The preparations for the BAPA-BEN 2022 annual conference are in full swing. Titled “Energy, Climate Change and Sustainable Development” the conference will be attended by experts and activists from Bangladesh and overseas. The conference organizing committee (COC) chaired by Sultana Kamal had a couple of meetings to discuss the details of the arrangements. Conducted by Sharif Jamil, the Member Secretary for the 2022 conference, the virtual meetings had useful discussions with input from BAPA leaders joining from various parts of Bangladesh as well as BEN leaders logging on from Australia, Europe and the USA. BEN founder Dr. S. Nazrul Islam is acting as the Co-Chairperson and will be visiting Dhaka to attend the conference which will be hosted in a hybrid mode this year, as per the decision of the COC in this regard contingent upon the unfolding of the pandemic.
Among others, the Expert Sessions sub-committee, co-chaired by BAPA Vice-President Feroze Ahmed and BEN Energy Panel Chair Dr. Ahmed Badruzzaman, met several times. Professor M. S. Siddiqui, Member-Secretary of the sub-committee and Dr. Badruzzaman worked as contact persons for submission of technical papers from experts in Bangladesh and abroad. As of writing this report, the committee reported submission of close to fifty papers and/or abstracts.
The Information Technology (IT) sub-committee, led by Taqsem Khan, has convened in two meetings so far. Arafat Zubair informed these meetings of the various preparations, for example, design and hosting of a registration form, logistics and software for the cloud sessions. Dr. Dipen Bhattacharya, co-convenor of the IT sub-committee, Dr. Hossain Azam and Dr. Mohammod Irfan joined the IT sub-committee meetings from overseas. Sharif Jamil was present in both meetings keeping the IT committee abreast of the COC and other sub-committee decisions.
Media and Publicity sub-committee meetings, conducted by Jubo-BAPA leader Raoman Smita, took important steps toward a wide publicity of the event. The meetings were attended among others by Prof. Dr. Mohammad Jahirul Hoque, Sharif Jamil, Ruhin Hossain Prince, Mihir Biswas, Dewan Nurtaj Alam, Hasan Nasim, Sadia Chowdhury, Md. Mazadul Haque, Iqbal Khalid, Habib Rahman, Mahir Daiyan, Mustafa Yousuf, Sadia Chowdhury and Iftekhar Mahmud. BEN leader Dr. Hossain Azam joined from the USA. BEN leader Kamrul Ahsan Khan joined from Australia with valuable inputs.
Dr. Md. Khalequzzaman, a BEN leader co-chairing the General Sessions sub-committee informed us that the committee will meet soon. Other sub-committees are also meeting on a regular basis. BEN Global Coordinator Dr. Saleh Tanveer hosts regular coordination meetings attended by BAPA and BEN leaders.
