ICAS Convention - Day 1

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These are the show notes to an audio episode. If you want to listen online, please use the direct link below. http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedICAS01.

I’m in Las Vegas covering the annual meeting of the International Council of Airshows and its 2009 annual convention.

ICAS’s own description says it best.

“ICAS is a not-for-profit trade association composed of professionals working in the air show community. Approximately 40 percent of the organization’s members are air show event organizers from the United States, Canada and the rest of the world. Another 40 percent of the organization’s members are individuals or organizations that perform at air shows. And the remaining 20 percent are support service providers who offer ancillary services (concessions, insurance, photography, etc.) to the air show community.

“The primary missions of the organization are: 1) to maintain safety; 2) serve as an information resource on air show issues for those within and outside the industry; 3) provide for the training and continuing education needs of ICAS members and air show professionals generally; and 4) promote the air show industry to the media, corporate North America, and the general public.”

I started out coverage today by hitting Airshows 101 – Air-Ground Operations Training, an intense day-long session that lays the groundwork for anyone who wants to organize an airshow. Topics include how to lay-out your air show site; mitigating air show hazards; timelines for initiating different aspects of your air show planning; what to consider when hiring performers; how to apply for an air show waiver and your responsibilities once it’s approved; the importance of establishing strong communications; how to establish early control of ground operations and support; what you should include in your emergency plan; and how to work with your assigned safety inspector.

Want to talk about drinking from a fire hose? This is it. But it’s presented very clearly by a group of experienced airbosses and similar personnel. I'm including some audio from the session. listen to a few outtakes. No particular rhyme or reason to these. They're what was happening when I had the recorder out and handy. But I knows that you guys like to be flies on the wall for the deep background, so the lack of editing won't bother the afterage Airspeed fanboy.

[Seminar audio]

Long-time listeners to the show will know that I try to have an experienced airshow director on every spring to talk about what goes on behind the scenes. I think we’ve gotten some pretty good insights through three years of doing that. But this takes it to a whole new level.

It’s Sunday. The exhibit hall is being put together as I record this and seminars are going on down the hall. Later on today, I sit down on a four-person panel to talk about new media and social media and how to make it work for airshow performers, organizers, and sponsors. Roger Bishop of Indy Transponder and the Indianapolis Airshow will also be on the panel and it’ll be a good hour of content for the attendees. I’m pretty excited about it and I’m planning to record it and put it out on the feed.

I’m planning to release a rapid-fire series of episodes over the course of the next few days. If you have your podcatcher set to download only the most recent episode, please make sure that you go back and verify that you haven’t missed an episode or two.

More information about ICAS is available at http://www.airshows.aero/.

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