Events
Your professional home for environmental engineering in South Africa.
Plans lectures, site visits, and SEED’s annual conference, coordinating speakers and engaging members through events.
Other SAICE SEED Portfolios
SEED hosts regular lectures and activities. This portfolio is responsible for identifying potential speakers and working with the technical division’s administrator to organize these events. Site visits are also arranged that are attended by SEED members.
The annual SEED conference is one of SEED’s flagship events. Held for the fist time in 2018 the event has become a will know
Why is the Events and Conference portfolio important to SEED?
This portfolio is important because events are one of the main ways SEED advances professional knowledge, creates networking opportunities, and keeps environmental engineering professionals engaged with current issues in the field. SAICE states that its mission is to “advance professional knowledge and improve the practice of civil engineering,” and its divisions do this partly through technical events, lectures, conferences, workshops, and site visits. SAICE’s 2019 annual review also shows how central this model is to the institution’s professional development work, noting dozens of lectures, courses, conferences, workshops, seminars, and site visits validated through its education and training structures.
What does the Events and Conference portfolio actually do in practice?
In practice, the portfolio helps identify relevant speakers, works with the division’s administrator to organise lectures and technical activities, and coordinates site visits that expose members to real projects and operational environments. This is consistent with how SAICE divisions typically operate: through organised technical talks, knowledge-sharing events, and member engagement activities. SEED itself has hosted specialist lectures, including a 2021 lecture on waste reclaimers and recycling in South Africa, which shows that the division uses events to bring practical environmental engineering topics to members.
Why is the annual SEED conference considered a flagship event?
The annual SEED conference is considered a flagship event because it gives the division a dedicated platform to bring together practitioners, researchers, and industry stakeholders around major environmental engineering themes. SAICE has explicitly referred to the annual SEED Conference as a flagship event, and by 2024 it was still being promoted as a major division gathering, with the Johannesburg conference themed “Environmental Engineering Across Diverse Spaces.” SAICE’s own publications also show the conference being used as a venue for important technical discussions, such as geomorphic design and environmental infrastructure topics. That makes the conference more than just a meeting; it is a key platform for visibility, technical exchange, and sector-wide engagement.