Apologies for the lack of posts lately; the day job has been a little intense just recently, with a few major deadlines to deal with. Not helping has been a dead computer at home requiring some urgent attention…
For those who’d like to rub shoulders with some other like-minded cycling-keen people, there are a few big events coming up this year to look forward to:
Last year we told you about the “CAN Do” cycling summit, which is the annual workshop for cycling advocacy organised by CAN, the national Cycling Advocates Network. This year’s CAN Do is coming up next month in Wanganui (or Whanganui depending on your point of view) from the evening of Fri 4th to Sun 6th April. The theme is “the role of cycling in community building”, and it’s a chance for cycling advocates across the country to come together, share their success stories, help solve their problems, and map out how to advance the provision of cycling in the country.
Last year’s event in Auckland was widely praised for the range of inspiring speakers – you can see some videos from many of them via YouTube. This year’s event may be a bit smaller but is hoping to include a range of politicians to deliver their thoughts – always useful when an election looms later this year. At only $100 for the two days (including meals), it’s exceptionally good value.
(P.S: if you can’t get to this year’s CAN Do, it looks like next year’s event will be in Christchurch – watch this space…)
Another exciting event happening later this year is the second national walking and cycling conference, known as 2Walk&Cycle. After years of running separate events, 2012 saw the first joint conference in Hastings, which was by all accounts a great success. 2Walk&Cycle 2014 will be held in the very cycle-friendly city of Nelson from Oct 29-31.
This year’s theme is “communities on the move” and is aiming to to take a very wide view about how walking and cycling contribute to the economic development and well-being of our communities. There will be a call for presentations in the near future, so keep an eye on the website.
Slightly further afield is the next Velo-City Global Cycling Conference, mentioned previously. Velo-City Global 2014 is coming to Adelaide, Australia, on May 27-30. Hundreds of delegates are expected to converge on South Australia to hear from a wide variety of speakers from around the world (yours truly has been invited to present on some of his research).
Australia is not too far away from us, and this is a rare opportunity to have a major international cycling event right on our back-door. Unfortunately the registration fees are a bit steep unless someone else is paying for it, although it’s a very full-on four days of presentations, meetings and field activities.
All in all, there are a great variety of cycling activities for everyone in the coming months. I hope that you’re able to get to something; it will be well worth it.