On Thursday 5 November we are hosting the third Resilience Breakfast (Weerbaarheidsontbijt), this time at the Klimaattop Gebouwde Omgeving, the Dutch climate summit for the built environment, in Jaarbeurs Utrecht. Together with ROM Regio Utrecht, Blauwhoed, Impact Institute and the Klimaattop Gebouwde Omgeving, we put positive resilience into practice, with the resilient neighbourhood as our theme.
The third Resilience Breakfast
The Resilience Breakfast is a roundtable over breakfast, where executives, professionals and entrepreneurs explore together how to make the Netherlands more resilient. The first edition took place on 6 November 2025, also at the Klimaattop Gebouwde Omgeving in Jaarbeurs Utrecht. The second edition was on 12 June 2026, at the first National Resilience Congress in Utrecht. See the photo impression of the first edition and the photos from June. This third edition zooms in on one concrete place: the neighbourhood.
Protecting what we hold dear
Positive resilience does not start with the threat, but with what we want to protect: our homes, neighbourhoods, facilities and the people who depend on them. Starting from what we value, we design sustainable solutions that absorb disruptions while making the neighbourhood better: cooler, greener, more careful with water, with an eye for others and for the future. Resilience then becomes an investment in what we want to keep and build.
From knowledge table to drawing board
The breakfast builds on the knowledge table The Resilient Neighbourhood that Blauwhoed organised earlier this year, with experts from construction, finance, care, landscape architecture and research. Blauwhoed captured the outcomes in the Dutch-language white paper De Weerbare Buurt. The core: resilience is more than crisis management, collective self-reliance belongs in area development from the very start, and the most fundamental infrastructure of a neighbourhood sits between people. Also read our report of the knowledge table.
At the breakfast we take the next step, into practice. We do so with a concrete case: a new residential neighbourhood that is currently on the drawing board. Blauwhoed and Resilt show how to build resilience into the very first design, focusing on drought, heat and water. ROM Regio Utrecht shows which innovations contribute to climate adaptation and water resilience.
What we will discuss
At the table we explore three questions. Which choices do you make in the design of a neighbourhood to deal with drought, heat and water? Which concrete solutions, technical and social, can you put in place to increase resilience? And what opportunities does that create for entrepreneurs working on resilience? Most of the time is reserved for the conversation at the table. At the end there is time to continue the conversation and network over coffee and tea.
Programme and speakers
- Facilitation: Bart Geers, business developer resilience ROM Utrecht Region, on Earth Valley, water resilience and the search for innovations
- The Klimaattop Gebouwde Omgeving: Diederik Samsom, chair of the Klimaattop Gebouwde Omgeving and chair of the supervisory board of Gasunie
- The Resilience Compass: Michel Scholte, CEO Resilt, co-founder True Price and Impact Institute, author of the Resilience Compass (Weerbaarheidskompas), with Simon Dikker Hupkes, non-fiction editor at Atlas Contact
- The compass applied to the neighbourhood: Eltjo Bouwman, development director Blauwhoed
- Panel: Marinka van der Meer (co-chair Chief Resilience Officers Network, the role of Chief Resilience Officers), Celina Kroon (sustainability manager UMC Utrecht, care chains), Esther Egeter (Corporate Sustainability Manager a.s.r., the role of insurers), Michiel van der Grinten (Oberon, resilient schools)
- Panel moderator: Hajar Yagkoubi, co-founder 2100, political commentator on Eva
- Closing: networking over coffee and tea
Michel Scholte presents the Resilience Compass together with Simon Dikker Hupkes of Atlas Contact: an operating system for positive resilience. Eltjo Bouwman then shows how the compass is applied to the neighbourhood. At the breakfast we also announce the book of the same name, to be published by Atlas Contact.
Flyer
Download the flyer as a PDF (in Dutch) to share or print.
Practical information
- Thursday 5 November 2026, Jaarbeurs Utrecht
- Walk-in from 8.00, breakfast and roundtable from 8.30 to 9.30
- Followed by networking over coffee and tea
- The plenary programme of the Klimaattop Gebouwde Omgeving starts at 10.00
- Participants receive an entry ticket to the Klimaattop Gebouwde Omgeving worth 150 euros
Access by registration only
The Resilience Breakfast is accessible by invitation and registration only. Places are limited and we aim for a balanced mix of people at the table, so we make a selection from the registrations. Participation is personal and non-transferable. Selected participants receive a confirmation by email with an entry ticket and directions. The breakfast is held in Dutch.
Would you like to take part? Get in touch through our contact form and tell us briefly who you are and which organisation you represent. You can do so until 28 October.
Organisers
The Resilience Breakfast is organised by ROM Regio Utrecht, Blauwhoed, Impact Institute, Resilt and the Klimaattop Gebouwde Omgeving. Read more about our approach for areas in the project The resilient neighbourhood.