Next World Congresses

The next Triennal IFME World Congress is to be held in Melbourne from 6 to 10 September 2009 in conjunction with IPWEA’s 2009 Conference.
A Conference Theme (Global Issues, Local Solutions – delivering for the Next Generation) and logo has been adopted by the organizing Committee as follows

  

The Call for Papers for the next Triennal IFME World Congress is now open. The Congress will be held in Melbourne in conjunction with IPWEA’s 2009 Conference.
Proposals for technical papers are invited by 3 December 2008. Information on the key issues to be addressed and abstract submission guidelines are at www.ipwea.org.au/melb2009. 

It is to connect Municipal Engineers and Public Works Professionals, Public Agencies, Organisations, Institutions and Businesses around the world in order that they share a global pool of knowledge and experience.

The aim is to foster continued improvement in the quality of public works and wider community services. IFME experiences the same problems as many voluntary professional member organizations: lack of resources.

A Plan forward for IFME       
Public works professionals need to look/see/assess and consider if what is working in one country will work in a different cultural environment. Culture, expectations and our local environment have a way of dictating the approaches we take to solving public works problems. Despite advances and opportunities to develop and exchange ideas and technical knowledge, it still seems that we have a lot to learn and understand about the way of life, cultures and customs of other countries. The hope is that IFME can be successful and expand its membership so that it can also contribute to friendship amongst nations, and a peaceful progressive sustainable world.          

In municipal and public works engineering, we face many similar issues in our day-to-day work that are not that dissimilar across the globe. This article discusses the contribution that IFME can make...
The world is getting smaller. The advent of e-mail and the internet is improving communications internationally. IFME is a Federation of member organisations with similar objectives to the APWA and the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia (IPWEA). It comprises member countries that include the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Italy, San Marino, Canada, Israel, South Africa and Australia.

The Best Practice for transit outlines street improvements and traffic management measures that can improve transit flow and encourage higher ridership. It was developed by a multidisipline panel from across Canada. It is available in English and French at http://www.infraguide.ca/

In ppp "StadSPOORT - Sharing know-how for public space." carry out from Nederland Ifme Member and presentation  made by Pieter Wiekeraad at the recent IFME meeting in Rotterdam on.

The Annual Meeting of the Swedish Association of Municipal Engineers (SKT) held in Halmstad, Sweden from 2-4 October 2007.
The President of IFME Chris Champion and the Secretary-General Neil Buchan attended Chris Champion made a presentation at the Conference on Global Issues in Municipal and Public Works Engineering. Neil Buchan made a presentation on the Transport (Scotland) Act which addresses the control of disruption, delays and damage on public roads resulting from works carried out by Utility Companies.

In late Novembre 2005, hosted by ICE, the Institution of Civil Engineering, in its impressive Headquarters in Westminster, London, Mr. Gordon Masterton, ICE President, presented to IFME Delegations restorations works of the Firth of Forth Bridge in Scotland and offered to Mr. Renato Cecilia, IFME President,one of the 56 iron bolts removed for maintenance.

IPWEA has launched a national series of 1 day seminar with its Annual Parks Forums commencing in April across most States. There are many practitioners working in public works, parks and engineering departments with responsibility for parks management and open space planning.  

Presentation given by Mike Robinson of the Uk on how Stockton on Tees Borough Council is reducing its' carbon footprint and saving £4.2m for the organisation. April 2008, Malmö meeting.

Yardstick is an IPWEA Parks benchmarking project that is centred around tight industry developed definitions. It involves site visits by an IPWEA project manager to undertake a "friendly" audit of project inputs. This greatly assists in ensuring final results are comparable and useful. Industry information, and information specific to your Council, is collected and compared on a range of parks & recreation management activities.