SUNRIVER, OR -- Emergency managers from across the state gather in Sunriver this week for their annual conference. And this year brings a new focus on a high-tech disaster. 

Oregon Department of Emergency Management Training Officer Eli Davis says federal agencies, like the FBI and FEMA, join the Oregon Health Authority and other state agencies. But most of the attendees work on the local level, "Local, city, county and tribe professional emergency managers, as well as volunteer emergency managers, those that have been kind of ‘other duties as assigned;’ lots of hospitals represented." He tells KBND News, "500 people that play in the emergency management game, whether full time or ‘other duties as assigned.’ And this is an opportunity for us to get together, talk about lessons learned, things that we’ve faced either individually or as parts of Oregon."

Among the more than 40 presentations and discussions, cybersecurity is a central theme, "It’s not new. But it’s definitely had a higher level focus from locals on up to the federal side." Davis says last year’s ransomware attack on Curry County was eye-opening for a lot of emergency managers, making it a big topic for this year's Oregon Prepared conference, "We have best practices - or lessons learned from Curry County. We have somebody from the federal agency of Homeland Security that talks about analytics from cybersecurity. We have our [Oregon] Department of Administrative Services."

Davis says topics are selected by attendees, "There are some themes on funding and the other one is cybersecurity. But, woven in there are quite a few others that are touched on in themes that are not as predominant as those two." In the past, there’s been a bigger push to discuss natural disasters, "Yes, that’s still a focus that both our state agencies as well as everybody else is looking at," Davis tells KBND News, "But we want to make sure that there are other emerging trends and that we put a focal point on that as well."

The conference kicks off Tuesday morning in Sunriver, and runs through Thursday.