Post Conference Report

2005 Asia Pacific Conference on Risk Management and Safety

1-2 December 2005, Hong Kong

The 2005 Asia-Pacific Conference on Risk Management and Safety was held in Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel on 1-2 December 2005.  This Conference was jointly organised by the Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management of City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Association of Risk Management and Safety, and Occupational Safety and Health Council.  This Conference had provided a forum for international experts and researchers to present and review advances in technologies related to risk and safety management, and also their practical applications and case studies.

Conference General Chairman, Dr. Vincent Ho, opens the Conference

Ms Sandra Lee, JP presented an opening address on the 1^st Day of the Conference

The Conference had 107 technical presentations from over 20 locations including the Mainland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, India, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, USA, UK, etc.   These presentations covered 25 important areas in risk management and system safety, which included topics such as ”corporate and business risk”, ”risk management and safety in transportation”, ”system and safety assurance”, ”"accident analysis”, ”human factor” and ”terrorism risks”. In addition, the Conference had invited many well-known keynote speakers to share their views and experience in the field.

Mr. Andrew McCusker presented a keynote speech on risk management for railway in Hong Kong

Mr. Norman Lo presented a keynote speech on safety management system for civil aviation in  Hong Kong

These speakers include Ms Sandra Lee, JP, Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labour (Economic Development) HKSAR Government, Ir. Dr. Hon. Raymond Chung-tai Ho, S.B.St.J.,JP, Legislative Council (Engineering Functional Constituency), Mr. N. Lo, Director-General, Civil Aviation Department, HKSAR Government,  Mr. A. McCusker, Acting Operations Director, MTR Corporation, and Ir. R. Lai, Director, EMSD, HKSAR Government and Prof. Michael Hung, Head of Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management of City University of Hong Kong.

Prof. Hung presented an opening address on the 2^nd Day of the Conference

CityU students were busy helping delegates to register for the Conference

As the main emphasis of the Conference was on practical implementation of new and innovative technologies, the Conference had certainly benefited industrial and financial sectors in Hong Kong and Mainland China since many companies were in search of directions for improving their risk and safety management.  As the participants were from both academia and industry, it had also provided a platform to bridge the gap between academia and industry.  The Conference had over 290 local and international delegates and had attracted funding support from the Professional Services Development Assistance Scheme (PSDAS), KC Wong Education Foundation and 20 local and international companies including KCRC, MTR Corporation, CLP Power, Gammon Construction and Cathay Pacific.

A post Conference survey had shown that the Conference was well received by the delegates.  The active participations and discussions from delegates had also highlighted the need for such a forum for both local and international companies and researchers to exchange views and share experiences.  The Conference Organisers had certainly taken up an active role in facilitating this.

Over 290 delegates had attended the Conference

Coffee break was a good time for making new friends.

The Conference was certainly very successful and the Organising Committee has been given a new task to organise the International Conference on Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management (PSAM9) in 2008 which will have at least 400 international participants.  The success of the Conference was not only contributed by the effort of the organising committee, the organisers and the supporting organisations but also our student helpers from City University of Hong Kong.  17 students had helped the registration and preparation of the Conference.  Without their help, the Conference would not be able to run so smoothly.

Key members of the Conference Organizing Committee

Conference Dinner features a Chinese traditional drum show