This is AIDR calling

August was dominated by the Australian Disaster Resilience Conference: the pressured lead-up, the intensity of the event itself, and the recovery afterwards. It was another fabulous experience, with over 500 participants, 22 diverse sessions, Resilience Lane at full capacity, a Memorandum of Understanding signed, 2 successful PD sessions, a busy AIDR stand, and many, many conversations. It was no surprise that I didn’t want to talk to anyone when the weekend arrived.

This year I managed to see some of the presentations. Craig Foster’s keynote on integrity was inspiring, as were the UNICEF Ambassadors, Layla Wang, Lincoln Ingravalle, Anica Renner, and Adriel Appathurai, who gave us reason to hope that the challenging future will be met with brilliant minds. I was pleased with the way the program the breadth and complexity of resilience and risk reduction. With more than 200 submissions, many quality papers inevitably miss out. The difference between making it and not making it into the program is a score of 0.1, as per our system. We are looking at ways of sharing this knowledge with you.

Bringing the conference to life is a huge team effort, and I need to thank my Capability Development and Engagement team, Mayeda and Ange, for shepherding the program, organising resilience lane, and running the conference rooms on the day (among many other things. Also, thanks to Lauren and Simone for running the AIDR stand, which was a real hub for many interesting and varied conversations, and also for handing out the famed AIDR sporks. This year we were able to free up the knowledge development team to be able engage with the content being presented, although Blythe, Isabel and Natalie still also had to keep one eye on what was happening in the rooms, and duck back to the stand to answer handbook questions. Janet made sure the speakers got to where the speakers had to get to, Melissa ensured the volunteers (one of whom was my daughter Amy) got to where they needed to be, Oshanna handled the talent for interviews, and Ivan kept the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition stand humming. Katelyn was the loose player off half back, and did everything from high level conversations, to head counts in conference rooms.

Beyond the immediate team, the intense focus of Charlotte, Juanita, Zoe, and Ana in our Engagement and Member Experience team, and colleagues at Hannover Fairs, made the conference happen. Also, thanks to Kate Brady who designed and delivered a professional development (PD) session on recovery that made the Wacky Races look calm, and to JC Gaillard, Mayeda and Lauren for designing and delivering the disaster risk reduction PD day, and particularly to Lauren for creating the idyllic paradise, YourTown. Hats off to all!

While we had a day or 2 to rest after the conference, it wasn’t long before we were back into planning webinars in support of the High-Risk Weather Season, and International Day of Disaster Risk Reduction, and identifying resources that might assist organisations supporting communities that may be impacted by the H5 avian influenza outbreak.

The Natural Hazards Research Australia funded Complex Urban System Research project, which I have been involved in, has published its final report. It is an important contribution, particularly because disaster thinking in Australia often focuses on rural and regional areas, even though 85% of the population lives in urban areas. It was great to be part of the project steering group.

Another important piece of research was released through the month, ‘Because it is necessary’, undertaken by University of Western Sydney for the NSW Bushfire and Natural Hazards Centre. It focuses on the importance of emergent organisations in leading recovery into resilience. At a time when the system seems to be moving back to trying to engineer solutions to our challenges, it is timely to understand the importance of soft skills and capacity building that unlocks the resilience of local communities.

The first full draft of the Recovery Handbook has been sent out to the working group. This has been a massive effort to get to this point, as the handbook has required a rethink and restructure to align it with the way we have been approaching the handbooks. There has also been a mass of good practice emerge since 2018.  There’s still a way to go with it, but it is out there for comment, and we are excited to see what that brings. Thanks to Natalie and Isabel for their hard work in bringing this all together.

We finalised the Major Incidents Report during the month. We have made some changes to the report based upon feedback, and have focused on fewer, but expanded incident summaries. In this case there are 10 incident summaries from across the country. Given this is the 10th Major Incidents Report, we have also been able to look at any trends in the past decade. Thanks to Blythe and Brad Slater who have been shepherding this through.

You will notice that we have been more active in using our LinkedIn channel to promote our content. It’s part of a deliberate knowledge mobilisation strategy that Lauren and Simone are leading on. With over 21,000 pieces of content in the Knowledge Hub, there is much locked away there, just waiting to be used. We are looking at how we lever off current events, or international recognition days to be bringing content to you.

I write this in Adelaide, where I am for the state ceremony for the Resilient Australia Awards. The ceremony was at Government House, and the Governor of SA has been a strong supporter of the awards, and of the sector in general during her term. It was fantastic to see the support for the awards from senior officials, and the pure joy in the recipients faces when they were announced. I am in the midst of judging the national awards, and I keep thinking that there is so much good practice out there and more we can do to share this with you. Stay tuned on that front.

The conference is such a big set piece for us, it is easy to forget that there are many other things we need to be focusing on. We are beginning planning for 2027, the final year of this contract, while continuing to deliver in an increasingly volatile world. It keeps us busy and focused. There is much to do.

I’ve shared this elsewhere, but what better than the playlist for the conference that celebrates my hometown.