DAREnet successfully concluded its First Annual Practitioner Forum

A large number of practitioners attended DAREnet’s First Annual Practitioner Forum on 1^st March 2019 in Budapest, Hungary. They were representing organisations operating in the field of civil protection, and stakeholders from policy, industry, research and academia.

On the evening upfront the Forum, the practitioners were invited to present their innovations at an informal get-together event. This first face-to-face contact between the invited practitioners and the DAREnet Consortium was a great opportunity to strengthen the relationships between parties through strong interaction and exchange of innovative ideas. The DAREnet Annual Practitioner Forum was dedicated to presenting the RDI Roadmap and launching the 1^st Call for RDI Initiatives. The full-day event started with presentation of the DAREnet project followed by some short presentations on the topic “Flood vulnerability in the Danube River region’’. Following that, some of the practitioners held a series of pitch presentation followed by a Q&A session. The session has continued with the presentation of the DAREnet RDI Roadmap concept and 1^st Call for Practitioners Initiatives. Finally, the event was concluded with a “World Café’’ session where participants and DAREnet Consortium team members have exchanged their ideas in order to identify gaps and shortcomings related to practitioners’ future initiatives. “I think we organised a really good meeting, offering to the practitioners and to all the actors in the field of flood management and civil protections a great floor to exchange their experiences and that way share the knowledge within the community” stated Christian J. Illing of THW and Coordinator of DAREnet.