The selection of international speakers included Berlin's Chief Fire Officer, Albrecht Broemme; Dr. Roger Klein President of the IFE - Deutschland; Battalion Chief Hiroshi Kojima of the Tokyo Fire Department; Mike Dube, Division Chief of the Toronto Fire Service; Bruce McPherson of the Anne Arundel County (MD) Fire Service; and Mr. Dave Randall US Army Communications - Electronics Command (CECOM).

CECOM made several presentations on the Research and Technology that should be available shortly to the fire service either in cooperation with the US Military or from emerging technology in the private sector. These included: the Vanu Software Radio to provide interoperability to several different wireless systems at an incident; the "BreadCrumb" deployable repeater network; and several version of integrated helmet "heads-up" displays for thermal imagers and SCBA air supply status.

Motorola and Nextel provided major sponsorship for the event, as well as displaying the latest in their emerging technologies and programs.

The IFE - USA Branch is designed to help the fire service professional obtain international input on emerging issues. Examples include the use of technology to help manage an emergency scene and the changing fire service role in counter-terrorism. Our motto is "National in service; International in scope -- providing the US Fire Service with a network to the global Fire and Engineering Community." For more information on the benefits of IFE membership, please contact Mr. Bill Kehoe.

Respectfully,