Seattle to Host National Quake Conference

This year, Seattle plays host to the 2008 National Earthquake Conference, and although discounts for early registration expire March 2, there's still plenty of time to register for the conference, optional field trips and historical tours. According to Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup (CREW) Executive Director Bob Freitag, the five-day Seattle conference (April 22-26) enjoys one of the most ambitious agendas to date. "This conference builds on CREW's consistent message of pre-disaster mitigation and serves as an emphatic call for pre-disaster action," said Freitag. "Risk communication is a critical element of our preparedness and mitigation efforts, and there will be ample opportunities to discuss future priorities and new courses of action." Western States Seismic Policy Council Executive Director Patti Sutch concurs. "This program contains over 100 nationally and internationally renowned speakers, and features an evening forum webcast on applying the lessons from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami," said Sutch. "At this year's conference we will learn about strategies and actions that have been effective in reducing earthquake risk and facilitate transferring that experience back to local communities." Additional information on WSSPC, its partner agencies and this year's conference is available at: www.earthquakeconference.org.