Experts secured for Canterbury Earthquakes Recovery Symposium: Megan Woods

“We’re mindful that there are many people, especially within academia, who will be eager to hear the speakers and see the presentations so we’ll be live streaming the talks and putting the slides and videos up on the EQ Recovery Learning website.

A strong line up of disaster recovery and regeneration experts have been secured to speak at the Canterbury Earthquakes Recovery Symposium.

The two-day forum, announced earlier this year by Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods and Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel, will be a forum for sharing lessons for the future across all sectors involved in the recovery. The forum will feature cross-sector experts and representatives from the community.

“I am excited to announce that we’ve secured some fantastic speakers and presenters for this event,” says Megan Woods.

Speakers and presenters include urban planner specialising in disaster recovery and catastrophe risk management, Dr Laurie Johnson; Christchurch NZ chief executive and former Press editor, Joanna Norris; academic researcher and designer, Barnaby Bennett; filmmaker, Gerard Smyth; and Ngāi Tahu chief executive, Arihia Bennett.

“We’re mindful that there are many people, especially within academia, who will be eager to hear the speakers and see the presentations so we’ll be live streaming the talks and putting the slides and videos up on the EQ Recovery Learning website.

“More than 300 participants have been invited to the symposium. These people are primarily leaders of organisations that could be impacted by future disasters, or involved in recovery efforts.”

Megan Woods says the invitation list is a cross-sector representation from across the country. As the event is invitation only, attendance will be no cost for participants.

Mayor Dalziel says it’s going to be a really interesting and valuable event.

“I’m really looking forward to hearing the many thoughts and views on recovery lessons as will the many participants,” she says.

“The event has already attracted a huge amount of interest from across the sector, which shows that there is a real desire to share our recovery lessons so that others benefit from our experiences when another disaster strikes, and more importantly, that we don’t see a repeat of any of our mistakes.”

A series of workshops have been held in the lead up to the Symposium.

The first two of four workshops on Mental Health and Wellbeing were facilitated by Canterbury DHB and the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce (CECC) led the Business Recovery workshop. The final workshop on Recovery Governance Arrangements, jointly led by DPMC and the Christchurch City Council, which is being held on 9 November 2018.

(With Inputs from New Zealand Government Press Release)