EARTH EX®
Global Upgrade News: 2022-23
In its first five years of operation, EARTH EX became the world’s largest all-sector, international Black Sky exercise, with thousands of participants and corporate and government partners in more than 40 nations, spanning every continent and major land mass. The team that brought you EARTH EX® is now upgrading the platform to a completely new level.
EARTH EX® Reboot: Raising the Bar for Disaster Planning Exercises
Building on its remarkable five-year beginning, the EARTH EX team is now working on a major upgrade.
With feedback from exercise participants and partners, EIS Council is reimagining the exercise to add new capabilities that will greatly expand its functionality. When complete, the upgrade will make EARTH EX a completely new, first-of-its-kind, highly engaging interactive experience, ready for the next five years and beyond.
The Reboot Team
We engaged a unique, creative team to bring in highly advanced new ideas and opportunities for EARTH EX. The full Council staff was joined by many stakeholders and advisors for upgrade planning, including the IDEAS Orlando team with its world-class experience in developing some of the most advanced, creative and complex exercise platforms ever deployed.
Schedule
The new platform concept design will be completed in late 2022, with the new platform itself to be built following this design process. On this schedule, we will be hosting the next EARTH EX Exercise, using the new, upgraded platform, in 2023.
- 2022 Organization-Focused Exercises
In parallel with the EARTH EX upgrade, we are now hosting a series of online Black Sky Exercises, based on previous EARTH EX exercises. These are available to play at any time, focusing on scenarios that include a wide range of the disasters and risks elevating concerns, worldwide, including:
- Cyber
- EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse)
- Megafires
- Extreme Flooding
- We also offer Custom-designed or personalized facilitation Black Sky exercises (in your facility or online).
Important Note: These exercises all meet the requirements of the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program.
To learn more or arrange for a personalized exercise and our 2022 exercises click the button below.
What to Expect
Join our membership program today.
We’ll notify you when our new innovative platform is ready!
Who Should Play EARTH EX?
Everyone – there is an Individual and Family Functional Area that is perfect for everyone to participate. Six additional functional areas support in-depth play for organizations, businesses, and government agencies. Within those six areas, thirty-eight unique lanes address nearly all of the functions that make up the modern, highly interconnected, and interdependent world.
New features in this year’s exercise
Join our membership program today.
We’ll notify you when the platform is ready!
EARTH EX Themes
Themes include developing situational awareness, recognizing the implications of a terrorist attack on the grid and the cascading consequences that may occur.
EARTH EX Evaluation
EARTH EX is a self-assessed, self-evaluated exercise opportunity.
Each person or organization will evaluate their level of play and readiness.
EARTH EX Preparation
EARTH EX offers optional pre-play training workshops to maximize exercise productivity.
Grants and Certificates
EARTH EX follows HSEEP guidelines and is perfect for meeting EMPG exercise requirements. Everyone that completes the exercise and the survey will receive a certificate of completion.
Crisis readiness
for our interconnected world
In 2021 over 12,000 participants engaged in EARTH EX, many playing multiple times and multiple lanes.
Playing EARTH EX
EARTH EX is a highly adaptable and flexible exercise built to support virtual play.
Uniquely configured, EARTH EX is excellent as an individual exercise. EARTH EX can also drive group play such as a section or team.
With local facilitation, it can drive significant organizational elements like an emergency operations center or corporate boardroom discussion.
EARTH EX provides all of the information needed to support these environments, including User and Facilitator Guides.
OPTIONAL PRE-PLAY TRAINING WORKSHOPS
While EARTH EX offers “Come As You Are”, no preparation exercise play, participants are encouraged to take advantage of these pre-play optional training workshops.
EARTH EX Functional Areas
The EARTH EX design supports cross-sector awareness using customized injects to advance play. Participants can sign up and play one or more of the exercise areas listed below.
- Individuals and Families
- Leaders and Communities
- Government Functions
- Medical and Health Care Functions
- Critical Infrastructure – Utility Functions
- Private Sector and Financial Functions
- Communications and IT Operations
Organization-Focused Exercises
In parallel with the EARTH EX® upgrade, we are now hosting a series of online Black Sky Exercises based on previous EARTH EX exercises. These are available to play at any time, focusing on scenarios that include a wide range of the disasters and risks elevating concerns, worldwide, including:Cyber, EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse), Megafires, Extreme Flooding and Custom-designed or personalized facilitation Black Sky exercises (in your facility or online).
All exercises are focused on the following objectives to drive learning.
- Improving planning for actions in response to a catastrophic event
- Refining and developing restoration priorities and support concepts
- Educating about the tools and capabilities required
- Developing internal and external future training and support requirements
