01:04:36 PM Amy Sebring:On behalf of EIIP, we are pleased to welcome you to today's Round Table discussion. 01:04:46 PM Amy Sebring:Our special guest today is Pat West, Managing Editor of National Fire and Rescue magazine... 01:04:54 PM Amy Sebring:http://www.nfrmag.com 01:05:04 PM Amy Sebring:Also with us is Monty Gearhart, Webmeister extraordinaire. 01:05:14 PM monty:(bows) 01:05:14 PM Amy Sebring:Please note that it is through the generosity of these individuals that the Virtual Forum is functioning as it is today. 01:05:30 PM Amy Sebring:National Fire and Rescue Magazine is also a pioneer in hosting online conferences, and today we will hear about what is planned for the fall. 01:05:41 PM Amy Sebring:Please see our current newsletter, Emergency Partner Postings, for some further info. 01:05:51 PM Amy Sebring:http://www.emforum.org/eiip/vo02no12.htm#ARTICLE5 01:06:02 PM Amy Sebring:We will have our guests kick off the session today, then open up the discussion to our participants. 01:06:10 PM Amy Sebring:Pat, Monty, welcome, and thanks for being here with us today. 01:06:15 PM monty:Thank you 01:06:19 PM Pat West:Thanks for having us, Amy. Before I launch into a big explanation of VFRE, I'd like to poll the audience. How many of you here today have already attended VFRE? 01:06:34 PM Amy Sebring:<-- 01:06:52 PM Pat West:Amy was a moderator. So I know she was there... 01:06:59 PM Amy Sebring:(VFRE=Virtual Fire and Rescue Exposition) 01:07:17 PM Pat West:Thanks Amy... 01:07:25 PM Amy Sebring:Mike was there also, but I think that is it. 01:07:27 PM MikeStaley:Emcee and presenter! Member of Founding Team 01:07:33 PM Pat West:right... 01:07:45 PM Pat West:Well, briefly, for those of you who are being introduced to it, Virtual Fire and Rescue Expo is a Web-based conference established in 1997 by National Fire & Rescue magazine and WCES, Monty Gearhart's Web services company for emergency services companies. 01:07:58 PM Terry Storer:I made it a coupleof times 01:08:10 PM Pat West:Although it takes place entirely in cyberspace, VFRE models site-based trade conferences, offering a full slate of interactive educational workshops from credentialed speakers from across the United States, a virtual exhibit hall featuring multimedia exhibits by vendors of products and services, door prizes, live chat workshops and socials, and lots more. 01:08:39 PM Pat West:Unlike other trade conferences for the fire service, however, we don't charge admission and the conference halls are open round the clock during the conference. The exception to that is of course, live chat. These follow-up sessions for our Web-based workshops take place in real time. A full schedule is published on the Web site. 01:09:07 PM Pat West:An estimated 14,000 members of fire, rescue and emergency services organizations participated in the spring session of Virtual Fire & Rescue Expo, May 3-24. Held open for an extra week, the conference logged more than 541,600 hits, 22,000 user sessions and attendance from 62 countries. 01:09:38 PM Pat West:The May conference presented 27 multimedia workshops, with presentations from federal, state and local fire and emergency services organizations, both public and private. Presenters included EIIP and representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as the National Fire Academy, the National Fire Protection Association, the National Guard, American Heat Videos and the National Emergency Response Training Center at Texas A&M University and many well known fire service speakers. 01:10:16 PM Pat West:Would y'all like to visit some of the workshops? 01:10:29 PM Isabel McCurdy:Yes. 01:10:32 PM Amy Sebring:sure 01:10:36 PM Pat West:EIIP has been a presenter since the beginning... 01:10:48 PM Pat West:Monty, do you have the EIIP workshop URL handy? 01:10:56 PM monty:http://www.vfre.com/presentation16/ 01:11:32 PM Pat West:During the last conference, they operated a Virtual Tour Bus in our chat rooms, taking visitors through the new EM Forum Site. Click on this URL to go to the EIIP Web workshop. 01:11:41 PM Terry Storer:I made it a coupleof times 01:11:56 PM Pat West:Woops. URL posted above. 01:12:46 PM Pat West:The National Fire Protection Association also presented an excellent workshop on Firewise Construction in the Wildland Urban Interface... 