Although internet searches can generate useful information about solutions, humanitarian organisations are generally not very good at collecting, sharing or disseminating data and information. Typically, they are also reluctant to share reports or stories of failures, even though such knowledge could be extremely valuable. It is therefore useful to find ways to engage directly with organisations and their partners in order to discuss experiences and ideas around particular challenges and solutions.

For humanitarian practitioners it may be easy to pinpoint relevant events and networking opportunities, but for those from outside the sector it can be much more difficult. Each year at global, regional and national levels there are numerous conferences organised by the humanitarian community, as well as regular working groups, seminars and meetings. These events often have a technical focus, but they can also be more general; frequently the topic of innovation is on the agenda.

There is no central listing of humanitarian aid events and groups that are active each year, and there is a lot of geographical variation. It is therefore useful to regularly search the websites of key inter-agency groups and organisations, as well as those of the main humanitarian and development event organisers in order to decide which networking opportunity may be useful to attend in order to gather information. To help out, we’re curating a spreadsheet with some relevant events and sources of information that you can access below.