Natural disasters, like other societal crises present opportunities for learning and improving social and sectoral resilience, humanitarian response and building capacity related to sustainability. In the past the lessons related to emergency management, and crisis response may have been over emphasized at the expense of those lessons related to policies and strategic thinking related to Risk Reduction.

The cluster of recent events including the March 11 2011 TOHOKU Earthquake and Tsunami have presented a range of challenges. These challenges go far beyond the short term (so called Emergency Phase) and may require fundamental repositioning of global, national, and local practice related to areas such as Risk Reduction, Recovery and Reconstruction Strategies, and Supply Chain integrity. Gaps in knowledge and practice  revealed by the Tohoku Crisis – and other recent events –  have implications for Sustainable Livelihoods, reliable revenue streams, and Economic stability as well as the Sustainable Development aspirations of the global communitty.

New and improved nowledge networking, innovative information and idea sharing out of the box solution focussed thinking and engaging in conversations across and between disciplines need to be stimulated and maintained. The stakeholders in this capacity building process include first response practitioners, emergency managers, diverse professional groups, officials and policy makers, investors, business managers, researchers, educators.

Their engagement and long term participation is vital if more robust and resilient local, municipal, provincial, regional and global systems are to be achieved.

The overall purpose of this first anniversary review session will be to: promote and stimulate wider dialogue and sharing of Lessons Learned between all stakeholders; facilitate the exchange of information and lessons learned in the Canadian interest groups; stimulate dialogue and discussion regarding optimal development and timely utilization of emergency, disaster, and risk focused knowledge and skill sets at all levels.

This one-day conference is a professional event to be held on the first anniversary of the earthquake that created multiple secondary hazards such as Tsunami and Nuclear Power Plant meltdown and many Supply Chain challenges for the global economy.

Many prominent officials, scholars and researchers, media reporters, NGOs, and private sector will be among the panelists and participants.

It is an opportunity to learn about this major event, meet and network with diverse stakeholders and contribute to discussions on improving our processes and the capacity to deal with similar events and reducing the risks associated with future crises.