A year-end retrospective

iiSBE underwent a two-year hibernation during the pandemic and is now being re-booted. We have successfully used Zoom to stay in touch with key members in various countries, and we also carried out various tasks that are suited to the use of Zoom.

These activities and issues were discussed at the Zoom Board meeting of 15 December 2021. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Greg Foliente who made his first appearance as the new Board Chair and President. Others participating included Joseph Yen-yi Li , Antonín Lupíšek, Cristina Engel, Andrea Moro, Katerina Tsikaloudaki, Luis Braganca (immediate past-President) and Nils Larsson (CEO). Because of time zone problems, a separate briefing was held with Ann Edminster one day later.

Issues discussed included the following:

* Continuing management of the SBE conference series, on behalf of iiSBE, CIB, FIDIC and UNEP. On Dec. 13, the last regional event (Shenzhen) was accepted into the series, and we now include 10 regional / national events in 2022 and a World SBE conference planned for Montreal in 2023. Greg Foliente has now replaced Luis Braganca as iiSBE representative to the SBE partnership.

* Development of web-based SBTool: In 2020 iiSBE Italia contracted a consultant to convert the XLS toolset to a web-based version and extended the range from the building and neighbourhood scale to district and territory levels. It was hoped that the tool set could be released for general use in early 2021, but it now looks as if this will be delayed to the Spring of 2022.

* Workshops on SBTool: We have worked with academic staff and students from Yalova university (Turkey) and Wroclaw university (Poland) to explain the use of Excel SBTool. There is potential for future workshops with Izmir and Thessaloniki universities. Dr. Ümit Ünver at Yalova is completing a research paper on this process, with NL and Woytek Kujawski

* NL has sent out occasional news items to members and some others. This has been a task requiring low effort but resulting in considerable positive feedback. Even after the website is redesigned, it will probably be worthwhile to maintain this activity.

* Invited virtual presentations: NL has made Zoom presentations to several organisations and events during 2021, including Société Quebecoise d'Infrastructure, a panel for the Global Forum for Human Settlements that included several iiSBE members, the HKG GBC and Politecnico Milano. This has been a no-cost activity that spreads the reputation of iiSBE and has made use of pre-existing presentations.

We wish you all a very good New Year.