Beyond a tunnel vision 2.0 - CALL FOR SPEAKERS
Introduction
In 2018 four organizations (ABTUS-BVOTS, COB, ie-net & KIVI) of both Belgium and the Netherlands organized the first European conference on tunnel renovations. After the success of this conference (over 350 visitors) and the importance to have a joint European vision and position, we decided to continue organizing the European tunnel conference on renovation, and to do so every other year. This means the second conference would take place in 2020.
Objective of the conference
This conference will focus on three objectives:
We have the aim to make the major European renovation challenge visible, important, innovative and attractive, with a pioneering role for politicians, clients, companies and experts from all over Europe. To keep this message clear and to have no overlap with the French AFTES conference in September 2020 (which mainly focusses on new infrastructure) we will focus on renovation. We will however put forward an holistic point of view, which means that asset management/maintenance and repair will also be included in the conference scope.
Share knowledge and experiences by organizing lectures, workshops, group meetings, etc. and the possibility for all stakeholders to meet and interact, hence creating a strong European Network.
At this conference we want to launch a joint working program, the ambition from which is, amongst others, the foundation of the COB-International working committee/European network. The base of this working program is the paper ‘Towards a joined European research agenda for underground infrastructure’ which is adopted by both the CEDR, EIM and Infra4DFuture and it is the ambition it thus becomes the framework within Europe.
With these objectives in mind we believe the second version of Beyond a tunnel vision should be:
More European compared to the first one with a more balanced input from/influence on both the programming and the selection from other European countries besides Belgium and The Netherlands. To accomplish that, a programming /endorsement committee will be formed by: representatives of the current partners in the paper (France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Italy, Switzerland). We would propose Eric Leca as president and form a committee/organization structure together with him during the 2019 summer. We plan to have a first meeting of this committee at the STUVA in November 2019 where we will launch the event and do the first call for summary’s/video-messages/etc.
Improve quality through a rigorous selection process by asking for and reviewing abstracts (max 1,5 A4), as well as ppt presentations for selected contributions Review committee members can be suggested by people from the programming committee but can also be suggested by the current members of the first European conference.
Good balance between structural, installation, automation, innovative and holistic approaches
The five topics as stated in the European paper will be the ‘themes’ for the parallel sessions (see picture 1 below).
As we send out the call for abstracts and we seek keynote speakers and we will select for presentations and workshops that fit the aims as stated in the European paper and thus being a logical step in the European approach: either inspirational (good practices, innovations) or as a topic for research, or as a request for European collaboration.
