Presentation Descriptions

Monday, February 25, 2007

Keynote Address #1: Building Business Continuity Culture in a Large Organization - The Value Proposition
Bill Brugger
In this session, attendees will gain important insight on how to establish and build a continuity culture and how to identify and communicate the value of business continuity planning within their organization. 

This presentation will provide the attendee with important tips and considerations on how to:

  • define the end goal of their business continuity program;
  • assess the landscape within their organization; 
  • size up key players and their perspectives; 
  • realize the predicament inherent in business continuity planning;
  • unlock the value proposition;
  • and achieve overall results. 

Panel Session: Flood Mitigation Planning and the Fraser River Freshet
Al Ritchie
- Overview of Spectra’s Flood Plan
- Extent of plan activation
- Unexpected issues (e.g. mud slides, river bank erosion, ice jams)
- Potential 3rd party impacts on Spectra (e.g. loss of Hydro power)
- Essentials of operating with an all hazards emergency preparedness approach

Sheena Vivian
When the Province announced the looming Flood Threat in the spring of 2007, BC Hydro entered a new era of emergency management.  This section of the Flood Panel will discuss how BC Hydro identified risks to the electric system, its staff and coordinated with local authorities and life line agencies in the months leading up to the spring freshet.

Harvey Sasaki
How do you get a passport for a dairy cow to travel to the United States?
The objectives for the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands for Freshet 2007 were to:

  • Minimize potential livestock and poultry mortalities
  • Create awareness of the possible loss of physical assets
  • Promote best management practices to mitigate risks associated with hazardous farm materials.
  • Work with industry groups to plan and respond to the flood event.

The ministry’s role in responding to flood events in the past was to support other Emergency Operations Centres, either regional provincial centres or local government centers.  Given the high risk potential for a record flood event in the lower Fraser Valley in 2007, the ministry was required to plan and set up a Ministry Emergency Operations Centre in less than 60 days as well as respond to response challenges such as finding homes, including transportation to Washington State, for up to 10,000 dairy cows that were in locations at high risk of flooding.  We survived to tell this story!

John Lavery
The health sector faces many challenges when preparing for, responding to, and recovering from major flood events.  Health sector impacts can be diverse, including:

  • damage to facilities resulting in prolonged disruption of services;
  • disruption of transportation systems and the ability of ambulance crews to respond to calls, staff to get to work, patients to attend appointments, and supplies to be delivered to health care facilities;
  • threats to public health from contamination of water sources and damage to sewage systems.

Evacuation of facilities and the relocation of patients is extremely complex and poses special challenges as it takes considerable time, effort and expense to safely move patients and the staff and equipment necessary to care for them.  

This presentation will provide an overview of the planning that took place across the health sector in the spring of 2007 to prepare for the potential freshet.  It will provide a detailed overview of potential health sector impacts, the planning efforts that took place, challenges encountered, and lessons learned. 

Jim Rule
Hear the Maple Ridge experience on the Planning and Communication that took place prior to, during and after the 2007 Spring Freshet.  The Maple Ridge CAO will provide an overview of the Fraser River Freshet Operational Flood Management Plan which includes: identifying the potential impacts of flooding; flood protection works required; the establishment of freshet triggers; the preparation of flood elevation maps; dyke upgrades required; the state of the EOC readiness; the preparation of a communications plan (general public awareness, pre-flood tool kit, neighbourhood information meetings; evacuation awareness, and establishment of a call centre).  In this presentation you be made aware of the lessons learned in dealing with many aspects of the 2007 Spring Freshet.

DRI Luncheon Presentation

The Amazing State of the Business Continuity Profession in Canada
Brian Miller, CBCP
Business Continuity has made significant inroads in government and large corporations but is the profession gaining recognition? Are there support structures for the practitioner? The outlook is highly positive for a professional segment that holds significant opportunities.

Workshop Sessions

Workshop 1: Crisis Management Workshop
Jack T. Smith
Synopsis:  In this workshop you will learn:

  • How to differentiate between a significant problem and a true crisis
  • Effective methods of practicing for an event
  • How to effectively facilitate a crisis meeting regardless of number of attendees
  • Working with public officials during an event
  • Setting priorities and structuring successful crisis management meetings
  • Management of the crisis and key communication tips
  • Managing the media and your vendors during the event

This session will help you build and implement a comprehensive Crisis Management program.  Mr. Smith will share proven techniques that will improve communication during a company crisis, regardless of the origin.

Mr. Smith has acted as the primary facilitator for his company for such events as 9/11; a 72 hour Anthrax Scare; the Northeast power outage; and a fire at the LaSalle Bank Headquarters which was the largest skyscraper fire in the history of the city of Chicago.  You will learn how in these and in other cases, crisis management and business continuity efforts merged with great success.

Workshop 2: Planning a Tabletop Exercise for Businesses
Don Bindon, Laurie Pearce

Participants will have the opportunity to engage in an active participatory workshop on all aspects of designing and hosting a tabletop exercise.  The two presenters have years of experience in conducting emergency response tabletops and will provide participants with a number of ideas and considerations a planner should incorporate to enhance the productivity of this important preparedness tool.

