What a year! First, let me extend my congratulations to the New Orleans Saints, Superbowl Champions – 43 years of being an “Aints” fan finally paid off. I can now get rid of my “paper bag”!

NextGen is also having a good year – ADS-B deployment and ERAM becoming operational! We have a new Director of the JPDO, Dr. Karlin Toner, and she has agreed to be one our keynote speakers.

We are at an outstanding brand new hotel, the Westin Washington Dulles Airport Hotel. Our technical sessions are full with quality, up-to-date information spanning all aspects of ICNS.

Sponsors and Exhibitors are stepping up, but we still have room for more, and we have scheduled a tour of the National Air and Space Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center during business hours followed by a social function, which will allow you to miss rush hour.

The conference program is almost complete, and a draft of the program should be on the website by early next week.

Look forward to seeing you at the conference.

Jim “Agin Cajun” Dieudonne
Chair, 2010 ICNS
Greybeard for CNS and Avionics
The MITRE Corporation

Dr. Paul G. Kaminski is Chairman and CEO of Technovation, Inc., a consulting company dedicated to fostering innovation, and to the development and application of advanced technology. He is also a Senior Partner in Global Technology Partners, a consulting firm specializing in business strategy and investments in technology, defense and aerospace-related companies. The title of his speech will be “Next Gen – Making it all come together with the 4 P’s.”

Margaret Jenny is President of RTCA, Inc. RTCA is a private, not-for-profit corporation that develops consensus-based recommendations regarding communications, navigation, surveillance, and air traffic management (CNS/ATM) system issues. RTCA functions as a Federal Advisory Committee. Its recommendations are used by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as the basis for policy, program, and regulatory decisions and by the private sector as the basis for development, investment and other business decisions.

Ann Tedford
FAA NextGen Operations and Planning
2009 ICNS Conference Chair

Due to the high level of interest in this year’s conference, we have rearranged the Plenary sessions each day in order to accommodate the increased level of interest. See the changes below and view our complete program in the 2009 Agenda.

Ann Tedford
FAA NextGen Operations and Planning

Note: Hotel Room Block Change

Due to increased interest, the Government hotel room block has been increased and the normal Conference Rate hotel room block decreased. Reservation is now open for both the conference and hotel rooms.

Updated Plenary Schedule

Wednesday, May 13

Plenary Session: NextGen

• Panel 1: Industry Partnerships
  Panel Chair: Vicki Cox, FAA SVP NextGen & Operations Planning
• Panel 2: Implementation Planning to Deliver Planned Capabilities
  Panel Chair: Dr. Mike Romanowski, FAA Director NextGen Integration & Implementation
• Panel 3: Cross Agency Cross Community
  Panel Chair: Dr. Karlin Toner, DOT Senior Staff Advisor for NextGen

Thursday, May 14

Plenary Session: Net Centricity
Session Chair: Colonel Douglas Wreath, DOD

Friday, May 15

Plenary Session: Trajectory Based Operations
Session Chair: Dave Hamrick, MITRE

Close integration of on-board and ground flight management functions is the key to implementing the NextGen flight operations that will create the benefits of fewer delays, increased route efficiency, lower fuel consumption, further reduction of environmental impact, and lower per-flight system operations costs.

The conference program provides up-to-date status of NextGen activities and discussion of the state of the art in technical development. Three plenary sessions, one each morning, feature key speakers from the Joint Planning and Development Office, the DoD, the FAA, NASA, airlines, general aviation, and industry. In the afternoons, four full sessions running in parallel each day present the details of programmatic and technical progress.

Mr. Fred Pease, the Executive Director of the DoD Policy Board on Federal Aviation, will give the keynote address the first morning. He will discuss the importance of NextGen for the multiple facets of aviation and highlight the value of expedient initial implementation.

We have a terrific venue at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center in Bethesda, MD. There are many restaurants and shops in the area, and the hotel is located next to the Metro stop.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Best regards,
Dr. Jere S. Meserole 2008
ICNS Conference Chair
The Boeing Company

By keeping the conference in the Washington D.C. area, at a new and more convenient location in North Bethesda, MD, on the Metro line, we have secured the participation of key members of the Federal Government and Industry.

Continuing with the successful format of last year, the conference will maintain a plenary session each morning, which will provide FAA and air transportation industry leadership an opportunity to describe their perspectives on the future direction of air traffic management, the transformation of user operations, and the implementation of the key datalink communications infrastructure.

The conference will also continue its parallel track structure in the afternoons to address in depth a variety of topics in research and development associated with the provision of air traffic services.

Once again, I encourage you to plan to attend and participate in what promises to be our best ICNS conference yet.

Sincerely,

Jere S. Meserole
2008 ICNS Conference Chair
The Boeing Company