As part of the Project Development Officers of the Iloilo City Planning and Development Office, we had recently attended the International Conference on Urban and Regional Planning which was hosted by the UP School of Urban and Regional Planning of the University of the Philippines Diliman. Here below are the event details and description as well as its objectives.

Conference Title: International Conference on Urban and Regional Planning
Sponsored Institution: University of the Philippines Diliman
Date: March 14-15, 2018
Venue and Location: Century Park Hotel Manila, Philippines
Theme: Planning Towards Sustainability and Resilience

Description of the Event

International Conference on Urban and Regional Planning is a gathering of researchers and urban planners and aims to bring together 300 to 500 local and foreign participants from government agencies and offices, private organizations and the academe with an interest in influencing and further advancing sustainability and resilience at the national, regional and local levels.

The conference objectives are:
• To unite research and planning initiatives that foster significant, incremental change towards sustainable growth;
• To provide a venue for the exchange of knowledge toward meeting the diverse environmental, social, and economic needs of society, at present and in the future; and
• To strengthen the international, regional, and local collaborative networks with the intent of promoting sustainability.

The conference covered the following sub-themes:
• Sustainable Development
• Sustainable Transport
• Sustainable Infrastructure
• Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
• Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
• Policy and Institutions

Conference Structure

The conference is of two major components: the breakout grouped parallel session with different themes and the plenary speeches. It started with the opening program in which the opening ceremonies were composed with messages from various speakers. It was then followed by keynote speeches and a panel discussion. The first part of the breakout sessions which started after lunch was composed of research on the topics: Disaster Risk Reduction and Management/Climate Change Adaptation, Sustainable Development, and Sustainable Transportation. The second part of that afternoon was then on the topics of Policies and Institutions, Sustainable Infrastructure and Sustainable Environment.

The second day started with grouped parallel sessions on the topics Disaster Risk Reduction and Management/Climate Change Adaptation, Sustainable Transportation, Sustainable Environment. It was then followed by sessions discussing research on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management/Climate Change Adaptation, Sustainable Infrastructure and Sustainable Environment. The afternoon session was initiated with the plenary speeches and open forums and lastly, the closing ceremonies.

I am back home in Iloilo after the International Conference on Urban and Regional Planning 2018 held in Manila last Wednesday to Thursday. It was exhausting yet enjoyable in the aspect of learning from the researches presented in the various sectors of sustainability. What I enjoyed the most was the researches of the Sustainable Transportation category in particular the ones presented by the delegates of Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro. It was very relatable to the traffic situation here in Iloilo city and also I got to learn more ideas on how to address these.

What is exhausting in our part was the flight schedule that we took. To be specific, it was the first flight to Manila for the day and directly into the event venue. Obviously we lacked sleep as we had to get up early to prepare and be at the airport by 4am. Listening to the morning presentors already got me snoozing every now and then and it got worse in the afternoon. Good thing the transportation researches got my attention and that I was able to record one talk and forum discussion.

The flight back to Iloilo was scheduled the night after the second day of the conference. It was again expected to be tiring though we were able to drop by the airport earlier because of perceived traffic. We took our dinner there and waited for the boarding time. It was, however, one hour delayed and we were able to fly at around 11:45pm. I arrived at the bhaus at 1:00am. Lesson learned. Our next booking would be a day earlier so we could get enough rest and sleep. I might need to add that to my reminders.

As of this posting, our research group in P299 will need to review our objectives again and adjust our Review of Related Literature so as to correct it and be adjacent to Chapter 1. I also needed to write that Theoretical framework again. I have the rest of the night for the writing period.

I guess I’ll have to wrap this up for now and so just stay tuned for a detailed recap of my ICURP 2018 experience.