Workshop 3: An All Hazards Approach to Recovery Planning and Crisis Management
Vicki Gavin

Barclays is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. It has been involved in banking for over 300 years; operates in more than 60 countries; and employs more than 110000 people. Ensuring a consistent robust global response is no small undertaking.

To accomplish this we employ an impact based business continuity planning methodology supported by a flexible crisis management framework. This “All Hazards” approach allows us to respond to any incident regardless of the cause quickly and effectively.  The workshop will highlight the advantages of a flexible impact based model in responding to a wide variety of disparate events from terrorism to pamdemic.

I will examine both the processes followed and issues faced as well as providing participants with a number of tools and techniques that may be used to implement an impact based planning model.  The workshop will be delivered as a series of exercises to provide participants an opportunity to practice using the tools and techniques discussed.

Workshop 4 - Business Impact Analysis: Foundation for Business Resilience   
Russell Stewart

The “black art” of business impact analysis (BIA) often provides rich pickings for consultants, being an area of endeavour that is very much open to interpretation and somewhat lacking in definition. This may be the reason why, in some quarters, the value of BIA is being questioned. However a rigorous BIA, at the appropriate level of detail, delivering accessible and re-useable data, can have a number of valuable uses. A BIA is the foundation for a business continuity management programme and, in particular, the basis for building resilience into business processes.   

The workshop will provide participants with an appreciation of BIA in two practical contexts:

  • How a BIA can be used to underpin business continuity management, and, additionally, how other functions such as insurance, engineering and maintenance planning can benefit
  • How to undertake a BIA oneself and how to represent the information in a re-useable format.

Two relatively simple analysis and modelling techniques will be demonstrated and exercised in a workshop format.

Tuesday, February 26, 2007

Keynote Address #2: Business Impacts of a Major Disaster
Kathleen Tierney

While a considerable amount of research has been conducted, especially in recent years, many questions remain regarding the economic dimensions of hazards and disasters.  This presentation will discuss types of economic impacts, such as impacts on businesses, local economies, and jobs, and will also review approaches for enhancing business preparedness and economic resilience in disasters. Topics that are not well understood will also be considered.  One concern in particular is our lack of understanding of the long-term impacts of catastrophic events.

Plenary Address: LaSalle Bank Fire – Lessons Learned
Jack T. Smith

The worst high-rise building fire in the history of City of Chicago occurred on December 6th, 2004 at 6:30pm at the LaSalle Bank headquarters which houses 3000 employees. Due to the efforts of the bank’s Business Continuity Team and the Business Continuity Coordinators within the building, critical operations were recovered by the morning of the next business day.  Clients were not impacted.

As the Business Continuity and Crisis Manager for the bank, Jack T. Smith was charged with the effort of building a comprehensive program that would be tested at the largest scale to date.  In this article Mr. Smith will present the valuable lessons learned from the event including what went well and what did not.  The article will detail how various areas within the organization were involved in the recovery effort include Facilities, Human Resources, Security, Insurance, Computing Infrastructure, Life Safety, and Crisis Management. The result of tireless planning was that despite over 50 million dollars in damage to the building and most departments being displaced for weeks without prior notice, the company did not file a business interruption claim with its insurance company.

Breakout Series #100

Breakout #101: Climate Change - A Serious Long Term Threat for Businesses
David Etkin

The world is changing rapidly in many ways, and one of the potentially most serious ways is a changing climate due to the increase of greenhouse gases within the atmosphere.  It seems very likely that many climate related hazards will become more severe in the future, particularly floods, droughts and heat waves - storms may also become more of a threat in some areas.  The impact of climate change, though, needs to be viewed within a larger context, since it is only one of several complex and interconnected systems - the others being the human social-economic-built infrastructure system and the natural-ecological environment.  I argue that, pessimistic as many of the proposed scenarios of the future of our earth under a different climate are, they are likely to be positively biased as a result of how research questions are framed and due to the likely emergence of surprising properties, particularly in the presence of unknown critical thresholds.    This (somewhat depressing) perspective emphasizes the importance of using the Precautionary Principle as a management strategy, though implementing such a strategy tends to be sabotaged due to social traps such as the "Tragedy of the Commons".

Breakout #102: Critical Infrastructure and Business
Doug Allan, Allan Galambos, Seiki Harada

The Joint Emergency Liasion Committee (JELC) Working Group on Critical Infrastructure has developed and piloted methodology and procedures for the following:

  • the rating of assets by the asset owner across all sectors to determine their criticality
  • varying levels of data masking to allow owners to retain control over data confidentiality
  • data exchange procedures to allow asset owners and data requestors the maximum benefits depending on the situation
  • hazard and threat lists endorsed by regional authorities for use in vulnerability analyses
  • vulnerability screening tools to develop initial numerical indicators of vulnerability in a number of common hazards

The JELC methodology was used extensively in the 2007 freshet as well as in a number of previous pilots with over 40 asset owners in the Lower Mainland.  The presentation will explain the JELC methodology, present the progress to date and proposed future use, and show its applicability and benefits to the business community."

