With many agencies suffering severe reductions in their travel and training budgets, attending wildfire conferences can be difficult. Acknowledging this issue, the International Association of Wildland Fire is stepping into the brave new world of a virtual conference. For their 3rd Human Dimensions of Wildland Fire Conference, April 17-19 in Seattle, you can either attend in person or watch it live on your office or home computer.
Chuck Bushey, the Incident Commander of the conference, said it is becoming more common for conferences to offer the virtual, live-streaming, option, but this may be the first time it has been done for a wildland fire conference. If you were to register today to attend the conference in person, paying the non-member late registration fee, it would cost $525, plus travel, food, and lodging, which would probably total $1,000 to $2,000. To view the entire conference live on your computer will cost $185 for non-members and $125 for members, or $2 per session. Non-members will receive a free 1 year membership with registration, a $60 value that includes a subscription to Wildfire Magazine.
There will be two simultaneous tracks, so viewers will be able to choose which one they want to see. And, all of the 90+ sessions will be archived within moments, allowing viewers to see them at their leisure for up to three months. This could work out well for people in other time zones, especially in Europe and Australia, to see the conference when they are awake!
Viewers will be able to interact with the presenters to ask questions, just like the live audience. They will also have access to session handouts. The video stream will be viewable on standard PCs and Macs, as well as on most iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) and Android based devices.
The conference will explore the human dimensions of firefighter and community safety, preparedness, and highly reliable organizations. Presenters include Colleen Morton Busch, Lyle Laverty, Sarah McCaffrey, Anne Black, Alexis Lewis, Jim Saveland, Dave Christenson, Ivan Pupulidy, James McLennan, Ernesto Alvarado, Mike DeGrosky, Jennifer Ziegler, and more.
A company in Seattle, Social 27, that does this for a living, will be providing the live streaming and archived services.
More information about the conference is HERE. You can register for the virtual conference HERE.
Thank you so much for this great posting laying out the benefits of ‘virtual’ conference attendance. Real time viewers will also be able to participate, ask questions and virtually be part of the audience, too. We’re very excited about the possibilities of this training and communication delivery system to link people around the world who are threatened by or work with wildland fire.