01:13:06 PM monty:http://www.vfre.com/presentation1/ 01:14:12 PM Pat West:VFRE's exhibit hall featured digitally created booths from 41 vendors, including major fire apparatus (Crash Rescue Equipment Service, Emergency One, Ferrarra Fire Apparatus, HME Inc., Pierce Manufacturing Inc, SmealFire Apparatus Co. And Sutphen), and other major equipment manufacturers, such as Hale Products Inc., W.S. Darley & Co. and Waterous Company. 01:14:21 PM Darryl E Parker TFT:No, we have a service that handles that for us. 01:14:32 PM monty:Task Force Tips, Inc. http://www.vfre.com/booth2/ 01:14:49 PM monty:HME, Inc. http://www.vfre.com/booth3/ 01:15:06 PM monty:Ferrara Fire Apparatus, Inc. http://www.vfre.com/booth7/ 01:15:10 PM Pat West:We also had a prize hall, where attendees could register for about 40 prizes from VFRE exhibitors. That was very popular. 01:15:25 PM monty:FEMSA http://www.vfre.com/booth13/ (organizational example) 01:16:03 PM Pat West:Although, we're not currently open, lots of information on the conference is available on the conference web site at http://www.vfre.com. 01:16:11 PM monty:FETN http://www.vfre.com/booth14/ (videos) 01:16:24 PM Pat West:Right now, we're accepting presentation proposals for VFRE Fall, Nov. 1-15. The deadline for presentation proposals is Aug. 15. Presentation materials are due Sept. 15. 01:17:04 PM Pat West:Monty, have I missed anything? 01:17:15 PM monty:Yep! 01:17:21 PM monty:We also use RealMedia 01:17:27 PM monty:video and audio streaming services 01:17:31 PM Mary Blankenship:I got the EIIP Aug. postings yesterday about the VFRE. What type of presentations are you looking for? 01:17:37 PM monty:Both recorded and live 01:17:47 PM Mary Blankenship:Topics? 01:17:58 PM MikeStaley:What will be new at VFRE? 01:18:29 PM Pat West:Mary, to answer your question about topics... 01:18:30 PM monty:Some is a secret and some wil be released in the Next issue of NF&R 01:19:42 PM Pat West:In general, I'm looking for the same kind of topics that you would find at a site-based conference for this audience... 01:20:04 PM Pat West:Topics should address specific problems that people in these services are encountering... 01:20:54 PM Pat West:Be that in firefighting, vehicle rescue, EMS, Emergency Management... 01:21:25 PM Pat West:I used to think that we would have difficulty with hands-on training issues... 01:21:41 PM Pat West:but Ron Moore's workshop on vehicle extrication for pickup trucks cured me of that! 01:21:49 PM Amy Sebring:(I particularly liked the marketing your dept. info, which applies to all of us!) 01:22:26 PM Pat West:The more multimedia materials that can be supplied the better... 01:22:42 PM monty:http://www.vfre.com/presentation3/ Ron Moore's Workshop 01:22:46 PM Pat West:I mean, we're looking to present information in the form of text, pictures, video and sound... 01:24:50 PM monty:whoops 01:24:56 PM monty:ISP on this end bogged down 01:24:57 PM Pat West:Sorry. Network problem... 01:25:10 PM monty:Here is FEMA's workshop by Kay Goss http://www.vfre.com/presentation10/ 01:25:23 PM monty:Sorry, This is the correct URL http://www.vfre.com/presentation2 01:25:40 PM monty:Here is another "Distance Learning: A New Gateway to the National Fire Academy (and Beyond)" 01:25:46 PM monty:http://www.vfre.com/presentation10/ 01:25:57 PM monty:Hope this helps give you an idea 01:26:08 PM Pat West:Does that answer the question on topics? 01:26:37 PM Pat West:Mike, going back to your question on what's in store for the next VFRE... 01:26:39 PM Mary Blankenship:Yes, thank you. 01:27:07 PM Pat West:We're still lining up presentations... 01:27:30 PM monty:Mike is going to do one on how to put out your back yard. 01:27:34 PM Pat West:Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Denis Onieal, superintendent of the National Fire Academy... 01:28:35 PM Pat West:Mike Staley (take a bow, MIke) will also be giving us a keynote on leadership... 01:28:57 PM MikeStaley:Good one Monty, Hey we only lost 142,000 acres in our area from fires! 01:29:18 PM monty:unreal 01:29:25 PM Pat West:Speaking of trial by fire... 01:29:39 PM MikeStaley:It's a special treat to work on and with VFRE 01:29:55 PM monty:Thanks Mikey! :-) 01:30:07 PM monty:we love what we do 01:30:10 PM Pat West:Any other ?? from the audience on VFRE? 01:30:40 PM MikeStaley:Everyone, if there is something you want to see on VFRE, now is thetime to make the suggestions. 