The theme of the 22nd edition of Geo Promotion is ‘Expect the Unexpected: Risk Management in Socio-Spatial Planning’. On the 22nd of February 2019, we have shed light on the many aspects of risk management. This day was filled with inspiring key-note speakers and many interesting workshops. On this day, professionals, students, and academics had the opportunity to get inspired by these activities and by each other in the Hitachi Capital Mobility Stadium.
Marlous van der Veen is intrigued by transition, from today to the far future. Offering alternative perspectives, stretching current frameworks and challenging the status quo is what she likes most. Not because she isnot willing to accept the world of today, but because she wants to contribute to the way the world can be. But most importantly: she is the host of the 2019 Geo Promotion Event on Risk Management in Socio-spatial Planning!
Marlous van der Veen is a Faculty of Spatial Sciences alumnus, works at Enexis Group as Senior Strategy Advisor, gave her first TEDx talk recently and was awarded as one of the hundred most sustainable young persons of the Netherlands (Duurzame Jonge 100).
Fascinated by the changes in urban development and tourism, Ewout Versloot works as a strategic advisor for Rotterdam Partners: the city marketing organization for the city of Rotterdam. He is critical of the conventional way in which a lot of destinations look at tourism, and is trying to rethink tourism. He analyzes the risks of tourism and how they affect cities, regions and the lives of the people living and working there.
For Rotterdam, he is advising the city on a new vision on the value of tourism. Not just economic value, but additional benefit for other aspects of society as well.
Water safety, an import feature in our spatial planning! Our next speaker is Edith Kuijper, advisor crisis management at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. Although the focus in the Netherlands is almost always on high water levels, last year she’s been pretty busy with the drought. She has a diverse professional background in fields such as crisis management, water resource management and environmental awareness, all within the government administration.
Vincent van der Vlies is managing consultant safety and crisis management at Berenschot. Vincent wrote a dissertation at the Radboud University concerning the transport of hazardous materials and how this afects urban development in the Netherlands. During his research he started working as a consultant on a variety of safety and security topics, such as transport safety, security of cruise ships, soccer and security, political and strategical risk management. He is mainly interested in how safety and security may be managed by interventions in spatial planning, but also how institutions influence risk management.
In his keynote he will therefore reflect on safety in the built environment and critically elaborate on how institutions function in practice by focusing on the question: are we planning in accordance to Murphy’s law and should we expect the expected?
My name is Gretha Leever, studied Economy & Law (Hanze), Regional Geography & Spatial Planning (RUG) and Crisis Management. The main part of my working experience is dedicated to public service in different fields, like social welfare, urban planning, waste management, energy savings, environment protection, special advisor to the local government, public health and public order and security.
Working for the local government, mainly in the Netherlands, for Groningen Municipality and through the GGD (regional health department) for all the municipalities in the province of Groningen. After the conflict in Kosovo I have been working in Kosovo for almost six years for the European Commission, the United Nations and VNG International as Local Expert. In my current job at the GGD I try to connect public health and security with spatial planning, climate-adaptation, energy transition, and other fields, amongst several other tasks like crisis coordinator and the transition of the GGD.
During the event, companies have given interactive workshops where different aspects of risk management will the the topic. The different companies who held a workshop are:
Chairman: Tim Jansen
Vice-chairman: Elna Minderman
Secretary: Tess Tjokrodikromo
Treasurer: Julia Fielt
Commissioner Intern: Anneloes Bouma
Commissioner Extern: Anne Bouman
