Good morning everyone and welcome to Las Vegas. A quick change of location for registration. For better visibility and convenience, we had moved General Registration slightly down the hallway to a location between The Garden View Terrace and the bank of elevators between Carson City II and Mesquite conference rooms. Registration times have not changed. For all Exhibitors, we have relocated your booths to inside the Savoy room, where all presentations and speeches will occur. This should allow for our Attendees to have increased access to the Exhibitors while at the same time, allow our Exhibitors to participate in the full conference; set up can begin at noon on Monday.

We have moved up the Welcome Reception by one hour to coincide with the end of General Registration.  This will give IFALDA the opportunity to seamlessly transition from one event into the other and will allow everyone the opportunity to attend the function and still have time to see a show, dine, shop, or whatever your heart desires to do afterwards. The Welcome Reception cosponsored by Sabre Airline Solutions and Telvent will be held on Monday, May 3rd from 1700-1900 local. An open bar and hors d'oeuvres presentation will be set up for your enjoyment in the Mesquite conference room with high tables set up outdoors in the Garden View Terrace.

General Registration will be available from 1400-1700 local time on Monday, May 3rd and will occur on the Conference level either in front of the Mesquite room or in the Savoy Foyer which is just around the corner. When you registered for the Conference, you likely received a print out that shows it will serve as your ticket. It is optional for you to bring that print out as we will have a list of all registered Attendees, Speakers, Guests, and Exhibitors.  All you may want to bring is some form of ID and we will take care of the rest. For those who were registered by IFALDA, just check-in and we will have your credentials available. We plan to have two positions at the registration desk. Everyone will queue at the first position where we will distribute your Conference credentials. If you need ANY other transaction; paying registration or registering, paying dues, receipts, or anything outside of picking up your credentials, you will be asked to move to position two. To make the process easier for everyone, please make sure you registered ahead of time on this website. Day of event registration will be available but it may take awhile to process you and print your credentials. If you are planning to use a credit card for any transaction, please make sure you have a Google account (i.e. email) as we use Google Checkout to process credit cards. Cash will be accepted but it must be in US Dollars.

Good morning everyone! We are only five days away from the start of our 2010 World Airline Dispatchers Conference. The volcanic ash issue in Europe is thankfully mostly over for travelers although as a result of closed airspace, fallout (no pun intended) for the airlines and aviation regulatory bodies may continue for awhile. Double check your flight listings your hotel reservations, and make sure you have registered on line. Weather forecasts for Las Vegas predicts amazing weather throughout the Conference, low to mid 80s for highs and upper 50s to low 60s for lows and sunny all day. Prepare for a great time, we have an outstanding Welcome Reception planned for you Monday evening cosponsored by Sabre Airline Solutions and Telvent; you won't want to miss out on catching up with colleagues, visiting with our Exhibitors, and enjoying some wonderful food and drink. Tuesday will be a full day devoted to discussion of current issues within today's Airline Dispatch environment; you will hear viewpoints from numerous flight dispatchers, from the FAA, aviation consultants, and system experts. Immediately after Tuesday's session, we will be offering an Evening Reception. Please stay and enjoy some tasty beverages and snacks before heading out to explore all that  Las Vegas has to offer. On Wednesday, we have our IFALDA Annual General Meeting to discuss IFALDA business matters and will also have updates from all member flight dispatch associations. Along with status updates from all Board Members we will also have elections for numerous positions within IFALDA. Please see the agenda to the left for more details and click the link if you would like to nominate someone. Please remember that per our bylaws, only associations that are fully current with dues are eligible to vote. After the business session is over, the bus for the USAF Thunderbirds tour will leave from the North Tour Lobby at 1400 local and return around 1630 local. Security checks for everyone who reserved a spot on the tour are ongoing but we did have 100% information compliance from everyone. Please let us know if you have any questions at this point and we look forward to seeing everyone there. Safe and happy travels.

"Sales" for the free Thunderbirds Tour are now over. According to our records, everyone who has signed up for the tour has also submitted the requested information for Base Security screening so everything is set. Please wear your Conference credentials as you board the bus on Wednesday May 5th as that will be your "ticket".

We are continuing to receive positive news that European airspace is trending towards 100% return to service. The volcanic ash situation appears to be diminishing in intensity with air traffic now moving; we look forward to service normalizing in the next few days. Fortunately, there's still about one and a half weeks until the Conference and we hope the volcano has spent its energy for the time being. We will of course continue to monitor the issue. As of now, we expect the Conference to be held as planned. If that changes, we will post information here as well as email all Attendees, Exhibitors, and Speakers with further instructions.

Important Nellis Air Force Base /USAF Thunderbirds Tour update!!!

Due to a miscalculation regarding the lead time Nellis Air Force Base needs to do security checks for those attending the tour, the deadline for reserving your spot on the bus must now be moved up to 1200 CST on April 20th. That leaves about one week from today so please sign up as soon as possible. Even if you are not sure that you will take the tour, please reserve your spot as it will be easy to cancel your reservation but impossible to add you to the list after the deadline. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause to your schedule.

Information on ground transportation options in Las Vegas has been added.  Also, the position of Vice President - Administration for IFALDA is open and we are currently accepting nominations. Check our agenda for more information regarding both.

Important! Room Reservation and Rate Update

We have secured from The Flamingo Las Vegas, an extension for our room block. The IFALDA rate will now be available for booking until Monday April 12, 2010. Book now!

We are pleased to annouce that Lufthansa Systems will be joining us in Las Vegas as an Exhibitor. please stop by their booth and take a look at their flight planning suite.

We have exhausted our room rate block on accomodations booked for Friday April 30th and Saturday May 1st. That doesn't mean The Flamingo is out of rooms, just that the special IFALDA rate is no longer available on Friday and Saturday. It is still available for Sunday May 2nd through Friday May 7th altough Wednesday night will be slightly higher. Our advise is to book now and avoid disappointment!

EXCITING TOUR OPPORTUNITY !

Through our efforts, we have been able to coordinate an exclusive tour of the United States Air Force Thunderbirds facility and museum at Nellis Air Force Base. The Thunderbirds are one of world's preemininet Air Demonstration Teams and represent the pride, precision, and professionalism of the USAF. Due to security, individual tours have not been conducted for awhile and this will be an amazing opportunity for you to explore the history of The Thunderbirds and see up close their spectacular high performance aircraft, the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon. Monitor this site for additional information, coming very soon.

We are pleased to annouce that WSI will be joining us in Las Vegas as an Exhibitor. Please stop by during the AGM to take a look at their products and say hi!

Important Annual General Meeting notice

IFALDA is now accepting nominations for the following positions:
    President - (currently held by Rick Ketchersid)
    Vice President West - (currently held by Sandy Sandziuk)
    Vice President Finance - (currently held by Lin Tsung)
    Vice President East, one year term - (currently held by Aidan Fox)

Elections will be held during the 2010 AGM. Once elected, the term length is for two years starting in May 2010, except for VP East. Nominations can be e-mailed to: nominations@ifalda.org.

We are pleased to annouce Sabre Airline Solutions and Telvent as both Exhibitor the Cosponsor of the AGM Welcome Reception. Please stop by their booth during the Conference and take a look at their exciting aviation products and to say hi! With their support, we plan to have an exciting and memorable Welcome Reception.