Coldwater Communications conducted realistic crisis simulations for YVR Airport, enhancing their emergency response capabilities. The exercises met government mandates, identified gaps, and strengthened YVR's communication team's readiness for potential crises, building crucial "crisis muscle memory".
Crisis Preparation, Full-Scale Crisis Simulation Exercise
In partnership with Ally Emergency Management, Coldwater helped plan and conduct crisis exercises for YVR Airport, emphasizing crisis communication and response. Past simulated scenarios include security threats and aircraft crashes in both table top and full-scale formats. The annual full-scale exercise brings together multiple agency partners. Stakeholder participants have included:
Coldwater works closely with the YVR Emergency Planning and YVR Communications teams and agency stakeholders to understand the exercise objectives. This understanding informs the exercise plan, creating realistic scenarios for the YVR Communications team to respond to in their training.
Coldwater provides between three to four on-site support team members on the day of the full-scale exercise which runs all day starting before 6AM and into the afternoon.
YVR Airport has successfully completed two full-scale exercises and two table-top exercises working with Coldwater and Ally Emergency Management, meeting the Government of Canada’s mandate.
Coldwater’s work has helped YVR Airport practice its crisis response in emergencies. Coldwater's recommendations helped identify gaps and provided suggestions for future consideration. Through active training and practice, the YVR Communication team can build its crisis muscle memory and be ready to act when called upon.
