The 2003 Fall Education Conference of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), to be held Nov. 16-19 at the Reno Hilton in Reno, NV, will focus on homeland security, to guide professionals in fire service, engineering, facility management and safety in coping with the post-Sept. 11 world.

The conference's program on "Homeland Security: Preparedness and Response" will include seminars on emergency-response planning; applying the lessons of Sept. 11 to emergency-management programs; guidance in managing a chemical, biological or nuclear incident affecting the commercial transportation industry; analysis of effective local emergency planning; legal issues; review of the hospital emergency incident command system; and more.

The keynote speaker will be Ellen Goodman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist renowned for her ability to sense emerging shifts in public and private lives. Goodman started writing for the Boston Globe in 1967, and her column is now syndicated in 450 newspapers.

The conference will feature more than 70 career-building seminars, offering continuing education credits. Among the topics the seminars will address are:

• NFPA 5000(TM), Building Construction and Safety Code(TM): the development and content of the first building code accredited by the American National Standards Institute.

• How to conduct safe, thorough and effective investigations of fires and explosions.

• A look at the relationship between fire incidence and socioeconomic factors in rural and urban settings, including the role of poverty, education, attitudes and behavior.

• Effective planning for terrorist incidents.

• The lessons learned from an alternative approach to emergency communications used in a Florida hotel.

• Fire safety and security challenges in a university campus setting.

• The thoughts and intentions of juvenile fire-setters.

For registration information, visit www.nfpa.org/meetings.