstration, was also presented.
Another important element of the Trials is the Evaluation phase, in which the Trial Observers give their very valuable feedback on the value of the solutions being tested and evaluated by the practitioners involved.
The Portfolio of Solutions (PoS), which will be an online database of Crisis Management solutions available to Crisis Management professionals across Europe, was presented in its updated version and participants at the Workshop were able to use and interrogate its functionality together in a series of interactive sessions.
All the Trial Committees worked extremely well together in interactive sessions, sharing lessons learnt, new ideas and best practices to ensure the remaining two Trials and Final Demonstration are all a success and deliver a powerful legacy for Crisis Management professionals across Europe. To support this activity even further, a Sustainability Board Meeting was held in parallel on the 9th November, in which project partners continued the discussions relating to establishing a future business model for DRIVER+ for after the conclusion of the project.