Editorial by Christophe Béchu




Christophe Béchu
Mayor of Angers
President of Angers Loire Metropole

After the last editions held in Hannover and Milan, Angers is very honoured to host and support the 31st international ESREL conference.

In a world challenged by successive crises, risk management and security are fundamental areas of expertise and it is good to see that Angers will be the hub of meetings and knowledge exchange for the 600 industrial and academic specialists, with the purpose of being at the forefront of risk control and optimizing the performance of socio-technological systems.

The numerous topics covered during the conference will perfectly reflect the agility of our territory, in different fields like the Environment and the recent "Ecological transition meetings", digitalization of the companies and the Angers business digital cluster such as the Smart City project conducted at the level of the Angers Loire Métropole urban community.

I am absolutely convinced that the setting of the Convention Centre, a symbol of Angers France's greenest city's DNA, will bring about high-quality scientific exchanges and give birth to fruitful partnerships between all the delegates.

And at a time when the tourism industry remains badly hit by the Covid situation, I am delighted to see that ESREL 2021's organisers, with the help of Destination Angers, have shown agility and foresight in planning an event of that size, in a hybrid format. While staying in Angers no doubt all the participants will enjoy the quality of life, the heritage and all delights of our destination.