A Program Built for Impact
The ICONHIC 2026 programme unfolds as a four-day journey through the evolving dimensions of resilience — from Reframing Resilience and moving From Risk to Regeneration, to Building Adaptive Systems and collective Synthesis.
Designed to balance strategic dialogue, technical depth, and interdisciplinary exchange, the programme combines Keynote Talks, Curated Sessions, Interactive Forums, and Cross-sector Discussions.
And yes — a few surprises, unconventional formats, and memorable moments are also built into the schedule… to be revealed in due time.
CONDENSED SCHEDULE (12 June Update) DETAILED SCHEDULE (25 June Update)
Plenary
Forums
Four Days. Four Questions Shaping Resilience.
At ICONHIC 2026, each conference day features a dedicated Plenary Forum in the Main Hall, bringing together leading voices from infrastructure, emergency management, insurance, finance, and policy.
Each forum is built around a defining question for the ICONHIC community: how resilience is implemented, how preparedness is financed, how investment decisions are made, and how recovery can move beyond repair toward long-term regeneration.
The audience is part of the forum. We invite all participants to bring their questions, experiences, and reflections into the discussion, connecting the themes of each plenary with the realities, challenges, and opportunities emerging across their own fields of practice.
Monday, 29 June 2026
Breaking the Resilience Barriers: Policies, Standards, and Practice in the U.S. Infrastructure Landscape
Key question
Why does resilience remain difficult to implement consistently at scale, despite major advances in standards, infrastructure investment, performance-based engineering, and national resilience initiatives?
Panelists
Maria Lehman, ASCE / University at Buffalo, USA
George K. Guszcza, National Institute of Building Sciences, USA
Sissy Nikolaou, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA
Tuesday, 30 June 2026
Emergency Management, Insurance and Preparedness: How Risk Transfer Can Be a Game Changer for Resilience
Key question
How can risk transfer, insurance, and disaster risk finance help societies move from post-disaster response toward preparedness, prevention, and resilience investment?
Panelists
Guillermo Franco, Guy Carpenter, USA
Daniel Kaniewski, former FEMA Deputy Administrator, USA
Ruth Lux, Insurance Development Forum, UK
Henry Moazzo, ERGO Hellas, Greece
Wednesday, 1 July 2026
Who Pays for Resilience? Aligning Risk, Capital, and Operations in Infrastructure Investment
Key question
How can capital, responsibility, and long-term value be aligned to make resilience investable?
Panelists
Terence Smith, Smith’s Research & Gradings, USA
Nikos Milianitis, European Investment Bank, Luxembourg
Thursday, 2 July 2026
From Disaster Resilience to Regeneration
Key question
How can disaster recovery and resilience planning move beyond repair, toward regeneration of infrastructure, communities, economies, and natural systems?
Panelists
Judith Mitrani-Reiser, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA
Sophie Punte, Life-links / Smart Freight Centre, Netherlands
John W. van de Lindt, Colorado State University, USA
Diane Binder, Regenopolis, France
Invited
Talks
Keynote Lectures and Plenary Addresses
From global food systems and earthquake risk to disaster policy, infrastructure monitoring, and cascading failures, the ICONHIC 2026 invited talks bring major voices to the Main Hall for focused perspectives on the challenges shaping resilience today.
These contributions frame the wider conference discussion, connecting scientific insight, policy experience, and practical direction for infrastructure systems under increasing pressure.
Infrastructure at the heart of global food security
Monday, 29 June 2026
Keynote Lecture
Feeding the Future: Natural Hazard Threats to Global Food Supplies and Trade
Jim Hall, University of Oxford, UK
17:50-18:30 Main Hall
From individual assets to system-wide resilience
Monday, 29 June 2026
Plenary Address
Mind the Gap: Uncovering the Dangerous ‘Unknown Unknown’ Risks from Compounding Infrastructure Failures
George K. Guszcza, National Institute of Building Sciences, USA
18:30–18:45 Main Hall
Preparedness is a policy choice, not a reaction
Wednesday, 1 July 2026
Keynote Address
Building Resilience Before the Next Disaster: Lessons from Policy and Practice
Daniel Kaniewski, former FEMA Deputy Administrator, USA
11:00–11:20 Main Hall
Infrastructure that senses, learns, and adapts
Wednesday, 1 July 2026
Keynote Lecture
Geo-Monitor to Geo-Adapt
Kenichi Soga, University of California, Berkeley, USA
13:30–14:15 Main Hall
Open models for smarter risk mitigation decisions
Wednesday, 1 July 2026
Keynote Lecture
Expanding the Boundaries of Global Earthquake Risk
Speaker
Helen Crowley, Global Earthquake Model Foundation, Italy
14:15–15:00 Main Hall
Keynote & Plenary
Speakers
Confirmed to date
Kenichi Soga
Jim Hall
Ruth Lux
Daniel Kaniewski
Helen Crowley
Guillermo Franco
George K. Guszcza
Maria Lehman
Sissy Nikolaou
Henry Moazzo
Terence Smith
Diane Binder
John W. van de Lindt
Sophie Punte
Nikos Milianitis
Judith Mitrani-Reiser
Theme
Speakers
Confirmed to date
Kai Liu
Tracy Kijewski-Correa
Nicos Makris
Maria Koliou
Eleni Chatzi
Stergios-Aristoteles Mitoulis
Bryan Adey
Qiuchen Lu
7 Thematic Streams on Today’s Most Pressing Infrastructure Challenges
Climate, Natural Hazards, and Disasters
01
System-Approach to Risk and Resilience Assessment
02
Urban Adaptation & Sustainability
03
People, Policy & Governance for Resilience
04
Insurance & CAT Modeling
05
Financing Resilience
06
Technologies for Resilience Management
07
Curated
Sessions
Curated Sessions are at the heart of ICONHIC 2026 — a collection of 21 expert-led discussions spanning the full spectrum of resilience, from seismic protection and digital innovation to climate adaptation, infrastructure interdependencies, and community-centered decision-making. Each session has been proposed and will be chaired by distinguished subject-matter experts, bringing together leading voices from research, practice, and policy to explore critical and emerging topics in depth.