01:30:48 PM Amy Sebring:Pat, I heard the BEST live speaker at a conference at Argonne National Labs last week... 01:30:55 PM Amy Sebring:Fire Chief from Chicago. 01:31:07 PM Pat West:What was his topic, Amy? 01:31:27 PM Amy Sebring:He was addressing a load of scientists and researchers... 01:31:33 PM MikeStaley:Amy, the Chie himself or was it Bobby Hoff 01:31:42 PM Amy Sebring:and telling them what was REALLY needed. 01:31:47 PM Amy Sebring:I think it was the Chief himself.. 01:31:56 PM Amy Sebring:I don't have the name here with me at the office. 01:32:17 PM Pat West:Those of you who came to the last conference.... 01:32:21 PM Amy Sebring:He was talking about terrorist type scenarios. 01:32:29 PM Pat West:this is a good opportunity to share your thoughts with us... 01:33:02 PM Pat West:let us know what you liked, what could be improved. What new features you would like to see us develop, as well as what topics you would like to see addressed. 01:33:18 PM monty:There will be a form on the VFRE site 01:33:20 PM monty:later on today 01:33:27 PM monty:if you have any comments 01:33:30 PM Amy Sebring:Pat, one of the areas coming up this year will be the release of "Worst Case Scenario" data in the local communities... 01:33:53 PM Amy Sebring:and I don't think the response community understands the potential impact that may have. 01:34:19 PM MikeStaley:Amy, tell us more. 01:34:20 PM Amy Sebring:In terms of community relations, and the kinds of questions that are going to be addressed to the response community. 01:34:48 PM Amy Sebring:This has been perceived as an industry public relations nightmare for the most part. 01:35:10 PM Amy Sebring:But I think your average citizen is going to respond by asking... 01:35:12 PM Mary Blankenship:Where is this data coming from and who is releasing it? 01:35:26 PM Amy Sebring:the fire services, emergency managers, "What are you going to do to take care of me?" 01:35:52 PM Amy Sebring:It's coming from certain industrial facilities Mary, in compliance with new EPA regs... 01:35:55 PM Pat West:Questions addressed to the response community in terms of what. What type of incident are we talking about. natural disasters? 01:36:20 PM Amy Sebring:and is due out June 99, although some will be communicated to public well before the deadline. 01:36:48 PM Amy Sebring:No, these are worst case hazmat type releases Pat. 01:37:02 PM Pat West:Gotcha. 01:37:21 PM Amy Sebring:Anyway, just an idea for conference. EPA might be good to address. 01:37:39 PM Mary Blankenship:How do I find out about this? Is there a web site or a publication available? 01:37:39 PM Pat West:Who would you suggest I contact on that topic? 01:38:04 PM Amy Sebring:Will get you the CEPPO web address in just a moment. 01:38:26 PM Amy Sebring:Any other suggestions for conference? 01:38:44 PM MikeStaley:Someone at the NFA is teaching courses on that subject. 01:40:04 PM Amy Sebring:here is URL for starters http://www.epa.gov/swercepp/ 01:40:30 PM Pat West:Thanks, Amy... 01:40:48 PM Amy Sebring:Pat, perhaps we could have you tell us some more about National Fire and Rescue Magazine itself... 01:40:52 PM Amy Sebring:for those of us who are not familiar with it. 01:40:57 PM monty:www.nfrmag.com 01:41:22 PM Pat West:National Fire & Rescue is a bimonthly magazine... 01:41:33 PM Pat West:slightly larger than standard former... 01:41:42 PM Pat West:slightly bolder look ... 01:42:00 PM Pat West:We specialize in covering new ideas and new technology for fire and rescue... 01:42:24 PM MikeStaley:Interesting articles with stuff, not fluff. 01:42:33 PM Pat West:with a special emphasis on information for fire departments serviing smaller communities. 01:42:54 PM Pat West:Thanks, Mike. We try... 01:43:04 PM Pat West:In the issue we'r working on now, for example.... 01:43:23 PM Pat West:we have a story about how a small department in West Virginia... 01:43:49 PM Pat West:equipped all of its pumpers with laptops connected to database information on buildings in the city... 01:43:59 PM Pat West:for less than $10,000... 01:44:26 PM Pat West:We have a report on new water gels that promise to be much more effective at ... 