Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change Conferences

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The only global adaptation conference that puts the lived experience and knowledge of local people at the centre.

Since 2015, I’ve been at the heart of delivering IIED’s flagship annual event. Each year, CBA creates a collaborative space where frontline practitioners, local communities, and global decision-makers come together to tackle the challenges of climate adaptation.

Key Features:

  • 350-400 participants from 50+ countries each year.

  • 4-5 days of plenary & parallel sessions, designed for interactive participation.

  • Delivered across Africa, Asia, and South America, with online editions for global accessibility.

  • Brings together practitioners, policymakers, donors, and researchers for sharing, learning and action-focused discussions.

  • Hands-on field trips to visit local climate adaptation projects.

  • Flagship engagement elements: Marketplace, Skill-share, Shark Tank, Open Space, and Film Competition.

  • Evening receptions & excursions, strengthening global networks.

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My work:

🗓 Logistics Leadership

→ Managing event operations including venue selection, supplier coordination, travel, accommodation and hybrid elements

→ Scheduling and technical plans

📣 Delegate Communication

→ Managing ticketing

→ Developing comprehensive delegate information packs

→ Communicating conference updates and news to participants

→ Building excitement around event

✨ Programme Development

→ Collaborating on structuring the conference agenda

→ Co-developing signature elements like the marketplace, skill-share sessions, Shark Tank and film competition to enhance engagement

🔥 Stakeholder Coordination

→ Working closely with local partners and governments across various locations to align conference objectives with regional priorities

💻 Team Coordination

→ Working in tandem with the team, I ensure smooth coordination and keep all stakeholders aligned through expert project management.

🎉 Adaptable Event Execution

→ Whether facilitating in-person gatherings or virtual events, I maintain operational excellence, crafting an environment of collaboration, learning, and action.

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Impact:

CBA provides a platform for practitioners, policymakers, and community leaders to share knowledge, best practices, and experiences on locally-led climate adaptation strategies, ensuring the voices of communities most affected by climate change are heard at the global level. In its 18 years the CBA conference has: 

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Shaped key international processes with participants learning directly from community practitioners

Influenced local organisations to incorporate climate change into their plans and to intro new ways of working with communities.

Given confidence to communities to represent Locally Led Adaptation in international spaces.

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Client:

Nairobi, Kenya
Lilongwe, Malawi
Kampala, Uganda
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Bangkok, Thailand
Recife, Brazil
Online

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International Institute of Environment & Development

Locations:

  • “Amy is a real professional and has supported us with complex events like CBA in different parts of the world. She is engaging, organised, funny and works with people from all over the world like a dream.”

    - Tom Mitchell, Director, International Institute for Environment & Development

  • "Amy has organised international events like CBA for IIED for years and is well organised, unflappable, imaginative, far-sighted and a delightful person to have around when you have a team working all hours to deliver a big event. She's fantastic!"

    - Andrew Norton, Former Director, International Institute for Environment & Development

  • “I work with Amy on the CBA Conference series. She is an absolutely top class events manager and producer. Dedicated, unflappable and organised, she can manage complex, multi-level events requiring both organisational and diplomatic skill to bring different people together in a participatory way"

    - Sam Greene, Project Manager, International Institute for Environment & Development

  • “Amy is a highly organised and professional events manager. She coordinated the logistic with partners in Kenya as well as liaising with donors, sponsors, and communicating regularly with participants from around the world. Amy worked tirelessly, kept calm under pressure and enabled us to deliver a successful international event.”

    - Beth Henriette, Programme Manager, International Institute for Environment & Development

  • "Amy is a superb event manager whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with during the production and delivery of several international IIED events overseas.

    Her professionalism and leadership during these events is fundamental to their success. Juggling suppliers, schedules, partner organisations, participants and never phased by unexpected challenges that are thrown into the mix! She is particularly adept at understand technical requirements - our most recent event included hundreds of participants, a film crew, live streaming, and remote live interpretation.

    She worked tirelessly to ensure the tech company delivered. She is brilliant at managing relationships, working collaboratively and really ‘getting’ what her client wants. On top of this, she’s approachable, proactive and generally good fun to work with. Highly recommended!"

    - Katherine Shepherd, Senior Project Manager, International Institute for Environment & Development