Welcome Speech for Seminar for Class, Colleges & Office

Good morning our honorable director, respected HOD mam, professors and all the students of this department. Today we all have gathered here for the seminar on Earthquake resistant structures and I am glad to see so many of you attending this seminar.

We are happy that the department of civil engineering and department of architecture, of institute of ……………….. (college name) collaborated to hold this event. It is the second event of this type being held the first being the seminar on shelled structures.

We have invited some eminent architects who are masters in this field and who will be delivering their lectures shortly after me. Let me briefly explain the list of lectures that will be presented today. There will be four lectures altogether.

Each of 30 minutes. I, ……………….(name), will be delivering the first speech of the day that is “welcome speech for this seminar”. The rest will be lectures on architects depending on different factors that affect the earthquake resistivity of a structure. The points that will be widely discussed are: –

1. What is the need of making structures earthquake resistant?
2. What factors make a structure earthquake resistant? What factors are responsible for making cracks or faults in a structure?
3. How to make a structure earthquake resistant? What are the materials used?
4. Once a building is made earthquake resistant how long will be its longevity? What is its life span?
5. How much maintenance is needed for such structures?
6. What is the last scale of earthquake that it can tolerate or in other words what is its threshold of resistance to cracking?

The questions given above are few frequently asked questions about earthquake resistant structures. There’s also questions like ” can we place balconies in earthquake resistant structures?”, “can we put a lot of load on such a structure?”, “can earthquake resistant structure be high rise?”, keeping these apart, today I will be placing a speech about this seminar.

It is just an introductory speech to clear it out to you the purpose of this seminar. There are two halves of this seminar. Two lectures are scheduled for first half and the rest two for second half. We have a break of 1 hour in between. It is the time allotted to you to freshen up yourself.

It a part of welcome speech I have been instructed by the organizers of the seminar to give you all a brief idea of what matter is going to be discussed throughout. First let me tell you I’m no expert on this I am just a student of architecture like most of you were here.

Please bear with me for any mistakes that I make which will mostly be unknowingly! It is a great honour for me to have been chosen to speak in front of such esteemed the dignitaries today.

These people who have come here making time out of their busy schedules are absolute pioneers in their fields and only few of us can even dream of achieving what they have in their professional lives.

First, the aim of the seminar is to introduce and build up on the idea of the necessities and how earthquake resistant buildings should be constructed. Let me discuss about the first part which is the necessity of earthquake resistant buildings.

A building is nothing but a combination of materials. However just putting brick and mortar together doesn’t make a building. This is where the role of an architect comes into play. Whenever a building is made, its long-term implications and impacts are always evaluated.

It is only the ideas of an architect that creates a positive evaluation and results in a longer lasting nice structure which at the same time is also cost effective. After all a building that breaks into days is of no use.

Being a student of architecture, I believe it is a matter of great responsibility and power to be able to design an entire structure of human habitation.

A house or a structure is not just a dwelling place. It involves emotions too. For many people, it will be their dreams house. First time it will be there office space that will realize their professional goals. The building might see the birth of a child.

It might see bodies and the memories of loved ones who will take the last breath there. Although I might be digressing from the main topic of the seminar but what I am trying to convey is that not only earthquake resistant buildings but buildings in general need to be constructed not only with an element of professionalism but also from an emotional view point and that is why today we are all assembled here to learn about earthquake resistant buildings.

I want to conclude by saying that earthquake resistant structures are an increasing demand for our industry today. In the recent years of modernization and urbanization where there is such space paucity it is important to make

Structures that serves multiple purposes and is also rigid in its form. That is, it has all the security measures. Hence being earthquake resistant is an important criterion. I hope that all of you will enjoy this seminar.