Fern the Diplodocus: A Structural Tale/AGM

An IStructE Midlands Counties evening at SYSTRA's offices on floor 5 of Alpha Tower, with light refreshments from 17:30 and presentations from 18:00, followed by the regional AGM.

The billed talk covers the design of Fern, the world's first post-tensioned bronze dinosaur, and the structural problems that had to be solved to build it. The organisers also list three presentations on earthquake engineering reconnaissance, with first-hand accounts of damage assessment missions in Turkiye and Morocco, the tools used in the field and how engineers work under those conditions. A Teams live stream runs alongside the room; the joining link is only on the event page, not in Eventbrite's automated emails. Free.

Why go: unusually concrete engineering content, from a post-tensioned sculpture to post-earthquake assessment. Best for structural and civil engineers in the Midlands.