01:44:43 PM Pat West:protecting exposures in wildland fire situations than either water or Class A foam... 01:45:11 PM Amy Sebring:Some of your back issue articles are available on line Pat? 01:45:18 PM Pat West:and how they were used to save homes in the fires that swept through Florida in June/July. 01:45:41 PM Pat West:That's right, Amy. I think back issues go back through 1997. 01:45:43 PM monty:http://www.nfrmag.com/backissue 01:45:57 PM Amy Sebring:Pat, we had a recent Round Table with representatives of EMAC... 01:46:14 PM Amy Sebring:Emergency Management Assistance Compact, 01:46:57 PM Amy Sebring:which was tested for first time during Florida fires. 01:46:57 PM Amy Sebring:They are having a couple of hotwash meetings coming up... 01:47:15 PM Amy Sebring:and this might make a good topic for conference also. 01:47:32 PM Pat West:Amy, we have detailed information on how EMAC functioned coming up in the next issue.. 01:47:35 PM MikeStaley:Signing off - Storms in the area, stay safe everyone www.mikestaley.com 01:47:45 PM monty:CU Mike 01:47:51 PM Pat West:Bye Mike. 01:48:27 PM Amy Sebring:excellent Pat. Need to check it out. 01:48:42 PM Pat West:Randy Napoli, who coordinated logistics for that through the Florida EOC was interviewed... 01:48:43 PM Amy Sebring:See transcript dated 7/21/98. 01:49:10 PM Amy Sebring:I promised to ask Monty a question... 01:49:16 PM monty::-) 01:49:16 PM Amy Sebring:if I can stay connected long enough. 01:49:28 PM Amy Sebring:He told us he has been playing with Windows 98... 01:49:43 PM monty:go on 01:49:46 PM Amy Sebring:what do you think Monty? Did you notice performance improvement 01:49:51 PM Amy Sebring:as claimed? 01:50:06 PM monty:Yes, there is an overall system performance difference 01:50:08 PM monty:ONLY 01:50:13 PM monty:if you use fat32 01:50:23 PM monty:and optimize the drive using the new routines 01:50:29 PM monty:It is very slick as far as that goes 01:50:35 PM monty:Still has the same OS brains though 01:50:40 PM monty:Just cleaned up a bit 01:50:50 PM monty:The new interface is reasonable 01:50:54 PM Amy Sebring:Isn't the next NT going to take over anyway? 01:50:55 PM monty:but you don't have to use it 01:51:00 PM monty:NO 01:51:05 PM monty:The NT OS Kernel 01:51:09 PM monty:will be used in the next 01:51:15 PM monty:releases of Windows xx 01:51:28 PM monty:It will still be tailored for the home user 01:51:31 PM monty:NT really is not 01:51:43 PM Amy Sebring:Ah...well Monty, we will just have to get you in our Tech Arena one of these days soon. 01:51:52 PM monty:okey dokey 01:52:05 PM Amy Sebring:Thank you both so much for being here today. 01:52:18 PM monty:you are quite welcome and thanks for having us 01:52:19 PM Amy Sebring:Monty, do you have that URL for suggestion page again? 01:52:31 PM monty:There will be a link on the vfre home page 01:52:33 PM monty:later on today 01:52:39 PM Amy Sebring:Thanks Pat, and for all you have done for EIIP. 01:53:01 PM Pat West:It was a pleasure, Amy. My thanks to EIIP for holding thse discussions and all who came. 01:53:03 PM monty:Nice to meet everyone here! 01:53:05 PM Amy Sebring:A reminder to all ... 01:53:22 PM Amy Sebring:tomorrow is the big birthday bash!! 01:53:36 PM Pat West:Happy B-Day EIIP! 01:53:37 PM Amy Sebring:We are going to have some fun with that, so be sure to join us if you can. 01:53:39 PM monty:can i send an electronic present? 01:53:47 PM Amy Sebring:You sure can. 01:53:58 PM monty:RS95B Macro Virus sound ok? 01:54:02 PM monty:he he 01:54:04 PM Amy Sebring:We already have one very nice birthday card we will share. 01:54:32 PM Amy Sebring:And we hope to see a good many of our former presenters in attendance... 01:54:41 PM Amy Sebring:kindof like a class reunion. 01:55:00 PM Pat West:What time is the bash, Amy? 01:55:03 PM monty:CU There 01:55:12 PM Amy Sebring:12:00 Noon Eastern 01:55:12 PM monty:signing off.... 01:55:21 PM Amy Sebring:bye monty 01:55:23 PM monty:thanks everyone! 01:55:37 PM Terry Storer:Thanks, I did enjoy VFRE and today's presentation. 01:56:16 PM Amy Sebring:Good session. I have to go too. Bye all. 01:56:28 PM annwillis:Bye everyone. 01:56:35 PM Isabel McCurdy:Bye Am. See you tomorrow. 01:56:53 PM Pat West:Thanks everyone! See you at the next VFRE. 01:56:56 PM Mary Blankenship:Good session. So long. 01:58:10 PM Terry Storer:Thanks, I did enjoy VFRE and today's presentation.