WV planning summit to reach global audience
The Western Visayas Regional Planning Summit on Thursday, March 26, is set to reach a global audience as it will be a Live Webcast event, making it possible for those who can’t be physically present during the conference to see and listen to its high-caliber speakers.
It will be the first locally-organized gathering to have such a feature.
The webcasting facility was developed by the IT team of the Canadian Urban Institute, one of the organizers of the summit, with a dedicated broadband line provided by Globe Broadband, one of the media partners.
Those who can’t attend the summit at the Iloilo Grand Hotel can simply log on to the summit website at www.iloiloguimarassummit.com and they have the option to access a live audio-video feed or simply an audio feed.
Planned as both accessible and interactive, the Webcast will also be archived online following the summit.
Themed “Weathering Uncertainties: Building a Resilient Region,” the summit is jointly organized by the Metro Iloilo-Guimaras Economic Development Council (MIGEDC), and the regional offices of the Department of Interior and Local Government (NEDA) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
The summit aims to identify and arrive at a consensus on the bioregional challenges of the MIG and Western Visayas regions, share experiences in addressing sustainability and governance issues and foster discussion on emerging creative trends in regional planning such as disaster risk management and climate change.
It will have as its keynote speaker former Environment Secretary Elisea “Bebet” Gozun, awarded as one of Champions of the Earth in 2007 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The summit was called to help set the course of both the Metro Iloilo-Guimaras and the Western Visayas regions amid repeated disasters that devastated them, specifically the flood wrought by Typhoon Frank in June 2008 and the MV Solar 1 oil spill tragedy in August 2006.
Other speakers in the summit include South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes, chairperson of the Allah Valley Landscape Development Alliance; Andrew Farncombe, Vice President for International Partnerships of the Canadian Urban Institute; Kristoffer Berse, knowledge management manager of the Earthquakes and Megacities Initiatives; and Presidential Assistant Raul Banias, executive director of Task Force Bangon Panay.
Engr. Bienvenido Lipayon, regional director of the Environmental Management Bureau; Engr. Al Fruto, project coordinator of the Iloilo Flood Control Project; and Engr. Evan Anthony Arias, senior planner of the province of Guimaras will complete the list of speakers.
The summit will also seeks to identify priority policy issues, areas of collaboration and partnership among business sector, academe, international donor agencies, organizations, national government and non-government organizations in addressing issues of sustainable development.
Other organizing partners in the summit include the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the University of the Philippines in the Visayas, the Central Philippine University and the Canadian Urban Institute, with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency through CUI’s Urban Partnerships Program Philippines. The News Today is the summit's official media partner.