Organizers for RES/CON – The Global Resilience Summit – today announced the 2017 speaker and programming lineup, including representatives from the United Nations, Twitter, City of Los Angeles, HR&A Advisors, AirBnB, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, G&H International Services, Perkins+Will, U.S. Geological Survey, Zurich Insurance, Shell Exploration & Production Company, among many global leading professionals in the field. Based in New Orleans — a globally recognized hub of resilience, disaster management and innovation – RES/CON is the premier international conference on the practice of successful resilience building and disaster management in an evolving global environment.

Taking place March 7 – 9 at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, Zurich North America, Shell Global, the Walton Family Foundation, AECOM, Walmart and several additional sponsors, RES/CON attracts disaster-management and resilience-building practitioners and experts from around the globe and across the public, private and NGO sectors.

Registration is now open and there is an early registration discount for the private sector offered through January 23, 2017. Additionally, hotel blocks for the conference will expire on February 2, so be sure to make your reservation now.

RES/CON 2017’s three days of programming is organized around four themes, each impacting communities and economies worldwide. These themes are:

  • Leadership + Strategy: These sessions will illustrate how leadership and effective management can be used to engage an array of stakeholders – from emergency managers and first responders to non-profit organizations and local government to local to global businesses to – in order to promote long-term, cohesive planning.
  • Technology + Innovation: These sessions will highlight best practices, examine avenues for innovating in the field of resilience and contemplate the current and future role of technology in the sector.
  • Economy + Risk: These sessions will explore how communities can finance their resilience building, including an assessment of their risks and potential challenges, the development of strategies to handle these prior to an occurrence, all in an effort to speed up the recovery process and limit the economic interruption.
  • Community + Social Cohesion: These sessions will explore how communities, neighborhood organizations, workplaces, families and local leaders can build resilience in order to mitigate the impacts of these events and rebound more quickly.

Programming

Plenary sessions, workshops, policy debates, best-practice reviews, thought leadership and peer networking events will serve to engage global and local thought leaders and promote participation from all who attend.

Some highlights include:

Plenary Sessions

  • How to Build A Resilient City, which will offer insight into how leaders can use a resilience framework to strategize, prioritize and implement policies and align their funding streams to build the resilience of their city.
  • Impact-Driven Technologies in Times of Disasters, an in-depth look at how household names in technology are working together to aid our communities and citizenry in times of crisis.
  • The Role of the CEO, a take on the role of the CEO, from partnerships with communities to the bully pulpit, in building resilience at the local, national and international levels, with representation from CEOs of major global companies.

Concurrent Sessions, such as:

  • Accra, Ghana: A case Study of Business Continuity to Build Resilience
  • Everything’s Local: Neighborhoods as Change Agents
  • Leveraging the Expertise of the Private Sector
  • Building Reinforcements for the Most Vulnerable
  • Strategies for Post-Disaster Rural Economic Sustainability
  • Harnessing the Data Revolution
  • Beyond Lines on a Map: Opportunities for Collaboration for Resilience Financing

Programming will also include best practices and lessons learned from disasters and community building along with detailed sessions on financing and policy issues faced by global communities, focused talks from technology and innovation experts in disaster management and response, as well as training and group-learning opportunities.

Supplemental Content

Additionally, there are two special content sessions for registrants to participate in: a Thought Leadership Forum, coordinated by the United Nations, and the Economic Resilience Workshop, hosted by J&M Global Solutions.

On Monday, March 6, organizers will also be providing an opportunity for conference goers to participate in the NOLA Learning Laboratory, an in-depth examination of resilience building taking place across the conference’s host city.

New to RES/CON this year are the RES/CON Impact Awards, recognizing disaster and resilience practitioners who have exhibited exemplary leadership contributing to building resilient communities. These will be announced in the coming weeks and presented during the conference.

Additional schedule details can be found at http://resconnola.com/. Registration for the 2017 event is open at resconnola.com with an early registration discount for the private sector offered through January 23, 2017.