The event was attended by course participants alongside representatives from Victorian universities, the Victorian Disaster Research Alliance (VDRA), state government, local councils, the emergency services sector, and consulting organisations, creating a diverse and practice‑oriented platform for knowledge exchange. Although Bangladesh was not represented among the official course delegates. Mr. Safiqur Rahman, an emergency management official from the central government of Bangladesh, who was visiting the University of Melbourne at the time, joined the event and engaged with delegates from all six participating countries.
Participants were formally welcomed by Prof. Guillermo Narsilio, Head of the Department of Infrastructure Engineering at the University of Melbourne. The session featured two distinguished speakers – Prof. Matt Dukhman, RMIT University, who presented the work and collaborative mandate of the Victorian Disaster Research Alliance, and Mr. Andrew Coghlan, Head of Humanitarian Diplomacy – Emergency Services, who delivered insights on community resilience in Australia, drawing on operational and policy perspectives.
On 29 October 2025, a networking session was organised in Melbourne as part of the Disaster Management and Disaster Resilient Infrastructure Course, bringing together course participants and key stakeholders from Australia’s disaster management and academic ecosystem. Scheduled early in the training, the event was designed to facilitate meaningful in‑person interactions and enable participants to build connections that could be sustained throughout the course duration.
A welcome dinner was held on the evening of Day 1 of the course to further promote informal interaction and relationship‑building among participants. In addition to course delegates, the dinner was attended by course organisers Prof. Alex Babanin (Director, Centre for Disaster Management and Public Safety – CDMPS) and Prof. Jagannath Aryal (Associate Professor of Digital Infrastructure Engineering), along with course mentors Bob Jensen (Senior Managing Director, Strat3LLC) and Bill Ho (Disaster and Climate Resilience Practitioner). The networking engagement strengthened regional and institutional linkages, supported peer learning, and enabled participants to exchange practical experiences and perspectives on disaster risk reduction, resilience‑building, and technology‑enabled disaster management, reinforcing the course’s emphasis on collaboration across disciplines and geographies.