eSAFE: The knowledge Management System for Safe Festivals & Events

This project was undertaken with the generous funding from the International Festivals and Events Association (IFEA) based in Boise, Idaho. IFEA is an umbrella association for many large and small event management firms, and professionals, and boasts of membership upwards of 3000. The main requirement was to develop a knowledge management system that can enable the event professionals to document, and reuse precious knowledge related to safety and security issues of event management. This became even more critical as the event professionals recognized the growing importance of safety and security management. My role as the research assistant was to systematically assess the requirements of the client organization, develop the initial design for the system, and develop the ontology for the basic content of the system knowledge bases. We also conducted an extensive survey to understand how and why members will participate in such unique systems. A research paper based on this project was published in the Homeland Security Handbook?

Designing a Collaborative Crisis Management System for the Hospitality & Tourism Industry

This project was funded, in part, under a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Office of the Vice President for Research & Graduate Studies, and the Center for Preparedness Research, Education and Practice (C-PREP) at Temple University. The main goal of the project was three fold: 1) to assess the preparedness of the small and medium sized hospitality and tourism organizations to deal with disasters
and crises, 2) to understand their limitations and requirements as to above said task, and 3) to design a prototype knowledge management systems that can enhance the crises management capabilities of these firms. This project was done in response to the growing concern regarding the crises management efforts of local firms and the large loss of life and property witnessed in other parts of the country. As the project coordinator, my role was to coordinate research team members, design surveys to study the local industry, analyze data and provide the final reports. Also, I played a central role in designing the initial prototype system on which subsequent versions were based. The research paper on this project is published in Cornell Hospitality Quarterly?.