Christophe Robert Laurent*, University Hospital Antwerp, Edegem, Belgium Track: Practice Presentation Topic: other Presentation Type: Rapid-Fire Presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School Room: C-Rotunda Room Date: 2012-09-15 04:00 PM – 04:45 PM Last modified: 2012-09-12

If you are the presenter of this abstract (or if you cite this abstract in a talk or on a poster), please show the QR code in your slide or poster (QR code contains this URL).

Background During the storm that occurred at the Pukkelpop music festival in Belgium in 2011, many were wounded, several lost their lives. Because additional mobile cellular towers or Cells On Wheels (COW’s) are not used in Belgium, mobile connections as well as texting were impossible during and after the disaster. Limited availability of data communications and the growing ubiquitousness of smart phones created a social media hyperactivity. Most of this “chatter” was aimed at orientation and communication with missing persons, and illustrated a intuitive use of social media to connect locally.

Objective: Thorough monitoring Social Media at a mass event, with a purpose beyond marketing, could initiate a direct response from the organizers (“Do not take exit X”, “Please avoid leaving through alley Y”, “The Camping is flooded”), and also influence the rescue and relief operations. A wider array of predetermined event specific hash tags, targeted at relief and rescue, may prove to be an valuable tool during these events.

Methods: Experience shows that people and the crowds they form rapidly develop an explicit solidarity that is much stronger than when a cataclysmic event does not occur. This was the case at Pukkelpop in 2011. For this reason a set of designated hash tags, for use on festival grounds during the event, can provide an tool set for information during the disaster, for the organizers and the relief, but also for mutual communication between visitors. Crowdsourcing can transform a cloud of hash tags in geotagged tweets into invaluable tools for the organisation. It might even provide additional decision support and feedback on the success of decisions made, by closely monitoring several parameters. Predetermined hash tags can amplify the information acquired from monitoring tweets during a festival, and even more so during a unexpected potentially harmful event occurring during a mass gathering. Obviously, analysis of this data can perfectly happen off-site, and as such provide additional support from a safe location.

Results: A new set of hash tags is now in the process of being evaluated and fine-tuned, so as not to alarm people, but rather empower them. Predetermined hash tags for other practical uses were already used at Pukkelpop in 2011, and appeared very helpful. But as one might suspect, these were not calculated for a disaster. This is bound to change.

Conclusion: Experience has shown that as a result of natural and technology augmented disasters, the public at mass gatherings quickly develops a social response in which they help each other. Lately, non interruptive communication through social networks has shown to peak in these situations. We plan to augment the power of the people by improving and shaping the tools they have, so as to improve the outcome of the relief as well of the victims in the field. The non interruptive aspects of low bandwidth social media communication are a valuable asset in these circumstances. It is capital that event organisations and relief efforts make good use of it.