Chem Sector Security Summit Update 06-10-10

Today DHS updated the web page for the Chemical Sector Security Summit that will be held next month. DHS added a link to the Summit brochure and provided some additional information on registrations. Brochure The brochure provides significantly more details about the upcoming program than had previously been available. I’m not going to list all of the programs, just the ones that I think are of special significance. Your list would be different than mine, so go look at the brochure.

● Threats to the Homeland and the Chemical Sector ● Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) and Ammonium Nitrate (AN) Update ● Potential Threat Actors’ Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures ● Inspections Process Lessons Learned ● Research & Development in Inherently Safer Technology (IST) ● The Future of Background Checks for the Chemical Industry ● A Congressional Perspective

There are plenty of other interesting programs and they all have a wide range of presenters and panelists. There are representatives from DHS and a variety of Executive Branch folks and Legislative Staffers. Industry is well represented and there will even be a few labor representatives. About the only group interested in ‘chemical security’ that is not represented is Greenpeace; I think it would have been good politics to include them or a Center for American Progress representative on one of the IST panels. Registration As I noted in my previous blog post on this topic, the registration has been closed since late March. This page update informs registrants that:

“Those who are registered received a confirmation email. Please remember to bring photo identification and your confirmation number with you to the Summit registration table where you will receive a badge and event materials.”

They have also provided an email point of contact for questions about registrations. The page also notes that there is going to be additional information provided in the coming days. You can sign up for email updates from DHS or you can just read about it here in the blog. Or, you could do both. I will take this opportunity to once again suggest to DHS and the Chemical Sector Coordinating Council, the co-sponsors of this summit, that many of the presentations are critically important to many more people in the chemical sector than could have registered for the summit. Especially in the current economic climate a number of interested folks in the industry just could not justify the cost of attendance. I think it would be a great idea to have many (if not all) of the presentations posted on the DHS web site after the conference is over.