Dr Lili Yang, core member in the Centre for Service Management and leader of the Emergency Management Research Interest Group (EM-RIG), hosted Dr Raj Prasanna from Massey University, New Zealand between August 26^th and September 5th. Dr Prasanna is an expert in Technology and Systems for supporting Emergency Management. At present, he is attached to the Joint Centre for Disaster Research, one of the leading research and academic institute in Disaster Management and collaboration between New Zealand leading crown research institute GNS Science and Massey University.

On September 3^rd, Dr Prasanna gave a well-attended seminar on “Emergency & Service Management in New Zealand: Moving on from the 2011 Christchurch Earthquakes”. The Christchurch earthquakes from 2011 have remained in memory as an unforgettable event. In this presentation, Dr Prasanna looked at the geography and natural disaster risk profile of NZ followed by a discussion on the NZ’s emergency and service management hierarchies. The EM strategy, model and practice in New Zealand were also discussed. He talked about the Sep 2010 and the Feb 2011 Canterbury Earthquake sequence, its impact and lessons learnt in relation to managing such large scale catastrophic events etc. Finally, Dr Prasanna explained the Readiness and Resilience efforts since the 2011 earthquakes and the use of technology in managing disasters and emergencies in New Zealand.