Conference Management

Hazardous materials (hazmat) are present in all communities, and they pose threats to people, the environment, infrastructure, and property. Due to the ever-present nature of hazardous materials, it is critical to ensure that hazmat professionals, emergency responders, and communities understand their risks and how to respond when accidents occur. The Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) needed hazmat Technical Assistance Support in a variety of forms to help hazmat professionals and emergency responders to provide training and to update hazmat tools, materials, and guidelines, as well as to provide grantees with information on how to more effectively use the hazmat grant funding they receive.

Bloomsburie conducted a variety of conferences, roundtable meetings, issues-specific focus group meetings, and hazardous materials preparedness townhall meetings. The meetings and events focused on a variety of issues, including identifying emerging hazardous materials threats and challenges, assessing new response, planning and preparedness protocols and procedures, and identifying needed supplemental programs. Bloomsburie also created an 18-unit online Awareness and Operations program, designed a new online course catalog addressing the “bottoms up” state and local hazmat professionals need, and produced a roundtable meeting report that summarized hazmat priority areas and outlined available resources for professionals each year of the project.

The benefit of this project is that hazmat professionals have a community of practice to share training, tools, and techniques and a forum for identifying gaps in national preparedness and coordinating hazmat programs and activities across agencies and organizations. Working together they determine priority areas to develop and enhance to further the hazmat profession.