Several Baton Rouge companies and organizations are participating next week in ResCon, an international conference on the practice of successful resiliency and disaster management, to be held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.
GNO Inc. is sponsoring the event, which is expected to attract experts from around the world who are in the business of dealing with and recovering from disasters.
Among the Baton Rouge-based entities participating in the event are the Center for Planning Excellence, the Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority, the Water Institute of the Gulf, CB&I and the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.
“ResCon is about linking professionals who either are or ought to be working together in this arena,” says Robin Barnes, executive vice president of GNO Inc. “We’re also bringing the private sector into this in a big way. The private sector always plays a big role around disaster and resilience, and many companies are now adjusting and looking at issues such as cyber attacks, how will it potentially impact their businesses and how are they training their employees.”
This is the first year for ResCon, though the conference is actually a larger and rebranded version of the International Disaster Conference and Expo, which was held from 2012 to 2015. Organizers decided this year to expand the scope and focus beyond natural disasters like floods and storms because of growing awareness of issues related to resiliency.
“This whole field is creating a new position in cities around the globe—an individual who is centralizing functions and building resilience, whether it is economic, environmental or related to technology,” Barnes says. “So ResCon is creating an annual convening of policymakers in this field.”
Barnes says ResCon will provide good networking opportunities for Louisiana companies in the business of disaster management.
“If you’re a contractor that does work ranging from coastal restoration to water management, disaster preparedness or if you’re a local business with a local market, some of your potential funders might be here,” she says. “And if you’re exporting your services there will be federal HUD officials and government officials from other states and countries, so it’s a tremendous opportunity to do business.”
Read more about that conference which will be held March 1-3. Louisiana residents can get a discount on the registration by entering the code: gnolocal.
—Stephanie Riegel
