A Flood & Coast Conference special episode

In this episode, Phil is joined by Shelley Evans, Technical Director at JBA, as they look ahead to one of the industry's most important events — the annual Flood & Coast Conference, taking place in early June. Together, they explore JBA’s exciting programme of involvement across the three-day event, including key sessions and activities. The conversation highlights the central themes of partnership, collaboration, and alliance, and their vital role in building whole-society resilience to climate change. Shelley and Phil also discuss the importance of promoting and advancing the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) sector during the conference, including Shelley's role in the newly formed International Property Flood Resilience Association (IPFRA), the first trade body for PFR in the country - which officially launches on the evening of the first day of the conference. 

Thank you for listening to this episode. 

For any comments, questions or insights please contact phil.emonson@jbaconsulting.com.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:03

Hello and welcome to the Climate Resilience Podcast brought to you by JBA Consulting. I'm Phil Emerson, and this is a special episode as we look ahead to the annual Flood and Coast Conference, early June. So, yes, it is now only a couple of weeks until the biggest annual industry event, the Flood and Coast Conference. It's held at the Telford International Centre from Tuesday the 3rd to Thursday the 5th of June. And as always, JBA has got lots of exciting things going on throughout the three days. So to chat through it all with me, I'm joined by JBA Technical Director Shelley Evans. Shelley, welcome to the podcast, and maybe you could introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Well thanks, Phil. Yes, so thanks for inviting me to take part in this podcast. So I joined JBA's flood resilience team seven years ago now, actually working with yourself, Phil, to originally develop the Northern Property Flood Resilience or PFR hub and to support JBA's flood emergency planning ambitions. So over the years we have done exactly that. And over the last 12 months I've moved up into a discipline lead role where I now lead JBA's strategic direction for PFR.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Ah, fantastic. Great. Great to have you on the podcast. So Flood and Coast brings together a really diverse community of people who are all working towards resilient and sustainable futures. It is a space and a place where we share, we celebrate and we debate solutions aimed at helping people and places who are most at risk of flooding and coastal change. So look, in the next 20 minutes or so, Shelly, you and I, I think we're going to talk through all of the exciting things that JBA are involved with across the three days at Flood and Coast. So let's start with day one, the Tuesday, Tuesday the third. Shirley, what are you involved with on that day?

SPEAKER_00 2:06

So this year I feel incredibly fortunate as I will be back to Flooding Coast to manage, as last year, the Be Flood Ready stand. And this is for Alan Ryan, who is the program lead for the Resilience and Innovation North Hamps or RAIM project. The RAIN Project or the program is funded by DEFRA as part of the £200 million Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programs. These are managed by the Environment Agency. So the programs, as a lot of people will know, are driving innovation in flood and coastal resilience and adaptation to a change in climate. And this year SIWEM have created for the first time a PFR zone. So the Beeflood Ready Stand, and that's on PF2, and that they're going to bring um put together many of the wider PFR industry companies and initiatives that you know underpin and form part of that PFR mosaic. So we'll be sharing the PFR zone with Flood Mary and the Floodmobile, the new Floodmobile, the Saiwen B Flood Ready Community of Practice. And that's just to name a few. And the PFR zone is going to be in a great place. It's going to be located next to the local authority zone. And we're all looking forward to Flood and Coast delegates gravitating over for a chat with us about everything to do with PFR.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Fantastic. I certainly will for one. And it'll be great to come and see how BeFlood Ready has evolved from that very early concept that I was involved with many years ago. Probably back in 2020, 2021. So it's fantastic to see it come all this way and end up at Flood and Coast and to see you do it proud there. So yeah, I shall certainly come over. Look, at the same time, we've got our own stand at JBA with our partners, uh JBA Bentley. Uh we're on stand E7. So if you've been to Flood and Coast before, you'll know where to find us. We're in the same location as we have been before. Um the theme of our stand this year is partnership and alliance, collaboration, and the importance of that in building whole society resilience to climate change. Um we've got a really unique and fun tool on our stand this year. Um I won't let the cat out of the bag at this stage, but do look out for more details on our social media feed in the next two weeks. Uh and please come and visit and get involved. We'd love to see you. So um so there we go. We know where Shelly's going to be on day one, and we know what's uh what's taking place at the JVA stand as well. Um, Shelly, the evening of day one, uh, you're involved in something really special as well, aren't you? So tell us tell us a little bit more about what you're doing that night.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

