Beyond the engaging plenaries and breakout sessions, one of the Forum’s most appealing features was the opportunity to network with your peers and many others outside your discipline in a dynamic and inspirational learning environment. In addition to the Forum Reception on Wednesday evening, we are providing several other networking opportunities before and during the event, including receptions, long networking lunches, special interactive activities, morning networking sessions and interactive lightning discussions.
Receptions
Special Activities
Networking Sessions and Lightning Discussions
Receptions
After Hours at the Aquarium of the Pacific
Aquarium of the Pacific – 100 Aquarium Way (10 – 15 minute walk from the hotel)
Tuesday, September 6 • 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Cost: Free
Join us after dinner on Tuesday, September 6th for a special after hours event at Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific between 7:30pm – 9:00pm. Watch the nighttime activities of the animals, touch a shark, and enjoy the beautiful evening lighting of the Aquarium’s architecture. Staff will be on-hand for educational programming as well. The aquarium is located a short 10 minute walk away from the Renaissance Hotel. The event is FREE for registered Forum participants and will feature a no-host bar.
Join us after dinner on Tuesday, September 6th for a special after hours event at Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific between 7:30pm – 9:00pm. Watch the nighttime activities of the animals, touch a shark, and enjoy the beautiful evening lighting of the Aquarium’s architecture. Staff will be on-hand for educational programming as well. The aquarium is located a short 10 minute walk away from the Renaissance Hotel. The event is FREE for registered Forum participants and will feature a no-host bar.
Forum Reception
Wednesday, September 7 • 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM
The first full day of the Forum will be capped off with a hosted networking reception. Join your colleagues for some great networking, light food and drinks and the opportunity to experience and engage with climate-change related art.
Special Activities
Tools Salon – An Interactive Open House of Climate Change Tools
Renaissance Hotel
Wednesday, September 7
Cost: Free
Come join us for an interactive open house of climate change tools on Wednesday, September 7th. The open house format gives forum attendees the chance to experiment with new tools in a hands-on setting, evaluate how those tools can apply to real-life scenarios, and meet and collaborate with tool creators and your peers. Additional registration is not required and you can check out the salon during concurrent sessions or networking breaks.
Come join us for an interactive open house of climate change tools on Wednesday, September 7th. The open house format gives forum attendees the chance to experiment with new tools in a hands-on setting, evaluate how those tools can apply to real-life scenarios, and meet and collaborate with tool creators and your peers. Additional registration is not required and you can check out the salon during concurrent sessions or networking breaks.
Climate Adaptation Pub Trivia Night
The Federal Bar – 102 Pine Avenue (a 2-5 minute walk from the hotel)
Wednesday, September 7 • 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Cost: $27
Learning about climate change is important, but showing off your smarts is what really matters! Following the Forum Reception, join climate-adaptation gurus (and novices too) from across the state at the Federal Bar in Downtown Long Beach to eat, drink and test your climate knowledge! This popular event will sell out, so don’t delay, register today!
Learning about climate change is important, but showing off your smarts is what really matters! Following the Forum Reception, join climate-adaptation gurus (and novices too) from across the state at the Federal Bar in Downtown Long Beach to eat, drink and test your climate knowledge! This popular event will sell out, so don’t delay, register today!
Drinks and Prizes. Participants will receive one free drink ticket and a chance to win a spectacular California Adaptation Forum Trivia Master Mystery Prize! So, gather up a team of two to six adaptation pundits and prepare to show climate change what it’s up against!
Team Up. You can purchase an individual ticket and connect with people during the Forum to assemble a team, show up at the Federal Bar and we’ll help you form a team, or come prepared with your own team. Each team member must purchase a ticket.
Game Night at the CA Adaptation Forum – Game of Floods
Wednesday, September 7 • 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Cost: Free
Role-playing time! – Join us after you grab dinner for a California Adaptation Forum Game Night. We will play the “Game of Floods” – a community engagement activity on flood resiliency. Participants will gather around tabletop game boards and act as planning commissioners to solve for sea level rise with strategy game pieces. Master the game, so you can bring it to YOUR community!
Placemaking Morning Walking Tour
Thursday, September 8 • 7:15 AM – 8 AM
Cost: FreeStart your morning off right with a 45-minute creative placemaking walking tour with local expert April Economides, president of Green Octopus Consulting. The briskly-paced walking tour with stops will include a pocket park, parklet, public art installations and murals, and more, highlighting how creative urban elements bring local communities social, ecological and economic benefits. Meet near the registration table a few minutes before 7:15 AM.
Networking Sessions and Lightning Discussions
Bridging the Gap: Connecting with Community Concerns for Action
Wednesday, September 7 • 7:30 – 8:15 AM
Sascha Petersen, Co-founder and Executive Director, Adaptation International
Focusing on the people, assets, and resources that reflect a community’s core values and concerns provides an opportunity to build climate resilience.
Are you struggling to turn great ideas into action?
Do you have approaches that have worked to encourage implementation?
Come share your experiences, learn from your peers, and use this time to connect your ideas with on-the-ground action. The session will start with a quick overview of three projects that are building community climate resilience: The California King Tides Project; threshold-based extreme weather planning in Texas; and the San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative.
Building on this foundation, the presenters will facilitate small group discussions to explore implementation challenges and solutions based on 1) social media and engagement, 2) weather thresholds and planning, 3) multi-sectoral engagement for action. Participants will discuss strategies for engaging with disproportionately impacted communities to help diverse leaders make informed decisions about local climate solutions.
Coffee with Climate Champions – Hosted by the American Society for Adaptation Professionals
Wednesday, September 7 • 7:30 AM – 8:15 AM
ASAP helps build essential climate resilience for communities across the country by focusing on connecting and supporting the individuals. Come grab your coffee and breakfast and learn about how we provide a platform for climate adaptation leaders to interact, share what’s working, and collaborate with their colleagues. A great way to start the day!
