Through cooperation between ICC Government Relations and the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH), Steve Ikkanda, ICC Senior Staff Engineer and Ping Cheng, ICC-ES Staff Engineer attended the Northridge 20 Symposium January 16–17 at the University of California, Los Angeles. The symposium was held on the 20th anniversary of the Northridge Earthquake that caused many deaths, thousands of injuries and billions of dollars in damage. More than 600 people attended the symposium. The plenary speakers included Pete Wilson, former Governor of California from 1991 to 1999, James Lee Witt, former FEMA Director and International Code Council CEO, and many other seismology experts.

There were many lessons learned over the past 20 years since the Northridge earthquake regarding how new buildings should be designed and constructed to resist earthquakes. Many of the design and construction requirements were incorporated into the International Building Codes. Other lessons learned regarding existing buildings were added to Appendix A of the 2012 International Existing Building Code. Many of the participating organizations take part in the ICC code development process and are very important participants that we recognize and appreciate their contribution.

Among the many participating organizations were the California Earthquake Authority, California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), the California Seismic Safety Commission, City of LA Department of Building and Safety (LADBS), the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, FLASH, Los Angeles Tall Building Structural Design Council (LATBSDC), Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), the Structural Engineers Association of Southern California (SEAOSC), University of California, Los Angeles, the United States Geological Survey, and the Western States Seismic Policy Council.

This is one of several steps that will help educate and improve the lives of those who live and work in buildings affected by earthquakes. As ICC participates in learning from each earthquake and incorporates the lessons learned into the Building Codes, ICC continues to improve the construction industry and the lives of people whose jurisdiction have adopted the ICC codes. ICC's goal is to educate the construction industry regarding code requirements, including any new earthquake (seismic) standards, locations of earthquake faults (earthquake maps) that are part of the building code and how to strengthen existing buildings against earthquakes.