Highlights from the 2014 AMS Washington Forum

Each spring, the AMS Board on Enterprise Economic Development (BEED) organizes and conducts the AMS Washington Forum (AWF) in Washington, D.C. This event provides an opportunity for members of the weather, water, and climate community to meet with senior Federal agency officials, Congressional staff, and other community members to hear about the status of current programs, learn about new initiatives, discuss issues of interest to our community, identify business opportunities, and speak out about data and other needs. The theme of the 2014 AWF was "Leveraging the Enterprise: Strengthening Our Value to Society." The event included 10 interactive panel sessions. In addition to the 2014 AWF theme, discussion topics included: commercialization of weather data; impacts of the changing Arctic; remarks by federal agency leads and congressional staffers; space weather mitigation; impacts of weather and climate on health; surface transportation and weather; the water/energy nexus; and Typhoon Haiyan. Additional high-level guest speakers provided further insight into a variety of related topics. This presentation will summarize the highlights of the 2014 AWF and provide a brief preview of the 2015 event.