EarthxCities

The conference will feature two tracks – one focused on local governments and one focused on local business communities.

• Local Government Focus: Nicole Ferrini, Moderator
• Business Community Focus: TBD, Moderator

City, community, and business leaders are facing an increasing set of challenges as they prepare for the impacts of climate change and an increasing number of natural disasters.  This one-day event will provide evolving practices, cutting-edge solutions, and decision support needs.  Attendees will hear insights from public officials, recognized experts, and experienced practitioners in a suite of plenary sessions, panel discussions, and networking activities.

W. Nim Kidd will present the findings from the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas which examined the difficulties Texas communities faced because of Hurricane Harvey to identify what happened and how our preparation for and response to future disasters can be improved. The commission’s report Eye of the Stormwas released in December 2018 and presents recommendations and resources for how we can prepare for the future. (https://www.rebuildtexas.today/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2018/12/12-11-18-EYE-OF-THE-STORM-digital.pdf)

These sessions focus on how we can prepare our cities and business community to be more resilient in the face of future challenges by focusing on the strategies, recommendations, and resources:

• Community Organizations and Climate Action Planning
• Resources for local governments
• Resources and Private Investments in Resilience
• Designing for Resilience in New and Existing Development Projects

What are the most effective strategies for responding to a major disaster, and how can they be deployed by cities and the business community to provide necessary services to the public and ensure continuation of business in effected communities.

• Coordinating crowd-source response efforts
• How to prioritize limited resources
• Importance of Communication networks
• Leveraging stakeholder networks to maximize effectiveness

The lunch plenary will feature mayors from across Texas (and beyond) discussing the challenges, threats, and on-going strategies for ensuring a more resilient future for their cities Mayors from featured cities include San Antonio, Baton Rouge, and Miami.

This session will address long-term recovery efforts from the government and business perspectives and how these efforts circle back to the preventative efforts from the first Breakout Session.

• Smart Cities and neighborhoods
• Getting buy in for Resilience
• Green bonds – both private and government
• Ways to Measure Resilience Efforts (GRESB, RELi)

The closing panel will feature leaders from both the local government and business tracks alongside national experts on resilience to summarize many of the key points from the day’s presentations.