AUGUSTA — Technology can help us respond to all kinds of emergencies, but what happens when the best technologies break down or, worse, are the source of their own kind of emergency?

Those questions will be addressed during a gathering of emergency responders from across the state at the Augusta Civic Center this week. Taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, the eighth annual Maine Partners in Emergency Preparedness Conference will focus on two topics that recognize the growing reliance on technology and the things that can go wrong because of it: cybersecurity and catastrophic power outages.

On Tuesday, the conference will focus on cybersecurity. A keynote discussion at 11:15 a.m. will highlight some of the risks people face whenever they use modern technology, as well as some of the efforts around Maine to prepare for those risks. The panel will include Chet Lunner, retired deputy undersecretary for intelligence at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Tammy Plummer, executive vice president and chief information officer at First National Bank; and Marshall Tracy, head of information security at IDEXX Laboratories.

From 8 a.m. to 4:10 p.m. Tuesday, there will also be smaller emergency management workshops on topics including flood preparedness, transportation of flammable liquids by train, dam safety and cyber intelligence. Throughout the day, the Maine Forest Service will run a wildland fire simulator, and the disaster response group Maine Task Force One will demonstrate the types of medical assistance it can offer.

The Wednesday panel will take place at 12:30 p.m. and focus on the potential impacts of and responses to a major power grid failure, such as the one that took place in Maine during the ice storm of 1998. It will include representatives from two of the state’s largest utility companies, Central Maine Power and Emera Maine.

Additional activities Wednesday will include emergency vehicle demonstrations, a skills competition between hazardous materials response teams from around the state and other smaller presentions. The day’s activities will end at 2 p.m.

Online registration for the conference is closed, but there will be registration at the door Tuesday and Wednesday, according to a webpage for the conference. More than 500 first responders, government officials, business leaders and school administrators have registered already.

The Maine Partners in Emergency Preparedness Conference is a partnership among the State Emergency Response Commission, Maine Emergency Management Agency and the Maine Association of Local Emergency Managers.