Live interactive discussion, Saturday night here on Wildfire Today

WHAT:
Tonight, Saturday night, we are going to host a live interactive discussion right here. The subject will be the wildland fires in Australia and the concept of "Leave Early, or Prepare, Stay, and Defend". As we posted earlier today, some of the 14 people that were killed in the Australian fires in the last 36 hours died in their cars while they were evacuating.

HOW:
The format will be text. You will be able to type in your comments or questions and anyone will be able to comment or answer back. However, not necessarily everyone's comments will appear. If the traffic is heavy, we will selectively choose which comments would be of the most interest to the audience. And, of course, rude or obscene comments will not be approved. You do not need any special software to participate. Just choose a name for yourself, then type in your thoughts.

WHEN:
It will begin at:
10:00 p.m. ET (Saturday, Feb. 7);
9:00 p.m. CT (Saturday);
8:00 p.m. MT (Saturday);
7:00 p.m. PT (Saturday);
2:00 p.m. (Sunday, Feb. 8) Sydney, Australia;
8:00 a.m. (Sunday) in Athens, Greece; and
5:00 a.m. (Sunday) UTC (GMT).

WHO:
Dick Mangan, retired USFS, past president of the International Association of Wildland fire, and owner of Blackbull Wildfire Services, will assist me in moderating the discussion.

WHY:
This is the inaugural run of what we hope to be the first in a series of live, interactive discussions on various wildland fire topics. There may be some bugs we have to work out, so be patient with us tonight. It will be the first time we have used this technology.

WHAT'S NEXT?
If you have ideas about topics for future discussions, or if you are a subject matter expert and would like to help lead or moderate one, let us know.