Preparing for the Unexpected

As part of a well-functioning BCM/DR program, we should be learning from our mistakes and ensuring we can adapt and learn from the events of the past. For most, the assumption is we will learn from only our mistakes and not the mistakes of others or the past. We speak with business expert and author John Vespasian who will provide us insights on business continuity and how history can teach us about planning and lessons learned to improve our BCM/DR thinking and efforts. We'll talk about that by not validating conditions caused problems for Berblinger; how some groups were able to survive the Black Death; how Ancient Greece was able to survive using good planning over the mighty Persian Empire and even how risk assessments ensured the survival of an Antarctic expedition. It's quite an enlightening and eye-opening episode chock full of interesting perspectives.

Many organizations have plans to help their employees evacuate buildings and get to safe locations and then is the extent of most employee-related BCM plans. But disasters affect people differently and sometimes those impacts aren't know right away and don't appear until well after the situation.

This episode will take BCM/DR practitioners to a deeper level and offer some insight on what additional topics need to be considered when creating long term employee focused safety and response plans.

We speak with Registered Psychologist Dr, Oren Amitay who will talk to us about PTSD, how disasters affect people in different ways, how people respond to disasters and how we can recognize when someone is experiencing long term trauma - that might not have been easily identified at the time of the traumatic situation.

This episode will be a recap and summary of the recent Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) in Phoenix, Arizona from September 23 - 26/18. Preparing for the Unexpected aired LIVE on September 24th but that wasn't the only highlight of the conference. We'll review some of the sessions presented and provide a recap of some of the guests that stopped by during the LIVE broadcast and gave us some quick insights into their session presentations and/or what their company offered by way of products and services. Tune in and get an understanding of why DRJ is one of the premier conferences to attend in the resilience, business continuity, crisis management and disaster planning realm.

We see many Crisis Management examples every day in the headlines of major news outlets, either on the internet or in print. Quite often the examples referenced in major news outlets don't cover examples - both goo and bad - from other areas for the globe. In this episode we talk with Prof Duncan Koerber, author of 'Crisis Communications in Canada' and get some different perspectives and examples not usually covered by the big global news outlets. We'll talk about the role of ethics in communications and the benefits of apologizing verses blaming. We'll hear about different examples that you may not have heard about on the news with a distinctly Canadian perspective. You're sure to hear lots of good information and insights on how to better improve your own crisis communication strategies and plans.

We continue with our speaker series from the Continuity & Resilience Today conference (Toronto, May 2018) as we chat with award winning BCM specialist, Marie-Helene Primeau. We talk about how using your Business Continuity Plans (BCP) for smaller incidents and interruptions increases the resilience of your organization and the Return on Investment (ROI). By invoking plan components, teams work more efficiently and gain confidence and skills when future incidents occur. During the show, Marie-Hélène will share real-life case studies and discuss how prioritizing and collaborating during smaller incidents improves the overall Business Continuity Management (BCM) program.

What makes a good crisis leader? How is it that they prepare and respond to situations differently? How do successful crisis leaders think and feel? It's not easy being an organization's Crisis Management Team Leader while probably having responsibility for Business As Usual tasks. It's this buy schedule and the management of it, that sets the good crisis leader apart from those not so easily prepared for the task. Successful crisis leaders think, prepare and act differently from other crisis leaders. Their inner being leaves them better able to prepare for - and respond to, crises and disasters where their leadership abilities become front and centre during stressful periods. From 'Thought to Consequence' looks at the ways in which successful crisis leaders think about BC and DR and how they respond to serious incidents, which ultimately strengthens and organization's ability to prepare and respond to disasters.

Managing Business Continuity - Disaster Recovery programs can be a challenge, especially if a BC-DR practitioner doesn't have the right skills to juggle various program components and priorities. We will talk with BC-DR industry experts and project management professionals Ralph Kliem and Gregg Ritchie - the authors of 'Business Continuity Planning: A Project Management Approach'. Ralph and Gregg will provide allot of insight on how to manage and maintain our BC-DR programs to ensure Senior Management support, buy-in and their continued support. We'll also talk about how we can improve our programs as we slowly build the required plans and processes, ensuring along the way we're adhering to governance protocols and the benefits that governance guidelines offer. If you're having issues with you BC-DR program or just want to improve your programs status, listen in to hear tips and tricks on how to get your program back on track.

Join Host of Preparing for the Unexpected, Alex Fullick as he broadcast live from DRJ 2018 in Phoenix Arizona. Disaster Recovery Journal sponsors two annual conferences that began in September of 1989. The first conference drew a crowd of almost 250 disaster recovery professionals. Today, both conferences combined pull in more than 3,000 disaster recovery professionals from all over the world, which makes our conferences the largest in the entire industry. DRJ has an exciting array of events available throughout the year. Participation in any or all is a great way to boost your industry knowledge and expand your networking circle. The opportunities include annual conferences, webinars and podcasts. The conferences are held twice each year. The spring show is in Orlando, Florida; the fall show is in Phoenix, Arizona. The webinars are held monthly and may be viewed live or recorded for later use. The podcasts offer a chance to hear sessions from previous conferences.

Join Host of Preparing for the Unexpected, Alex Fullick as he broadcast live from DRJ 2018 in Phoenix Arizona. Disaster Recovery Journal sponsors two annual conferences that began in September of 1989. The first conference drew a crowd of almost 250 disaster recovery professionals. Today, both conferences combined pull in more than 3,000 disaster recovery professionals from all over the world, which makes our conferences the largest in the entire industry. DRJ has an exciting array of events available throughout the year. Participation in any or all is a great way to boost your industry knowledge and expand your networking circle. The opportunities include annual conferences, webinars and podcasts. The conferences are held twice each year. The spring show is in Orlando, Florida; the fall show is in Phoenix, Arizona. The webinars are held monthly and may be viewed live or recorded for later use. The podcasts offer a chance to hear sessions from previous conferences.

Join Host of Preparing for the Unexpected, Alex Fullick as he broadcast live from DRJ 2018 in Phoenix Arizona. Disaster Recovery Journal sponsors two annual conferences that began in September of 1989. The first conference drew a crowd of almost 250 disaster recovery professionals. Today, both conferences combined pull in more than 3,000 disaster recovery professionals from all over the world, which makes our conferences the largest in the entire industry. DRJ has an exciting array of events available throughout the year. Participation in any or all is a great way to boost your industry knowledge and expand your networking circle. The opportunities include annual conferences, webinars and podcasts. The conferences are held twice each year. The spring show is in Orlando, Florida; the fall show is in Phoenix, Arizona. The webinars are held monthly and may be viewed live or recorded for later use. The podcasts offer a chance to hear sessions from previous conferences.