MCEER Brings its Annual Meeting to Southern California

The Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research brings its 2004 Annual Meeting to Los Angeles, California, January 15-16, 2004. This annual gathering of MCEER industry partners, students and researchers is convened to review the past year's progress and the next year's promise for MCEER’s research, education and outreach programs.

Under the theme of “Engaging Community … Enlisting Opinion … Attaining Resilience,” MCEER’s 2004 Annual Meeting reaches out to Southern California to engage the practicing community and public officials in one of the nation’s most active seismic regions, on the occasion of 10th anniversary of the Northridge earthquake.

This year’s MCEER Annual Meeting features a number of very special events:

Icebreaker & Early-Bird Reception

On the evening of Wednesday, January 14, MCEER, all Practitioners Day registrants are invited to join MCEER Industry Partners, Students and Researchers in engaging conversation amidst a panoramic nighttime view of the spectacular Los Angeles skyline.

Practitioners Day Forum:
Meeting Today's Earthquake Engineering and Emergency Response Challenges

Practitioners Day on Thursday, January 15, invites participation from the practicing community of architects, engineers, planners, owners, emergency managers, policy makers, and public officials in Southern California and beyond. The purpose is to more fully engage these critical stakeholders up-front, in a process that will shape and develop solutions to attain greater community-wide earthquake resilience.

Format

MCEER’s 2004 Annual Meeting will open with a Practitioners Day Forum on Thursday, January 15, 2004. Open to all interested stakeholders, the Practitioners Day program will include plenary and breakout sessions focusing on three components critical to community resilience:

• Seismic Evaluation & Retrofit of Electric Power & Water Systems
• Seismic Retrofit of Hospitals/Acute Care Facilities
• Earthquake Response & Recovery

Practitioners Day participants will be asked to provide input and insight (via presentations and discussion) on critical challenges to achieving resilience in each of these three areas. Further interaction and discussion is encouraged through the Annual Meeting Luncheon and Banquet on January 15.

On Friday, January 16, the meeting is open to MCEER industry partners, students and researchers only. All three of these “member” groups will meet in plenary and breakout sessions to factor the previous day’s practitioner comments into Strategic Research Planning, for the year ahead.

Who Should Attend?

MCEER’s Practitioners Day Forum is open to architects, engineers, planners, owners, emergency managers, policy makers, public officials, and technology manufacturers who have an interest in the development of cost-effective retrofit tools and techniques for improving the seismic resilience of communities, and specifically, hospitals, electric power, water delivery, and response and recovery systems.