Welcome!

On behalf of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) we warmly invite you to join us to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of the society at the NZSEE Annual Technical Conference to be held in Auckland, New Zealand on 13 – 15 April 2018.

This year in recognition of this significant milestone for the Society we have chosen the theme of “From Inangahua to Kaikoura and Beyond”.  We will be looking back to look to the future by both recognising and celebrating the considerable advances in earthquake engineering research and practice achieved over the past 50 years and looking to future as to where earthquake engineering research and practice may lead in the next 50 years with keynote addresses and special sessions on the emerging challenges facing earthquake engineering.

The technical programme is planned to include case studies, emerging and innovative uses of new technologies, research developments in earthquake engineering, recent advances in geotechnical design and emerging developments in resilience and low damage design.

There will be an increased number of plenary sessions with invited speakers compared with recent conferences. The focus of these sessions will be on discussing the big and emerging issues in earthquake engineering from low damage design and resilient communities to the underlying philosophy and concepts behind developments in the NZ loadings code.  A specific session is planned on the recent developments in the seismic assessment of existing buildings and one providing an update on the Kaikoura earthquake and particularly the emerging issues of precast concrete floors.

We look forward to a conference that provides a great opportunity for you to meet with your peers for interesting discussions, listen to presentations on what is happening in the different fields of earthquake engineering science and practice and increase your knowledge to assist in your day to day practice.

The conference venue is SkyCity Auckland Convention Centre located in the heart of downtown Auckland.

Please note the key dates for abstract and paper submission.  As the conference date draws closer the website will be updated with details of the keynotes speakers, programme and other conference activities.

I look forward to welcoming you all in Auckland to a very special conference and look forward to robust discussion on the future of earthquake engineering.

Helen Ferner

2018 Conference Convenor