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APCO Annual International Conferences
Going to an International APCO Conference is a heady experience. I highly recommend you save up your leave credits, a bunch of money (if your agency won't or can't send you) and plan far enough ahead of time to go to one of these four-plus day events! They are held in different parts of the country each year, during the second full week of August. Chapters bid for the honor of hosting this conference, and the schedule is planned years in advance.
The 2000 Conference will be in Boston and Canada will be hosting one within a few years, so we'll truly have held our International Conference in another nation by then.
These are very well-planned events; each Chapter tries to out-do the previous Chapter's bash. Conference seminar presentations are developed for any career path within public safety communications:
- Administrative & Management
- Technical
- Information Systems
- Telecommunicator - Operations
- 9-1-1 Specific Issues
- ADA Issues
- General Topics
Additionally, Spouse & Guest programs are also arranged for those folks accompanying you who may want to see more of the various locales and other special, geographic or civic features. (Read: shopping excursions and historical site tours.) Something for everyone!
I have been lucky enough to be able to attend the 64th Annual Conference in 1998, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the 65th in 1999, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (I also attended the 1990 Conference in Boston, but I don't have photos to display here from that Exposition. I have a LOT of memories, though, since I actually made two two-hour presentations about the Loma Prieta Earthquake and how it affected dispatchers on duty, working through that event. But that's a different story.)
First, let me mention that membership in APCO is NOT "just for management" personnel. I joined as a dispatcher in 1986 and have been a member ever since then. I've only made it to three Annual Conferences, but I have been able to attend several Regional Conferences and a slew of monthly meetings.
However, the annual conferences are absolutely wonderful. Let me share with you some of my recollections, digitally captured by my trusty Sony Mavica FD7.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
August 9 - 13, 1998
Minneapolis, Minnesota
August 8 - 12, 1999
The pictures for the 1999 Convention & Exposition in Minneapolis, without all the associated blather explaining who's in 'em and what's going on can be found "behind" this banner.
Perhaps you can figure out what's going on by the brief hypertext link for each photo. :]
Boston, Massachusettes
August 13 - 17, 2000
These photos, amongst others (including the APCO Western Regional Conference in Portland, OR, during March 2000), are stored in WebShots on-line photo albums. Just click the Boston Banner to get to the WebShots site where you can enjoy them all!
Of course, you could opt to use this handy service to find out whenever I update this page:
I'm also a member of NENA (National Emergency Number Association) and try to attend those conferences, too. I'm not as successful at getting the time away from work (I'm only promised one annual vacation so any other time off request is granted on a case-by-case and "can we spare you" basis). But I do have some photos I've taken at a couple of CAL-NENA conferences, which I'll eventually share here at the Break Room.
And if you're that interested in pictures, you can even check out photo archives of my 1999 summer Road Trip to Oregon! (Either you're bored silly right now and have nothing else to do or you've never seen the West Coast.... whichever circumstance fits, enjoy the results from your Break Room WebMistress's snazzy digital camera!) If you want to buy a Sony Mavica camera like mine, the hypertext link will take you straight to Amazon's sale page for it.