Upcoming events

11th Wildland Fire Safety Summit, "Promoting the Story of Wildland Fire Safety from the Local to the Global," April 4-8, Missoula, Montana, at the Hilton Garden Inn. The Safety Summit is the premier international wildland fire safety event that provides a sustained emphasis on the critical topic of wildland fire safety.

Since 1997, this has been the place for members of the international wildland fire community to focus on safety, discuss significant events and trends in safety, promote best practices in safety training and operations, reveal safety-related research findings, and explore new approaches to safety. This year's theme, "Promoting the Story of Wildland Fire," highlights the importance of story and narrative in safety training, operations, research and organizational learning. "From the local to the global" calls forth the story of safety from the entire spectrum of the global wildland fire community: from the individual, the crew, the incident, the local community, the agency, the region, the state, the nation, the continent, to the entire hemisphere.

Keynote speakers include Dave Thomas (storytelling and organizational learning) and Rob Palmer (Golden Hour response). The opening keynote speaker is Dr. Gordon Graham, internationally recognized expert in risk management, firefighter safety and organizational performance. He will be conducting training workshops in conjunction with the Summit. Registration is now open; visit http://www.iawf online.org/missoula2011 for more information.

Wildfire 2011: Fifth International Wildland Fire Conference — Living with Fire: Addressing Global Climate Change through Integrated Fire Management, May 9-13, Sun City, South Africa. The IAWF is pleased to be a partner in this event, which is being convened by AfriFireNet, the regional sub-Saharan Wildland Fire Network, and presented under the auspices of the United Nations' International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The world's environment can't be protected effectively without national and international fire management policies that contribute to the functioning of the global "life support" system. National and international policies must be designed to meet the specific local and common global threats from wildfires, curb excessive application of fire in land-use change, and promote the ecologically sound and sustainable application of fire in ecosystem management and land use. These policies must consider issues such as emissions from vegetation fires and their effects on atmosphere, climate, human health and human security, and they must be developed cooperatively with all the stakeholders involved in the sustainable use and protection of the environment and humanity. Wildfire 2011 registration is now open at http://wildfire2011.org.

First International Conference on Safety and Crisis Management in the Construction, SME and Tourism Sectors: Fire Safety Engineering in Southern Europe, June 24-28, European University Cyprus Cultural Center, Nicosia, Cyprus. The IAWF is pleased to be a partner in this upcoming event with the European University Cyprus, the University of Edinburgh and the International Code Council.

Fire safety engineering in southern Europe is characterized by a number of parameters related to its location, methods of construction, culture and weather. Much of southern Europe is frequently struck by wildland fires, earthquakes and other destructive natural events that have an important impact on the built environment and people's interaction with their natural environment. The call for papers is open until March 31; for more information, visit 1stCoSaCM.euc.ac.cy.

AFAC and Bushfire CRC Conference 2011, Aug. 29-Sept. 1, Sydney, Australia. This conference is the premier event for the emergency management service industry in Australia and will explore the changing nature of emergency services as our society changes. The IAWF will be in attendance to meet with the membership, so plan on visiting the booth during the trade expo and during the IAWF's membership meeting.

The influence of technology, the information revolution and the environmental context in which emergency services operate are changing at a fast pace and are having an impact on how services are delivered. How do emergency services need to think in this new world? How do we turn information into knowledge that can inform how we do business? How do we keep up? Registration is now open; visit http://afac2011.org for more information.

Ninth Symposium on Fire and Forest Meteorology, Oct. 17-21, Palm Desert, California. Jointly sponsored by the American Meteorological Society Committee on Agricultural and Forest Meteorology and the IAWF, this symposium will share experiences, new techniques and technologies, and changes in the following areas as they relate to wildland fire and smoke: effects of weather and climate; operational forecasting; case studies; model development, including coupled fire-atmosphere models and mesoscale models; use and assessment of climate forecasts in fire management planning; decision support tool development; techniques in smoke management and mitigation; meteorology-related improvements to fire danger and fire behavior systems; field studies; and remote sensing applications or studies. Further information on the meeting will appear on the AMS website at www.ametsoc.org/MEET/meetinfo.html as it becomes available.