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In November this year, Christchurch will hold a two-day symposium on the lessons learned from the Canterbury earthquakes.
The symposium will be co-hosted by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Christchurch City Council Nov. 29-30 at the University of Canterbury. The plan is for it to lead to a bigger international event marking the Christchurch quake’s 10th anniversary in 2021.
"The symposium will be an event of national importance, sharing lessons from the Canterbury earthquakes so that New Zealand as a whole can be better prepared in future for any similar natural disasters,” said Megan Woods, minister for Greater Christchurch regeneration.
According to Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel, up to 250 local and national participants from the public, private, voluntary and community sectors and academia will be invited to the symposium. It will also be preceded by a series of workshops to be held in the third quarter of this year.
Dalziel believes the event will help inform how the community can respond and recover from future disasters in New Zealand.
"From optimum governance arrangements through to the effective and efficient delivery of vast amounts of repair and rebuilding work, it's about what can we learn from our experiences, not just in Greater Christchurch, but also now from Hurunui and Kaikoura, so that the benefits of our experience can flow into future response and recovery efforts. We also need to embed the importance of engaging the wisdom of the community in all that we do," she said.
