UK Resilience 2008: Contributions to Resilience is the title of a Royal United Services Institute conference at its Whitehall, London hq on October 8 and 9.
RUSI is pleased to be welcoming Michael Brown, the former Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to speak at its flagship UK Resilience conference. In a presentation entitled ‘Katrina: An Insider’s Story’ Brown will speak outside the US for the first time to give his account of the much criticised federal response to the costliest natural disaster in US history that left 1800 dead. <br><br>Brown’s presentation will be among the highlights of RUSI’s 2008 Resilience conference: ‘Contributions to Resilience’. Predicated around the theme that achieving resilience in an increasingly turbulent world will be a greater task than has ever been previously understood, the conference will organisers say explore the idea that climate change and increasingly frequent bouts of extreme weather are at the fore of a range of challenges which will demand response from an unprecedented coalition of actors. Ranging from the individual to international institutions, and spanning all sectors of the economy and public life in breadth, it is the work of identifying, prompting and co-ordinating these various contributions to resilience addressed at this year’s event.<br><br>Drawing upon thinkers and senior policy makers and planners from across all sectors of the UK and beyond, organisers add that this event will be of value to anybody with an interest in understanding what the future resilience of the UK will require, and what their or their organisation’s contributions to resilience will entail. Confirmed speakers include: <br><br>*Bruce Mann, Director, Civil Contingencies Secretariat, Cabinet Office<br>*Michael Brown, former Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)<br>*Chris West, Director of UK Climate Impacts Programme, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University Centre for the Environment<br>*David Steven, Director, Riverpath Associates<br>*Professor John Oxford, Professor of Virology, Centre for Infectious Disease, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry<br>*Sir David Omand GCB, Vice President, RUSI<br>*Professor Jim Norton, Commissioner, IPPR Commission on National Security in the 21st Century<br>*David Burrill OBE, Director, Burrill Green<br>*Professor Denis Smith, Professor of Management, University of Glasgow<br>*Bill Smith, Director General, Civil Defence Board, Ireland<br>*George Cook, Chief Executive Officer, Community Resilience UK.