So over the past um six months, it's been quite an exciting time. Um and I'm happy to say that the International Property Flood Resilience Association, uh, which has been referred to by its little uh shorter name of IPRA, uh, has its official launch reception on the evening of day one at Flooding Coast. Um the launch is being very kindly hosted for IPRA by Floodry in a location just a few minutes' walk from the Telford International Centre. So um so IPRA then it's been created um by its founding members, uh founding member companies, um of which JBA is part of that, along with Watertight International. Um, you've got M3 Flood Tech, you've got uh Rab Associates, White House Construction, you've got FPS and Apex 2. And this is being also chaired by our new uh chair Graham Brogdon. So our mission with IPRA, which um I am delighted to be a company director, um, is to support, promote, and grow the PFR sector. And as it becomes an increasingly uh mainstream part of construction and environmental resilience strategies, so up until now there's been no central organization representing the interests of contractors and surveyors and installers and other professionals that work um in the PFR sector. But through IPFRA, we aim to change that um by providing that industry voice and encouraging that best practice in line with the Syria Code of Practice for Property Flood Resilience.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Ah, amazing, amazing to hear. Um and may I just uh congratulate you, Shelley, on the um the launch um of IPRA. I know it's taken a long time and it's a fantastic um milestone in the continued mainstreaming of PFR in our in our industry and in our sector. Um and I think it's a really great um uh potential that the that the association and organisation has. So wishing you all the very best for that launch event on um on the Tuesday evening. I hope it goes really well. Um that's going to be quite a busy day for you, but I hear you've got an even busier day too, um, with lots of things that you're involved with. So take us through the running order of what your Wednesday uh looks like and where people can see you throughout the day.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Yeah, so after um a busy and um probably a late Tuesday evening with the launch, um Wednesday morning, um we've got our first session, which is an 8am session. Uh, and this is for the Resilient Roch um F Crick program. Um, and this is another program close to my heart that JBA are intimately involved with, um, and we'll be supporting that workshop. And it's called Navigating the Realities of Insurance and Financial Resilience. Um, the location is currently to be confirmed, but along with myself, uh the session is actually being led by Paul Cobbing, um who is the former CEO of the National Flood Forum. Um, also Paul O'Hare, who is a senior lecturer in urban geography and development at Manchester University that we've worked for years with for. Um, we've got somebody called Bernie Cochlin, who is an insurance broker from Royton Insurance. And this insurance um company is really striving to do great things in the Northwest to help people um get over that barrier of flood insurance. And he's a member of the British Insurance Broker Association. So the session um will be there to discuss residential property insurance, which is an effective measure that we can use to improve our financial resilience to the impact of flooding. And the workshop will consist of an introductory presentation followed by input from local insurance broker and interactive participant discussion. And just to say that our surveyors in JBA, um especially on the Northern, um in the Northern offices, have all undertaken training in this as part of their work on the Resilient Ratch F Grip programme. So it's going to be fabulous to hold this with people in local authorities and so on, so they can really understand the underpinning um difficulties faced with floodress communities in their areas. Um the second, then, that's that's at early in the morning. The second presentation of my day will be held in the Ludlow Suite 2 and 3, and that's at 1.45 till 3 pm, and that's about building climate resilient communities. Um, so this session is being chaired by Tracy Garrett, who is the current CEO of the National Flood Forum. Um, and again, she will be speaking with myself, uh Fran Common, who is the Rochdale Council uh programme lead for the Resilient Roch F Crip programme. Again, I'm delighted that I'm going to be working with Paul Cobbing and Charlotte Jones from the National Flood Forum. Um and the session will be showcasing resilient, um, climate-resilient uh initiatives that are already making an impact. So the attendees will gain that practical insight and actionable steps that they can take to strengthen resilience in their own communities or areas of work.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

