Conference planning is well underway for 2022. The conference will be held in Wellington at Te Papa on 27 – 29 April 2022. We are also planning on a number of site visits and associated activities and these will likely be held the day before the conference on 26 April.
This year we have chosen the conference theme of Te Aohurihuri, ngā piki me ngā heke, Designing for Uncertainty: Challenges and Opportunities. There is currently a lot of progress occurring in the industry, with engineers questioning and challenging seismic design philosophies. With this challenge of uncertainty comes great opportunity.
The conference aims to address the need for a more resilient Aotearoa by highlighting the drivers for change, which are resulting in updates to policies, codes, and best practice designs. We seek to bring together a diverse range of thinking and experience, to discuss the uncertainties facing seismic engineering.
The technical programme will include keynote addresses and special sessions on the current and future challenges facing earthquake engineering. There will be sessions on emergency management, research developments in earthquake engineering, advances in the field of geotechnical engineering, social and policy impacts of disasters, and developments in resilience and low-damage design.
Beyond the technical programme, the conference provides a chance to reconnect face-to-face, after a disruptive two years. We are planning on holding the event in person; however, it does appear that the risk of disruption due to COVID-19 does remain. Plans are therefore being put in place for back up dates and, worst-case scenario contingencies.
More information about the conference can be found here.
