1. Please vote for a slope monitoring project
One of the recurrent themes of the IAEH Congress is the growing importance of slope monitoring techniques to provide warning of the development of failure.  One of the most exciting projects is the ALARMS project, led by Prof. Neil Dixon at Loughborough University, which is developing techniques that use acoustic emissions to monitor slope movements.  The project has been entered into an Enterprise competition at Loughborough University, which will be decided by a free vote.  So, please can you visit this page: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/business/enterprise-awards/ and vote for the Alarms project.  It would be a very worthy winner of the prize.


2. Manual on Engineering Geological Practice in Hong Kong
On behalf of the Hong Kong Geotechnical Engineering Office, AECOM have produced a new manual on engineering geological practice in Hong Kong.  Unsurprisingly, it has a strong slopes and landslide component, and it is relevant in areas outside of Hong Kong itself.  This can be downloaded as a pdf for free here.  I recommend it – I think that it will become a very useful guide and reference text.

3. 11th Symposium on Landslides (ISL)
The big four yearly slopes event is the ISL, which was last held in Xian, China.  The next event is in June 2012, and will be held in Banff, Alberta Canada.  This should be a fantastic event in a wonderful location.  The meeting now has a website, and the call for abstracts has been released, with submissions due by 15th April 2011.  Get writing!

4. Slope Stability 2011
In September 2011, Canada will also host a conference on rock slope stability, with a strong emphasis on the mining industry.  This event, which will be held in Vancouver, will be a great opportunity for academics and practitioners to interact.  The site has a website, and again a call for abstracts is out, with a deadline of 7th January 2011.