It will be a great workshop in the morning and great panel session in the afternoon, and um really encourage anyone visiting on day two to try and get along to those sessions because they sound really super, but also really timely and important, and as you say, a chance to share some of that good practice that is already coming to bear through the Rochdale, uh the Resilient Rochdale project. So uh good luck with those. I hope they go well. And um it's not as though you can get to the evening and put your put your feet up though, is it? Because in the evening of day two is the awards dinner. Um and Shelley, I believe you are part of a team that's nominated for an award.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Yes, again, Rochdale. Uh they're doing marvellous things um with this retrofitting houses for um their communities with flood resilience measures, PFR, um suds, um, and trying to make warmer homes and all their hard work has um resulted in um Rochdale being shortlisted as a finalist in the innovation and climate resilience category. So it will be a quick change from a long day to head back to um the International Centre to take part in the award ceremony. But to be fair, just being shortlisted for this award means everything. Um because so many people that are deserving of these awards. So just to think that you're up there with that is a wonderful thing for JBA to be part of.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Yeah, it's a great acknowledgement and recognition, and good luck to all of those nominated, in fact, across the categories. It's a really important evening to celebrate um excellence and innovation in flood and coastal risk management. Um, look, it doesn't stop there. Uh there's a jam-packed agenda involving JBA across day three as well. And actually, it's probably your first chance to put your feet up and take a breather, Shelley. So on day three, we've got quite a few things going on. Um, first up at 10 past eight, our emergency planning lead, Toby Jones, who was on this podcast uh recently, he'll be running a workshop in the Ludlow One room entitled Learning from Crises: Strengthening the Emergency Planning Cycle. And look, I I know Toby's got some great plans for this workshop to make it a really fun and engaging uh session using lessons from previous crises to apply to a scenario. So if you're around on the day three morning at 10 past eight, get yourself along to Toby's workshop. Um and then later on the morning, if you make your way over to the technical skills, technical skills stage, we've got a JBA doubleheader uh starting at 10:30. Um, first of this, Alec Dane, who was on the last episode actually of the podcast. He's going to be presenting a paper on embracing uncertainty through the use of adaptation pathways on the Hearst spit to Limington strategy. Uh now I know Alex's been working on the Hearst Spit strategy for many years now, and they've reached an important milestone in identifying a pathway for future coastline management and embracing the use of adaptation pathways through all stages of the strategy development. So, look, I'm sure that's going to be a really super session sharing uh what they've learned so far. And if you are able to make that one, then stay in your seats because straight up after Alec on the same stage is JBA's Anna Beasley and Imogen Barnsley, and they are presenting on making space for groundwater. Um, now traditional NFM based on storage isn't really effective in groundwater systems because of long duration and volume of flooding. So JBA and Project Groundwater have investigated this in terms of how we can adapt nature-based approaches in these catchments to make space for groundwater. So, first up, you've got Alec, 1030 to 11, and then Anna and Imogen, 11 to 11.30, and that's on the technical skills stage. But at the very same time, JBA's managing director, Mark Pennell, is actually part of a panel discussion in the conference suite Ludlow 2.3 entitled Innovate Now. This session involves presentations from leaders in innovation, highlighting different um technology and different solutions and different novel approaches that we can be using, and perhaps should be using to break down barriers and improve the quality and pace of flood resilience. So, look, there's a lot going on on day three. Um, do check your agenda and make sure you don't miss out on any of this stuff. Um, I'll be there on day one. Um, I'm on the JBA stand in the morning. So if you're about, please come and say hi. And Shelley, look, you've got a jam-packed three days. I'm sure you'll have a super time, and I wish you every success in your award. Um, and thanks for thanks for coming on this episode and taking us through everything that you've you've got lined up. Um so we've reached the end of our time today. If you're visiting Flood and Coast, I hope you've found this useful in explaining what we're up to at JBA, when and indeed where across those three days. As always, if you've enjoyed listening, then please hit the subscribe button so you're ready for our next episode in winter's time. Until then, thanks for joining us. I'm Phil Eminson, and you've been listening to the Climate Resilience Podcast brought to you by JBA Consulting.