BLS conducted this 5-day meeting for the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The purpose of the conference was to share lessons learned in the implementation of PEPFAR activities (prevention, care, and treatment) and for representatives from Country and Core Teams to meet with other Country implementers to discus best practices, current issues, and future planning and to include partners, especially local and new partners to enhance sustainability of programs. The project required a high level of international coordination, cultural sensitivity, and adeptness for accommodating international attendees. Below is a partial list of tasks that BLS coordinated with great success.

• Providing International meeting management including international participant and travel management and serving as liaison with U.S. Embassy and government agencies abroad
• Conducting Pre- and post-conference meetings, including contract negotiation, pre-conference planning group, and subcommittee meetings
• Providing meeting management and coordination
• Designing and preparing meeting materials including name badges, name tents, Save-the-Date letters, and folder labels
• Designing and producing marketing materials (registration brochures, Save-the-Date electronic postcards, posters); and program book management
• Designing and managing conference Web site
• Determining fee structures and managing fee categories
• Developing Web-based applications for online registration, abstract management, poster session management, concurrent session management, and summary reports
• Coordinating and supporting documents and materials
• Coordinating vendors for artwork and materials development (e.g., signage, binder covers)
• Providing writer support
• Coordinating food and beverage requirements including morning and afternoon breaks
• Providing traditional meeting coordination such as site and agenda management, travel, audiovisual coordination, onsite support, reporting, and more ▲top

BLS coordinated a 4-day training session for a group of Federal employees using our Internet Enabled Meeting (IEM) system. The meeting was conducted on the Internet using a conference call for the audio portion of the meeting. The meeting included 30 Federal trainees and 5 Federal trainers located in 7 different states. Trainers used PowerPoint as well as Word, Excel, and PDF files to present information. BLS coordinated and facilitated all aspects of the meeting using our Web and Conference teams. Key areas of this project included:

• Pre-session training and orientation of all speakers and attendees on the use of the IEM system
• Working with the client to develop an agenda that was appropriate for Internet training; Developing and formatting materials to be presented during the session;
• Hosting, monitoring, and facilitating the live session;
• Using the Internet to collect and analyze feedback from the participants.

The result, using an IEM, was a 30-percent reduction in the cost of the training session over prior years and an overwhelmingly positive response from the organizers and trainees. ▲top

The NIMH, DMDBA, CMHRA supports research activities related to the primary and secondary prevention of AIDS and the neurobehavioral consequences of HIV. Currently, the agency supports a number of studies concerned with issues such as (a) developing and testing behavior-change and prevention strategies to reduce the further spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases; (b) conducting interventions to prevent the consequences of HIV infection; (c) identifying the role of couples, families, and communities in preventing and adapting to HIV; and (d) improving the mental health services relevant to HIV infection and people with severe mental illness. BLS has supported the efforts of the NIMH, DMDBA, CMHRA by providing conference and meeting planning support. We have supported more than 260 tasks, ranging from administrative responsibilities such as placing ads in scientific journals to supporting the annual “Role of Families Preventing and Adapting to HIV/AIDS Conference,” which is attended by 300 to 400 people. Services provided in support of this contract include traditional conference planning and management such as site and agenda management, travel, audiovisual coordination, onsite support, and reporting, as well as the following activities:

• Coordinating exhibits
• Collecting and processing participant payments
• Preparing transcripts
• Assisting with the “Call for Abstracts” by receiving abstracts (electronically and manually)
• Formatting and printing abstracts

Approximately 90 percent of the meetings/conferences supported through this contract are held in the Washington Metropolitan area. The remaining events are held in cities throughout the United States as well as abroad, including Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco, New York City, Minneapolis, San Juan, New Orleans, Durban, Beijing, Portland, Barcelona, and San Diego. ▲top

While providing traditional conference planning and support services for several meetings, workshops, and conferences convened by the Division of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, BLS developed and implemented a searchable, Web-based, bibliographic, full-text database system for the agency. Key tasks for this project included:

• Database design and implementation
• Document acquisition
• Cataloging
• Documentation

The system is used to manage the publications produced by investigators working on cohort studies being conducted by DAIDS. This system was designed to replace a paper-based system that was no longer efficient and convenient. ▲top

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care. This conference was convened to advance the dissemination of new advances in patient safety and health information Technology (HIT). BLS conducted coordinated and managed all aspects of this 5-day conference for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. There were approximately 1,000 attendees, more than 200 speakers, and 60 exhibitors. Services BLS provided for this effort included the following:

• Pre- and post-conference meetings
• Contract negotiation
• Meeting management and coordination
• Registration and fee management
• Pre-conference planning group and subcommittee meetings
• Design and preparation of name badges, name tents, Save-the-Date letters, and folder labels
• Design and production of marketing materials (registration brochures, Save-the-Date electronic postcards, posters)
• Design and management of conference Web site
• Online registration
• Abstract, poster session, and program book management
• Concurrent session management
• Summary reports
• Document support and materials coordination
• Vendor coordination for artwork and materials development (e.g., signage, binder covers)
• Writer support
• Food and beverage coordination
• Traditional meeting coordination such as site and agenda management, travel, audiovisual coordination, onsite support, reporting ▲top

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administers the Medicaid program and works in partnership with States to administer Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and health insurance portability standards. BLS managed the following tasks at 7 nationwide CMS workshop locations:

• Provide an onsite "observer" to summarize questions asked at the workshops and note the dynamics of the audience participation
• Contract negotiation
• Pre-conference meetings
• Meeting management and coordination
• Registration and registration fee management
• Writer support
• Document support and materials coordination
• Vendor coordination for artwork and materials development, i.e. signage, binder covers
• Web site design and management
• Online registration
• Program book management
• Audiovisual coordination
• Onsite support, and many other meeting support services ▲top