Keep an eye out for details of EMPA Australia 2026.

EMPA Australia is the meeting of the voices of emergency management in Australia.

Effective public information and connection with communities is critical to building safer and more resilient communities.  The need for constant improvement in warnings, information and engagement is always a major component of Royal commissions and inquiries into natural disasters.

It is critical that we focus on improving the capability and capacity of our public information and communications staff by

exposing them to research and experience of their local, interstate and overseas peers.

EMPA’s are the only EM conferences which occur in this region that provide the intense focus on communications and engagement that Australasia’s EM professionals require.

2025 Conference Programme

THANK YOU to our partner NEMA, sponsors Suncorp and How We Survive, as well as the speakers, panelists and delegates who took part in 2025 EMPA Australia.

If you're an emergency or crisis communications practitioner or researcher, then you will want to join us next year.

Joe Buffone the Deputy Coordinator General of the Emergency Management and Response Group of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was 2025’s opening keynote speaker. Joe discussed why NEMA is focusing on 2025 as the Year of Crisis Communications.

Anni Fordham is a communication specialist with a passion for emergency public information and was the Day 2 Keynote speaker. As the recipient of a Churchill Fellowship, Anni travelled to Switzerland, the United States of America, Japan and New Zealand in late 2024 to investigate the provision of highly accessible information to people impacted by emergencies.

By popular demand the EMPA conference team has also invited world renowned Risk, Crisis and Emergency Communication Consultant Philippe Borremans to present a workshop on Day 3 on how to utilise AI whilst maintaining quality as emergency communications practitioners.

Philippe has 25 years of experience guiding organisations through crises and emergencies. He advises multinational companies and works with large public institutions such as the European Union, the World Health Organisation and the African Union. He develops training and designs simulations to improve crisis communication strategies.

Philippe is the author of the book “Mastering Crisis Communication with ChatGPT; A Practical Guide” and editor of the weekly newsletter Wag The Dog, which reports on trends in risk, crisis, and emergency communication.

The event also included a dinner on the first evening (Wednesday 4 June) to celebrate the winners of the 2025 EMPA AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION.

Delegates’ highlights and key take-aways from 2024

"Thanks to the committee and HPE for an incredible event. It was my first EMPA conference and you bet I'll be campaigning hard to come back next year 😊”

“There's an increasing need for effective communications with all communities, and the challenge is figuring out how we can reach diverse communities in short timeframes”

“This was one of the first conferences that I have attended where I found almost all the sessions useful and relevant and have followed up speakers so I can share with my team”

“Great program this year, lots of different topics across comms, community engagement, media. Well done to the team for putting together an excellent event”

"Had a ball. Great program. Great people, great fun 😊”

“It was great to be able to mix with government and industry as well as academic researchers. It is really good to hear about research that can assist industry to do things differently”

“There's an increasing need for effective communications with all communities, and the challenge is figuring out how we can reach diverse communities in short timeframes”

“That we have a passionate, resilient and dedicated workforce across Aus and NZ and sharing our practice examples helps us all to do better”

“This was one of the first conferences that I have attended where I found almost all the sessions useful and relevant and have followed up speakers so I can share with my team”

"Thanks to the committee and HPE for an incredible event. It was my first EMPA conference and you bet I'll be campaigning hard to come back next year 😊”

“Great program this year, lots of different topics across comms, community engagement, media. Well done to the team for putting together an excellent event”

“It was great to be able to mix with government and industry as well as academic researchers. It is really good to hear about research that can assist industry to do things differently”

Register

Registrations will open in early 2026.

Program

Join us for three days of engaging and insightful presentations and panel discussions from leading emergency communicators.

EMPA Awards

The EMPA awards for 2025 are now closed.

Venue

To be confirmed.

Over 140 delegates attended EMPA Australia in 2025. Delegates came from a broad range of emergency services agencies, local and State government, NGOs and industry groups. The EMPA Australia conference has become an important professional development and engagement event for communications specialists within the emergency management community.

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