Members, as well as non-members, will have the opportunity to participate in AFIA’s first Webcast Technical Symposium on Oct. 7, 2003. The webcast will focus on the international scientific conference on dioxin (Dioxin 2003) held recently in Boston. It will feature AFIA staff and internationally recognized dioxin expert Dr. Marcus Cooke detailing food and feed papers presented at the conference, the significance of those papers to the feed industry and related developments. Participants will be able to submit questions.
Interested parties must register at least one day in advance of the webcast. Cost is $49 for members; $79 for non-members. The 90-minute webcast will be recorded and archived by AFIA for use at other times.
Once registered, participants will receive the website address and teleconference number to access the webcast. The webcast carrier, Web Ex, will download some software to participants’ computers along with simple instructions. The price is per downlink site (computer).
Webcasting is best utilized by high-speed communication lines, but can be used by modem lines as well. Each participant will dial up a toll-free teleconference number, provide the Web Ex staff with information requested (name, e-mail) and be placed into the live webcast. Participants will see a small video of the webcast on their computer screens, a list of the participants and any documents being reviewed—normally in PowerPoint format. They will hear the presenter over the phone and view his/her slides online. If a participant wishes to ask a question during or after the presentation, an icon click is sent to the sponsor, and the moderator at AFIA can open that line for a question. Otherwise, the lines are usually muted during the presentation to take out background noise.
Webcasting makes use of several technologies at once and reduces costs considerably by saving travel and time costs to get to meetings. AFIA plans to utilize this new technology with increasing frequency to detail technical and regulatory information.
To register for the dioxin webcast or for more information on this technology, contact AFIA at +1 703/524-0810 or online at www.afia.org
