NENA is pricing its pre- conference courses aggressively: you can take one course for $195 or courses on both Saturday and Sunday for $295.

Under a federal Department of Transportation contract, NENA is compiling a Phase I/II resource bank, and will have these materials on display in a Wireless 911 Info Room from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. each day during the conference.

Are you stumped on TTYs or wireless 911? How about wireless 911 TTY? Yes, it's not only possible, it's probable, and NENA has scheduled a session to discuss it.

Joseph Cooney of iXP Corp. will discuss disaster planning for 911 using the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks as an example.

Jabu Radebe from the South African Department of Communications will discuss that country's experience implementing public emergency communications.

Richard Behr will present a session on new perspectives about stress--a favorite topic of dispatchers!

All the hot-button issues are represented at the conference! TTY, PBX, wireless ( 12 sessions), voice over IP and wireless number portability.

During the evening reception, NENA has the ballroom decorated with signs from the city that implemented 911 first--Haleyville (Ala.).As one NENA member passed under the sign, she asked, "What's Haleyville?"

Within an hour afterarriving Saturday evening, a substantial thunder and lightning storm swept the city, injuring one man who was struck by lightning.

Sadly, an Indianapolis firefighter died in the in the line of duty during dive training in a lake on the city's northwest side just before the conference started. Flags at city fire stations were at half staff during the conference.

I can't figure the connection: the Danger Brothers played the theme from "2001--A Space Odyessy," followed by the theme from "Hawaii 50."

Speaking of the Danger Brothers, they could hardly get the evening reception crowd to clap along with the music. One of them finally asked the audience, "Does everybody have jetlag?"

Indianapolis has both a Morton's Steakhouse and a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. However, when there's a 24-hour Steak & Shake nearby, who needs the fancy places?

The downtown is full of other eating spots, but most cater to sport-types.

2002 Annual Conference
National Emergency Number Association (NENA)

Preview & Sunday

The city will host the annual NENA conference from June 15th through 20th at the city's downtown convention center, and will host over 80 seminars on all topics related to public safety communications.

And yes, DISPATCH Monthly Magazine will again be providing on-site, same-day coverage of the event! We'll be posting photos and stories every night to keep you up to date on what's happening.

Two weeks before the conference, NENA announced, "Motivated by the September tragedy, 9-1-1 and NENA are focusing more on safety and security. This conference will address topics regarding public safety following the September attacks."

We've outlined some of the classes and seminars the conference will offer, along with some city hot spots and Web links to help you plan your trip to 'Nap Town!

NENA says that, in conjunction with Plant Equipment, Inc., it will host a special "Spirit of 9-1-1" booth at the annual conference dedicated to honoring and raising funds for the families of police, emergency and firefighter personnel who perished in the 9/11 tragedy. The booth will have artifacts from Ground Zero and the staff will accept contributions to NENA's memorial fund that will be donated to Sept. 11th groups. It's Booth 410.

The conference includes a session for public safety and service provider entities to provide input to the National Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC) Focus Group, the public safety focus group. The Group hopes to identify needed improvements to current national telecommunications capabilities, and proactive future needs. The Group's interest includes:

• under extreme conditions, such as terrorism or natural disaster, how
• does public safety use telecommunication services?
• alternate telecommunications techniques under failure conditions
• unique applications of telecommunications services by public safety

The NRIC Public Safety session is Monday, June 17, at 3:30 pm in Room 113.

Pre-Conference Courses

NENA will provide a full array of courses on the Saturday and Sunday before the conference, including:

• Introduction to 9-1-1 Technology
• The 9-1-1 Puzzle: Putting The Pieces Together
• Managing the 9-1-1 Center
• Introduction to PSAP Technology
• Liability Issues in the 9-1-1 Center

Special FBI Courses

NENA announced that it will hold two special courses during the regular sessions, at a day and time to be determined:

• Negotiations in the Workplace: Communication "Survival Skills" for Managers
• FBI--First Responder

Keynote

NENA has invited a "key member" of the federal homeland security team to be the keynote speaker at the conference, but has not yet confirmed who that person will be.

Panel Discussions

NENA will hold several panel discussions during the week, including the topics:

• N-1-1
• Future products and services
• Wireless implementation
• Designing tomorrow's 911 technologies

Conference Sessions

The number and scope of this year's conference sessions is vast, and includes:

• Accessibility
• Contingency planning
• Database and geographic information systems
• Center administration
• Technology implementation
• International operations
• National issues
• Operations
• Personal development
• Public education
• Technical aspects
• Training
• Wireless 911

In addition, several companies and organizations will present demonstrations on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday that show, "Telematics Helps Save Lives."

After Hours

This year's entertainment includes the Danger Brothers, Phil Dirt and the Dozers and an optional tour of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

NENA will again spotlight its 9-1-1 Heroes Program by introducing children who dialed 911 to reach help during an emergency. PSAP tours will take attendees to the Indianapolis-Marion County Enforcement Communications Center, which handles the city's police department, county sheriff, the city's fire department and eight surrounding township fire departments. The nearby Johnson County Sheriff's Department has a new comm center, and it will also be available for tours during the conference.

By the way, the Indianapolis Fire Department maintains a streaming, RealAudio version of its radio broadcasts.

For other public safety radio frequencies, consult the IndyScan Web site, which is quite comprehensive.

Sunday Arrival updated

Indianapolis is the crossroads of America, and it seems everyone has indeed crossed into the city: NENA attendess, soccer and basketball tournament players and tourists from everyone. It certainly makes for a dynamic and interesting town.

In the 1970s and 1980s the city poured millions of redevelopment dollars into its downtown area after, like many cities, the inner city began to decay. The city dow the do-nothing, going-nowhere White River and gave it a make-over. They linked it up with the adjacent, 1893-era barge canal and some bridges, and meandered it all through a huge complex of new buildings, including a new zoo, an arts museum, the NCAA headquarters and Hall of Fame, a baseball park, a domed stadium, a convention center and a handful of large hotels. The result is a downtown that almost never sleeps and a list of events that never ends.

The city is centered around Monument Circle, which features the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. There is an impressive War Memorial nearby, and and over-street Artsgarden where piano concerts are held.

A huge crowd showed up for the Sunday evening "Welcome" reception, featuring the Danger Brothers, who specialize in "oldy" songs. They just finished up a gig in New Orleans, and we frequently leaping from the stage to play the instruments straight into the crowd.

The ballroom featured a history theme, with timelines in each of the four corners of the room focusing on a different decade of 911, and honoring the people responsibile for the first implementation in Haleyville (Ala.) in 1968.

Check our full photo album for photos of the city and the welcome reception.