Virtual Registration for YES Africa 2011 Roundtables Now Open

If you are unable to attend the YES Africa 2011 Symposium in Johannesburg, South Africa this coming January, you will still be able to participate in the meeting!

On 12 January 2011, there will be two roundtable sessions that will be broadcasted in real-time over the web. Web-based ("virtual") participants are required to pre-register for the roundtable sessions.

Each roundtable session will have an web-based working group that will occur concurrently with the working group discussions at the symposium. The web-based working groups will be run via Skype. As part of the registration process, web-based participants will be have the opportunity to specify if they wish to participate in the web-based working group for each roundtable session.

Roundtable 1:

Natural Hazards in Africa: Climate change, earthquakes, landslides, hydrological hazards, etc.

This roundtable session will review current natural hazards that are occurring in the African continent, for example earthquakes (e.g. active East African rift), landslides, floods and drought etc. The roundtable discussion will focus on the different approaches of identifying natural hazards, risk assessment, risk mitigation and the role of the earth scientists and government/ policy makers with regard to natural hazards. What is the role of the government with regard to natural hazards, and how can young earth scientist approach government/ policy makers with regard to these natural hazards?

Roundtable 2:

Creating Local and Regional Professional Development Resources for Young and Early-Career Geoscientists

This roundtable session explores the current programs and initiatives that provide professional development resources for young and early-career geoscientists within Africa. This session will determine how these resources can be increased in order to make them available to a greater number of young and early-career geoscientists, both on a regional and local level. Issues to be explored in this session include: Job availability, preparedness of geoscience graduates, availability local and regional infrastructure to support professional development resources (schools, programs, internet accessibility), and retention of geoscience graduates. Strategies for how the YES Network and YES Network National Chapters can develop and disseminate these professional development resources will also be proposed.

For more information about the YES Africa 2011 Symposium, the roundtables, and registration details, please visit: http://www.networkyes.org/index.php/meetings/yes_africa_2011/