WASHINGTON: Federal and broadcast officials, including NAB President Gordon Smith and the federal point person for the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, or IPAWS, will meet to discuss the nation’s emergency alerting infrastructure this weekend at the 2010 EAS Summit, Feb. 28-March 1 at the Hyatt Regency in Washington.
The National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations is hosting the event. Broadcasters say they hope to expand efforts to make sure the government and public understand the role stations play in serving as the lifeline to the public in emergencies.
NASBA represents the leaders of the 50 state broadcast associations, the core of the NAB's grassroots lobbying program.
A draft agenda is available on the NASBA Web site.
Scheduled speakers include Wade Witmer, deputy division director of the IPAWS division within the Federal Emergency Management Administration; Gordon Smith, NAB president and CEO; Jamie Barnett, chief of the FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau; Leonard Charles, director of engineering, Midwest Division of Morgan Murphy Media; David Layer, senior director, advanced engineering, NAB; Clay Freinwald, Washington State Emergency Communications Committee chair, and Bryan Fisher, director, Information Management Alert and Warning Systems, Alaska Division of Homeland Security.
The event is separate from the FCC’s public forum to discuss the creation of an emergency response interoperability center, scheduled for March 2 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the commission’s headquarters in Washington. (See “FCC Reschedules Emergency Response Forum”)
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