Sea Level Rise Adaptation by Design
Wednesday, September 7 • 7:30 – 8:15 AM
Diana Sokolove, Senior Planner, City of San Francisco
Bay Area-Resilient-By-Design will bring together world class, multi-disciplinary design teams with government, civic leaders, equity and climate justice advocates, local officials, and technical experts from the SF Bay Area and beyond, to co-design innovative solutions for the Bay and its neighborhoods. It will excite the public’s imagination around shoreline planning, and change the way communities, businesses, agencies and institutions understand the interconnectedness of land, water, infrastructure, and quality of life. It may reveal limitations of current governance, and highlight how multi-stakeholder and inter-jurisdictional approach may better address emerging problems. It will develop implementable designs that have the requisite local buy-in to support their transition into actual projects. BIG QUESTION: Can a whole region come together in a vision that works and can be funded?
Tribal Welcome and Networking
Wednesday, September 7 • 7:30 – 8:15 AM
The California Landscape Conservation Cooperative Tribal Team welcomes all tribal leaders, tribal staff, and those interested in partnering with native communities for the protection of cultural and natural resources in light of climate change. This informal gathering will be an excellent opportunity to engage and connect with other tribal professionals prior to the start of the Forum.
Come Network with our Network!
Thursday, September 8 • 7:30 AM – 8:15 AM
Working on coastal climate adaptation? No need to start from scratch! In the California Coastal Resilience Network, we share and learn from each other about cutting-edge adaptation efforts. Join us to meet colleagues working on coastal adaptation throughout California and find new opportunities for collaboration.
Community Driven Climate Resilience Planning
Thursday, September 8 • 7:30 AM – 8:15 AM
Movement Strategy Center (MSC) will host a breakfast conversation on the framework for Community-Driven Climate Resilience Planning Framework they developed with a core team of partners from community based organizations (from California and beyond) who have served as contributors and reviewers. Current and projected climate disruptions are calling on us to take bold leaps together towards ecological approaches to decision-making and resource management. Join the Movement Strategy Center to learn about their Community-Driven Climate Resilience Planning Framework, which outlines the essential elements that shape inclusive processes for community driven climate solutions. If you can, please review the framework here and come prepared to have an engaging dialogue around questions such as: What does it look like for communities to define resiliency for themselves? How can community-driven climate resilience planning influence public planning processes at the City, County and State levels in California? How can we work together across sectors to cultivate the kind of deep democracy, social cohesion, and equity-based solutions necessary for long-term climate resilience?
Meet & Eat: ARCCA Networking Breakfast
Thursday, September 8 • 7:30 – 9:00 AM
Kick-start your morning with new connections and rich conversations! The Alliance of Regional Collaboratives for Climate Adaptation (ARCCA) welcomes you to join our members, partners and leading adaptation professionals from across the state to discuss opportunities for collaboration to advance adaptation. You will have the opportunity to learn about statewide initiatives and engage in regional table discussions to share ideas, strategies and resources, as well as specific challenges and opportunities unique to your region. What better way to start the day than to dive into the issues you care most about? We hope you can join us!
Breaking the Hydro-Illogical Cycle in California
Thursday, September 8 • 7:30 – 8:15 AM
Amanda Sheffield, Postdoctoral Fellow, California-Nevada Climate Applications Program (CNAP); National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS)
Planning for climate hazards is often impaired by public and stakeholder apathy during the inevitable periods when the climate relaxes to more normal “non-crisis” conditions. One example, the Hydro-Illogical Cycle, refers to society’s typical reactive rather than proactive cycle of drought management. California’s current severe drought shows signs of propelling long-term drought planning and adaptation efforts. However, California’s Hydro-Illogical Cycle is intricate. Non-uniformity in the drought’s impacts and multiple years of symptoms and messaging may generate stakeholder burnout. And while the crisis may be perceived as over, it may not be abated fully in a community/region. Has the Hydro-Illogical Cycle been broken in California? How can we further reduce apathy to achieve proactive drought planning? We’ll have an open dialogue about drought perceptions, and brainstorm creative communication and engagement strategies to create a roadmap of actions. This timely discussion is needed among those in climate science to policy and implementation.
Tribal-Public-Private Partnerships: Leveraging Tribes for Environmental Innovation
Thursday, September 8 • 7:30 – 8:15 AM
Native American Tribes are uniquely positioned to embrace, test and study innovations in environmental sciences. We will present case studies demonstrating Tribes’ ability to move beyond bureaucracy and politics, highlighting advantages for environmental organizations who work with Tribes. As time is of the essence when it comes to global climate change, the ability to engage with environmental and scientific organizations quickly and adeptly is critical. Native American Tribes are not only well-positioned to be quality program partners, but bring deep ecological and environmental connection to the work.We will highlight the benefits and unique characteristics of partnering with native peoples; briefly discuss Trust Land status, funding and co-funding opportunities; and conclude with a discussion of Tribal environmental justice and traditional ecological knowledge.
Post-Forum Debrief and Climate Equity Strategy Discussion
Thursday, September 8 • 3:00 – 4:30 PM
Join Breakthrough Communities in a post-forum debrief and climate equity strategy session on building better alignment amongst climate equity leaders in California. Leaders will discuss local, regional and state needs, opportunities and strategies to increase benefits in impacted communities.
Tribal Follow-UP
Thursday, September 8 • 3:00 – 5:00 PM
The California Landscape Conservation Cooperative Tribal Team invites all tribal leaders, tribal staff, and tribal professionals to come together for an informal post-forum meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to provide an opportunity to listen and learn about each other’s impressions, experiences, and next-steps from the Forum.