There is still time to contribute! Authors are invited to submit an Extended Abstract to any of the curated sessions. Please explore the confirmed sessions, review the session-specific submission deadlines, and consider contributing your work.
Modelling Resilience: Innovative Approaches to Simulating Complex and Interconnected Infrastructure Systems
Organizers: Bryan Adey, Hamed Hafeznia
Practical Tools for Risk and Resilience Assessments
Organizers: Kalliopi Anastassiadou, Elco Koks, Siyu Gao
Future Cities Forum: Co-Creating Resilient, Equitable, and Adaptive Urban Systems
Organizers: Stergios A Mitoulis, Elco Koks, John van de Lindt, Qiuchen Lu, Sotirios Argyroudis
Resilience of Ports, Transport and interdependent Urban Ecosystems
Organizers: Sotirios Argyroudis, Eugene O’Brien, Athanasia Kazantzi, Stergios-Aristoteles Mitoulis
Organizers: Yonas Zewdu Ayele, Kamal Achuthan, Manu Sasidharan
Parametric Risk Transfer: Current Challenges and Future Developments
Organizers: Roberto Guidotti, Guillermo Franco
Organizers: Denis Istrati, Nils Goseberg, Ioan Nistor, Tiziana Rossetto, Andre Barbosa
Community-Centric Decision Support for Infrastructure Resilience
Organizers: Omar Kammouh, Nazli Aydin, Jasper Verschuur, Srijith Balakrishnan
Geohazards & Pipelines: Addressing Vulnerabilities, Standards, and Systemic Risks
Organizer: Spyros Karamanos
Disasters in Thessaly after Daniel and Elias storms
Organizers: Vanessa Katsardi, Grigoris Tsinidis, Lampros Vasiliades
Nature-Positive Engineering for Mitigating Multi-Hazard Coastal Risks
Organizers: Abiy S. Kebede, Siddharth Narayan, Mohammed Sarfaraz Gani Adnan, Kwasi Appeaning Addo
Resilient CO2 Capture, Transport and Storage (CCS) Infrastructure Across Europe: Risk, Monitoring, Systemic Resilience, Policy
Organizers: Olga-Joan Ktenidou, Anastasia Kiratzi, Katrin Stökle
From Data to Decisions: the role of Digitalization in Bridge Integrity Management
Organizers: Maria Pina Limongelli, Marianna Loli, Michael Havbro Faber, Sotiris Argyroudis
Prioritising climate adaptation for resilient infrastructure networks
Organizers: Margreet van Marle, Raghav Pant, Elco Koks
Bridging Systems and Societies: Rethinking Resilience in Critical Infrastructures
Organizers: Mathaios Panteli, Jose Palma
Organizers: Stavros Sakellariou, Sotirios Argyroudis, Jianghao Wang, Stergios-Aristoteles Mitoulis
Innovative Retrofit Strategies for Seismic Protection of Structures with Vibration Control Systems
Organizers: Evangelos Sapountzakis, Konstantinos Kapasakalis
Balancing Energy Demand with Seismic Safety
Organizers: Alexandros Savvaidis, Iason Grigoratos, Annemarie Muntendam-Bos
Risk assessment and monitoring of masonry arch bridges exposed to natural disasters
Organizers: Enrico Tubaldi, Vasilis Sarhosis, Paolo Zampieri
Seismic Isolation: Advances in Theory, Experiments, and Applications
Organizers: Dimitrios Konstantinidis, Daniele Losanno, Michalis Vassiliou
Nature-based Solutions for Increasing Infrastructure Resilience
Organizers: Yiannis Xenidis, Elisabete R. Teixeira
ICONHIC
Spotlights
We are introducing a new strand in the ICONHIC 2026 program where innovators and practitioners explore a shared challenge in real time. Each Spotlight blends an expert anchor talk with rapid pitches, live demonstrations, and brief, facilitator-guided questions from participants.
Each Spotlight is curated by a recognized leader who frames the topic, selects the pitches and demo material, and steers the exchange.
What to expect
- Expert anchor talk and moderation
- Integration with the Exhibition Hall and a dedicated Spotlight Pavilion
- Curated, technical dialogue with concrete examples
- Open interaction rather than formal panels
The Spotlight Lineup
Browse here all confirmed SPOTLIGHT sessions for ICONHIC 2026 — each a fast-paced, interactive exploration of a real-world challenge.
Lights stay on – Fresh sessions coming your way!
What shakes our systems?
Dive into a curated collection of thematic posts that spark dialogue on disaster and resilience. Discover the stories, share them with your network, and join the conversation leading up to ICONHIC2026.
