Conferences, Symposia and Workshops

2008 International Disaster and Risk Conference, Davos, Switzerland

The International Disaster and Risk Conference (IDRC) held biennially in Davos, Switzerland Aug. 25 - 29 is expecting more than 300 participants from 130 countries this year. With the motto Public-private partnership – key for integral risk management and climate change adaptation the conference aims to address global risk issues through an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach. 

Dr. Max Stephenson Jr., Director of VTIPG and James Martin, Director of the World Disaster Risk Management Institute, Virginia Tech will facilitate a panel during a special session entitled: "Confronting the Challenge of Building Sustainable Networks for Disaster Relief Recovery and Community Resilience."

Representatives of IDRC Davos 2008 report that the expected outcome of the conference is “to build stronger ties between disaster and risk management communities and sectors, in particular with the private sector, and to devise approaches to move towards a more truly integrated way of thinking about disaster and risk management.”

For more information visit www.idrc.info

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2008 International Symposium, Davos, Switzerland

Following the 2008 International Disaster and Risk conference held in Davos, Switzerland Aug. 25-29, Max Stephenson, Director of IPG and James Martin, Director of the World Disaster Risk Management Institute, Virginia Tech will sponsor an International Symposium entitled: “Exploring Innovative and Sustainable Approaches to Improve Community Resilience in Disaster Prevention and Response.” Around twenty presenters from Europe and the United states have been invited to address the challenge of intersectoral cooperation in disaster relief, mitigation, and recovery.

This symposium will offer researchers and practitioners an opportunity to exchange views and experiences concerning how public and private actors may develop the incentives and wherewithal to build a broader understanding for effective response to the imperatives of disaster relief and humanitarian action collaborative networks. An edited volume for publication based on the symposium is planned.

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The Virginia Tech Symposium on Enhancing Resilience To Catastrophic Events Through Communicative Planning

VTIPG and Virginia Tech’s new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention will co-sponsor a resilience symposium held at Virginia Tech on Nov.16-18, 2008. The symposium, chaired by Bruce Goldstein, is part of a consortium of conferences on disaster relief and prevention held in Davos, Switzerland. 

Scholars are invited to consider how collaborative planning can enhance resilience to events that threaten to overcome the social and ecological integrity of communities, states, and societies. Presentations and discussion will be held in Blacksburg, VA on November 16-18, 2008, and symposium papers will be edited and revised for journal and/or book publication in early 2009.

For more information about the Virginia Tech symposium visit www.ipg.vt.edu/resilience.html. For information on the Davos conference visit www.idrc.info

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Building Communities through the Arts Conference

Dr. Max Stephenson Jr., Director of VTIPG, spoke at theBuilding Communities Through the Arts Conference on June 4, 2008 at the Prizery in South Boston, Virginia. Hosted by the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, the regional conference is part of an initiative to revitalize the economic, educational, and cultural development of individual communities in Southern Virginia.

Dr. Stephenson and other presenters strongly advocated on behalf of the Arts as a central strategy in organizing regional development efforts to build communities. Supported by research, arts and design have been shown to be principle creative means for economic, workforce, and community development.

The conference was attended by regional leaders in business, local government, education, and art organizations as well as artists from the counties of Mecklenburg, Charlotte, Halifax, Pittsylvania, Henry, and Patrick, and the cities of Danville and Martinsville. It was viewed by all participants as a catalytic event in developing regional partnerships for improving the overall attractiveness of Southern Virginia.  

For more information on The Southern Virginia Higher Education Center and video highlights of the evening’s presentations visit www.svhed.org

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National Cohousing Conference, Waltham, MA, 2008

Lisa Poley, Research and Teaching Associate with the School of Public Affairs and VTIPG spoke at the 2008 National Cohousing Conference held in Waltham, Massachusetts. With her experience as a founding member of Shadowlake Village Cohousing in Blacksburg, Virginia, she delivered a presentation titled Deep Process: Cohousing and Deep Democracy. It addressed how living in cohousing may impact an individual’s civic and democratic engagement and the potential for fostering social change beyond community boundaries.

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Foundations for Peace – Victim Empowerment Conference

Dr. Max Stephenson Jr., Director of VTIPG and Laura Zanotti, Associate Professor in the Virginia Tech department of Political Science, recently attended the Foundations for Peace Network – sponsored Victim Empowerment conference held in Belfast, Northern Ireland on May 22, 2008. The conference culminated collaborative victim empowerment and peacebuilding efforts by members of the foundation in Northern Ireland and the international level.

With members located in Sri Lanka, Serbia, India, Colombia, Bangladesh, Israel and Northern Ireland, Foundations for Peace, describes itself as “a global network of independent indigenous funders working to build peace within our respective community, society or country.” The foundation focuses on bringing peaceful and sustainable solutions to regions and countries entrenched in violence.

The 2008 conference aimed to share learning experiences by members of Foundations for Peace with local groups, academics, policy makers, and funding bodies in the victim- survivor sector. It showcased several contributions on related initiatives for peacebuilding and social change in societies affected by conflict and highlighted best practices on victim empowerment.

For more information on Foundations for Peace visit http://www.foundationsforpeace.org/

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Inter-University Workshop on Accountability and the Nonprofit Sector

Virginia Tech's IPG and Georgetown University's Center for Democracy and the Third Sector (CDATS) have developed the Inter-University Workshop on Accountability and the Nonprofit Sector. The purpose of the program is to promote innovative research on the impact of an emerging accountability regime on nonprofit institutions through periodic lectures and discussions by leading scholars and practitioners. The intended outcome it to promote debate and dissemination of new ideas. Upcoming topics focus on:

  • Accountability and Organizational Learning
  • The Emerging Accountability Regime and the Nonprofit Sector

Workshops are open to faculty, students, and interested members of the public from the greater Washington area.