Over 250 delegates and exhibitors attended the opening ceremony of the first CBRNe World conference, CBRNe Convergence, held at the JW Marriott hotel in Bucharest, September 22-24th, 2008.

The conference, supported by the Romanian MOD had the theme ‘ CONVERGENCE, GROWING CLOSER, STAYING DISTINCT and looked at the merging of military and civilian response to CBRN and EOD/IED threats.

Welcoming speakers from all round the world was the Chairman Colonel (Ret.) Hans Hinrich Kuhl, his first speaker was the Romanian State Secretary for Defence, Corneliu Dobritoiu - a presentation that was televised for Romanian TV!

Other speakers, such as Major General Steve Reeves (from the US’ Joint Program Executive Office for Chem Bio Defence), Superintendent Alan King (from London’s Met Police), Major Oliver Toderiska (from the Slovak General Staff) and Dr Ton Theeuwen (of the Netherland’s Forensic Institute) spoke over the two days.

With 38 exhibiting companies from all areas within CBRN and EOD, delegates were able to plan for their force’s future - both new tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) and equipment! Both the Icebreaker and Cocktail receptions ensured that the networking was of the highest quality, and the mix of civilian and military agencies allowed a convergence of ideas to take place!

The third day of the conference was a practical application of some of the ideas that had been discussed over the past two days.

The Romanian MoD staged an exercise utilising Military Police, Special Forces, EOD and CBRN (both detection and decontamination) assets - as well as Fire Brigade mass decontamination and Police Surveillance platforms. The 150 delegates that joined us for the third day saw an excellent demonstration of Romania’s CBRNE defence and a chance to see the legendary Bran Castle.

The 2009 CBRNe Convergence Conference & Exhibition willtake place in Amsterdam, October 2009

REGISTER NOW