The Global Risk Forum’s International Disaster and Risk Conference (IDRC2010) is on this week in Davos, Switzerland. I’m joined by colleagues from Finland and the US in both a workshop and special session focused on Mobile Technology and ICT for Disaster Preparedness, Warning, and Response.
IDRC has become a favorite conference of mine, having previously attended IDRC 2007 in Harbin, China, and IDRC 2008, in Davos. The Global Risk Forum and IDRC spun out of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction under the leadership of Walter Ammann.
The conference itself brings together academics, researchers, governments, industry, and NGOs to focus on the key issues in disaster risk reduction. This year has already seen significant events, ranging from the Haitian and Chilean earthquakes to the ongoing BP oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, there is never a shortage of tragedy for discussion.
Our workshop Sunday morning presaged a great conference. As we walked in to the meeting room just before the 9am start (after a late night arrival from Zurich), we were greeted by a fantastic group of attendees ready to get started. The three hours went by like lightning and I look forward to continuing the discussion in person this week and online beyond the IDRC conference.