The virtual symposium will be held through four separate sessions on consecutive Fridays between 24 September and 15 October through Zoom seminar hosted by Newcastle University.

Running for four 150 minute sessions, each session will focus on a specific topic. The sessions will be chaired by an appropriate expert, include three or four invited state-of-the-art presentations followed by an open forum in which all participants are invited to share their experiences.

Live sessions will be held at 11 am or noon BST (UTC+1) allowing as much global participation as possible. Additionally, each session will be recorded and made available online, allowing those unable to attend, to contribute comments to the discussion.

With the assistance of the symposium chairs Mofidi and Harries, each session chair invited a few speakers to ‘kick-off’ each forum. Expected deliverables from each forum will be explained and post-symposia online surveys used to collect data (e.g., priority rankings).

A key deliverable of the entire symposium is to reinforce and grow the global bamboo research community and to encourage coordination in addressing the prioritised needs of the community.

The 4th Bamboo in Urban Environment Symposium agenda is scheduled as follows:

1)  Materials and Systems Testing and Grading (24^th of September at 12:00 PM UK time)

     Session Chair: Dr. David Trujillo 

     Invited Speakers: Dr. Caori P Takeuchi; Prof. Juan Francisco Correal; and Dr. Patrick Dixon

2)  Connections for Bamboo Structures (1^st of October at 11:00 AM UK time)

     Session Chair: Mr. Luis Felipe Lopez 

     Invited Speakers: Dr. Elias Dimitrakopoulos; Prof. José Jaime García; Dr. Andry Widyowijatnoko; and Prof. Juan Francisco Correal

3)  Fire Performance and Durability of Bamboo Structures (8^th of October at 11:00 AM UK time)

     Session Chair: Dr. Mateo Gutierrez

     Invited Speakers: Prof. Jose Torero Cullen; Dr. Angela Solarte; and Mr. Sebastian Kaminski

4)  Engineered Bamboo (15^th of October at 11:00 AM UK time)

     Session chair: Dr. Bhavna Sharma

     Invited Speakers: Dr. Mahmud Ashraf; Mr. Arief Rabik; Dr. Rory Hadden; and Dr. Christian Gauss