SatNews — Global VSAT Forum have partnered with the Aid and International Development Forum (AIDF), the global event for humanitarian aid, disaster relief and development effectiveness, which takes place at the Walter E. Washington Center in Washington D.C. on July 22-23.

It is free for non-commercial organizations to register and attend. AIDF provides an opportunity to address challenges to enhance best practice, cross-sector collaboration and effectiveness. 

Secretary General of GVF, David Hartshorn, will be speaking in workshop sessions entitled:

• Disaster Preparedness Summit
• CSR Communications

There’s an extra incentive – anyone who registers online and attends AIDF 2010 will be entered into a prize draw to win a Flip Mino HD camcorder.

AIDF is an annual event, now in its fifth year. The exhibition features companies supplying the aid, humanitarian relief and development sectors including providers of food and agricultural development, freight, transport and logistics, finance, shelter & housing, health and medical supplies, ICTs, disaster prevention, insurance & risk evaluation/assessment, water treatment & sanitation.  

Integrated workshop sessions discuss aid and development effectiveness, the achievement of the MDGs and optimizing technology among other topics. Click here for the updated workshop agenda.  

  Over 90 expert speakers include:

Scott Schirmer, Senior Coordinator, Private Sector Alliances Office of Development Partners, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Keith Robertory, Disaster Services Technology Manager, American Red Cross

Al Johnson, Director, Integrated ICT Support, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration

Jeff Jacobson, Co-Founder and Director of Technology, OODAlink Inc

New for this year will be an “Experiential zone”.  Designed to reproduce the experience of providing aid and development in the field, three scenarios give an opportunity for visitors to discuss the challenges with experts from the field and to experience solutions being demonstrated. The scenarios are an urban natural disaster in a tropical climate (based on Haiti earthquake, January 12, 2010), a rural disaster in a remote area experiencing conflict, landslides and harsh winter weather (based on the earthquake in Kashmir and Pakistan in October 2005), and poverty, hunger and drought (based on the Sahel region of semi-arid land which has suffered chronic food shortages driven by extreme poverty since the early 1970s). 

Sessions looking at logistics and procurement, and enabling procurement personnel to feedback to companies giving short presentations involve:

• John Abood, Team Leader / Contracting Officer, Transportation Division, Office of Acquisition and Assistance, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
• Dominic Grace, Director of Procurement, UNDP;  Finbarr Curran, Director, WFP Field and Emergency Support Office (FESO)
• Joice D. Williams, Procurement Officer, American Red Cross, National Disaster Response, Field Logistics Unit

For more information, and to register for this event please visit at.