After three years of hard work, “Culture And RISk management in Man-made And Natural Disasters” (CARISMAND) reached its end. The project final conference „Making a difference Managing differences: Cultural factors in disaster management“ took place in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy, on 18 and 19 September 2018. The event gathered more than 130 experts and practitioners from the disaster management community across Europe to discuss project results and to showcase a prototype of the CARISMAND Toolkit.

The CARISMAND Final Conference started with a detailed overview project introduction and continued with two key presentations – by Dr Sandra Appleby-Arnold (University of Malta) on the cultural factors in disaster management followed by Dr Noellie Brockdorff, from the same university, and Alexandra Tsvetkova (LIBRe Foundation) who revealed to the audience the development methodology, architecture and functionalities of the CARISMAND Toolkit. Тhe two-day event covered three specialized sessions dedicated to the content of the CARISMAND Toolkit. To feel the flavor of the project and to experience the CARISMAND thinking process, all participants were involved in a series of high-table discussions based on some of the CARISMAND Toolkit recommendations presented earlier.

The CARISMAND Toolkit represents a key deliverable of the CARISMAND project, as it develops a comprehensive knowledge base for practitioners, citizens and policy-makers which provides concrete ideas, examples and recommendations for culturally-aware practices in disaster contexts.

CARISMAND Final Conference concluded with the vision beyond CARISMAND, presented by Prof Joseph Cannataci. It was also announced that SMURD Foundation, one of the partners representing the disaster management community in the project, will take over and sustain the Toolkit after the official end in September 2018.