One of IRGC’s core competencies is our convening capability.
We organise a range of events that enable representatives from government, industry, academia, NGOs and other organisations to openly discuss specific risk issues and their governance.
This interactive dialogue between policy makers and other stakeholders can support a deeper understanding of the issues under discussion, promote the development of proposals for new risk governance approaches and allow for areas of agreement - and disagreement - to be identified and explored.
IRGC conferences may have a single theme (in 2006 we addressed nanotechnology risk governance; in 2007 we focused on regulating and financing carbon capture and storage) or may be more general in nature. General conferences (in Geneva in 2004 and Beijing in 2005) address a wide range of topical risk issues, provide opportunities to present the results of IRGC projects and allow the IRGC network to meet.
IRGC also organises smaller events, normally technical workshops within the context of our projects. These workshops are an important part of the process by which we compile expert knowledge and develop thinking with regard both to risk governance gaps and our recommendations for addressing them. Past workshops have focused on the risk governance of issues such as nanotechnology, critical infrastructures, biomass energy, carbon capture and storage, biosafety and a potential influenza pandemic.
In this section of our website you will find summary descriptions of events that IRGC has organised and downloads of many of the presentations given at them as well as, in a separate page, details of some of the events organised by other organisations at which representatives of IRGC have given presentations.