Internet-Enabled Meeting

In recognizing that virtual meeting technology would add significant value to our clients, BLS developed a process for conducting meetings on the Web—Internet-Enabled Meetings (IEMs)—and has successfully utilized this approach to conduct more than 100 training sessions for the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Uniform Data System Reporting Program. HRSA has also adopted this approach to providing training and orientation for health care professionals participating in the National Health Service Corps (NHSC).

BLS also coordinated a 4-day training session for a group of Federal employees using our Internet-Enabled Meeting (IEM) system. The meeting was convened 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 seven 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; and using the Internet to collect and analyze feedback from the participants. The results—using an IEM achieved a 30 percent reduction in the cost of the training session over prior years and elicited an overwhelmingly positive response from the organizers and trainees.

Simultaneous Live Meeting/Webcast

For the April 2009 Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effective Research Listening Session, held at the Hubert H. Humphrey Building in Washington, DC, BLS provided extensive conference support services including planning and operational oversight of the Listening Session, which included registration management for 850 in-person, Webcast, and conference call participants. We also facilitated electronic communications; prepared and collected data and statistical analysis-based information upon registration; coordinated the venue and finalized the facility arrangements (e.g., audiovisual equipment, room setup); prepared, assembled, and disseminated pre-meeting materials (name badges, name tents, etc.) and correspondence; and provided onsite support, session monitoring, and other related tasks.

Web-Based Site Visit and Relocation Management System

BLS developed a Web-based site visit and relocation management system for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC). This system was designed to replace a paper-based process that involved faxing, phone calls, and other, more traditional methods of communication. The project involved numerous meetings and communications with the client to develop requirements and determine areas where the Web-based system could improve NHSC's ability to manage the process. The system allows students to select potential sites to visit based upon variables such as available locations and medical specialty. The application also permits students and NHSC staff to conveniently monitor the status of the site visit or relocation request on the Internet without making phone calls, leaving voicemail messages, or sending emails.

Speaker Training Meeting

The purpose of this event was to train national-level speakers to market a pharmaceutical product. Due to recent development of a new content platform and changes in promotional messaging, there was an urgent need to train the speakers who would be conducting the marketing activities in late 2009 and throughout 2010. The meeting served as a forum to formally introduce the speakers to the new content platform and train them on how to properly facilitate a discussion using this information. Faculty speakers led the group, with skilled trainers leading the breakout sessions and providing step-by-step guidance on facilitating discussions with this new format.

For this project, BLS managed the following activities:

• Partnered with the client to select an appropriate venue
• Disseminated paper invitations
• Managed event registration
• Partnered with the client's travel team regarding flight requests
• Secured individual and group transportation to and from airport
• Managed hotel rooming list
• Managed facility setup and food/beverage arrangements
• Secured production company and communicated all audiovisual requirements
• Worked with print company to create and ship signage
• Placed proper signage proximal to appropriate meeting space
• Facilitated pre-conference meeting with hotel staff
• Staffed onsite registration desk
• Partnered with corporate security during event
• Created sign-in sheets and obtained signatures from each attendee
• Updated speaker training upon completion
• Updated databases with high-level meeting spend and individual attendee spend
• Processed and paid attendee expense reimbursements and honorarium payments
• Conducted final bill reconciliation

International Disability Law Conference

BLS coordinated this 5-day conference for the U.S. Social Security Administration. The conference brought more than 120 people with disabilities from 20 different countries to the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington, DC. This project required an extremely high level of coordination due to the number of international attendees with disabilities that included deafness, blindness, and other physical challenges. Many of the participants did not speak English and several were in wheelchairs. Below is a partial list of tasks that BLS had to coordinate in order to meet the needs of the participants and the meeting organizers:

• Transporting participants from Washington-area airports and providing foreign-speaking escorts and nurse attendants when necessary
• Providing daily transportation to and from the conference location, the Mayflower Hotel, to overflow hotels that accommodating the large number of participants with disabilities
• Providing onsite cash disbursement of travel reimbursements and stipends, including on-the-spot foreign currency exchange
• Providing closed-captioned television, simultaneous translation booths for five languages, and sign language interpreters
• Providing conference materials in Braille, large print, and alternative formats

Web-Based Library and Literature Search System

BLS developed and implemented a searchable, Web-based, bibliographic, full-text database system for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' (NIAID) Division of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (DAIDS). The key tasks for this project were database design and implementation, document acquisition, cataloging, and documentation. The system is used to manage the publications produced by investigators working on three cohort studies being conducted by DAIDS: the Women's Interagency HIV Study, the Women's and Infants Transmission Study, and the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study. This system was designed to replace a paper-based system that was no longer efficient and convenient.

Conference Call Management

BLS developed a conference call management system to assist with coordinating and managing more than 40 conference calls per month for NIAID. Call groups range from 5-25 participants and average 1.5 hours in length. BLS is responsible for maintaining a Web-based monthly calendar, scheduling calls, maintaining distribution lists, preparing and forwarding notifications to participants (domestic and international), securing technical writers to provide call summaries (upon request), and providing overall management and quality control support of the process.