Breakout #103: Transient Populations and Business Impacts of Evacuation
Peter Tarlow, PH.D 

In the session on Transient Populations and Business Impacts of Evacuation, Dr. Peter Tarlow shows how a simple evacuation plan is not good enough.  He delineates the problems and issues with transient populations such as tourists and explains why a tourism evacuation plan is different in nature from other plans.  Tarlow provides information on what to and what not to do should a natural disaster occur in which an evacuation plan is needed.

Breakout #104: More Than Zeros and Ones
David Witzer

Outline: Information Technology is more than zeros and ones.

Consider the most valuable resource in IT Business Continuity planning - the people.  In a unique presentation, David will illustrate how to facilitate four distinct groups of people at the workplace and succeed in Business Continuity Plan development and activation.

Using creative methods to encourage participation in the planning and exercise processes can lead to continued interest in Business Continuity throughout an organization.

Luncheon Address: The Changing Face of Tourism Security in Times of Terrorism and Crime
Peter Tarlow, PH.D  
In the "The Changing Face of Tourism Security in Times of Terrorism and Crime" Dr. Peter Tarlow explores how the tourism industry receives special targeting and is in need of special forms of protection. He addresses the need for police to be trained in TOPs (Tourism Oriented Policing Services) techniques and shows the relationship between tourism, crime and terrorism. He delineates the differences between these and explains how a misdiagnosis can be disastrous to both the industry and to local economies.

Plenaries

Strategic risk Management
David Kaye

As organisations evolve and change, their sensitivities also change.  The consequences of damage by any risk incident may include the loss of operational dependencies that are necessary for the organisations very survival.  These dependencies equally include intellectual assets, brand values, regulatory approvals, customer interfaces, legality, an external supply chain, the confidence and support of its various stakeholders, as they do also its ability to deliver products and services on time and in the required quality.   

Modern business dependencies are diverse and complicated.  In spite of the huge wealth, multi-nationalism and scale of many a modern organisation, it is in fact much more exposed to single, organisation wide, destruction than in earlier business models.  This is because, increasingly, of the way that single points of risk expose them to group wide destruction.  Furthermore, business continuity risk, as in all risk, is increasingly as much about opportunity as it is about damage.

One consequence of a risk incident may be that the organisation has to step away from its marketplace for a while; and thus give free reign to competitors, equally using external supply chains and the internet, to move so much faster to secure this advantage; probably for ever. 

The damage of course may not only be within the organisation.  There could be destruction of the legal or physical environment on which the organisation depends.  An urgently needed “just in time” supplier or distributor may be slowed by a small incident, but the delay in delivery may have destructive impact further up the value chain.

This presentation takes its audience into the world of business continuity management from the viewpoint of the strategic managers of the organisation.  It places continuity as an important risk issue, and thus takes business continuity thinking well beyond its roots contingency facilities and of response management.  The skills and resources of the business recovery manager are additionally adding more and more value in other risk management arenas.

To profess business resilience without looking at this wider picture of catastrophic risk to an organisation’s arteries is just lip service.  It creates a risk in itself, because such promises will raise expectations amongst stakeholders including shareholders, employees, suppliers, customers and regulators.  It is, as such, more dangerous than having no ‘business recovery’ position at all.

Chicago First A Regional Private Public Partnership
John Fowler, CISA, CISM, CRP

This presentation will describe and document the business case for the formation of ChicagoFIRST. ChicagoFIRST originated in mid 2003 to form the premier private/public financial services partnership working together on issues of Business Continuity and Security. Current day membership comprises 27 of the largest Financial Institutions in the City of Chicago.  ChicagoFIRST is an active member of the United States Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council and lead organization in the formation of the Regional Partnership FIRST council that has served to bring a consistent approach to critical issues across the 18 other FIRST organizations.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Bonus Breakfast Session: New Developments in Emergency Management Training
Robert Walker
The Applied Learning Lab is primarily designed to provide an immersive learning environment utilizing simulation technology where participants gain experience in critical incident decision-making. Within the Justice Institute of BC context, this would apply to decision-making in the fields of justice and public safety.
Learning must be engaging and this is where immersive simulations can be so effective. The aim of the Applied Learning Lab is to bring critical incident decision-making to life and to provide individuals with experiences of real world situations within a training setting that are readily transferable to an actual emergency or major event.
Participants working in small groups receive information about an incident through video clips, audio clips, computer communications and documents.  These groups can work in both disciplinary specific and inter-disciplinary pods. Decisions are made in a time pressured context.
Further, while the primary focus is decision-making, other benefits can include practicing, testing and critiquing operational plans and procedures; familiarization with protocols; promoting inter-personal and inter-agency cooperation; and the experience of group dynamics.
The presentation will provide an overview of how this immersive technology has been incorporated into emergency management training.

Plenary Panel: Pandemic Planning as a Competitive Business Advantage
Allan Holmes, MD 
Although organizations are called upon to prepare for a variety of potential emergencies, an influenza pandemic introduces unique considerations that must be addressed.   Dr. Holmes will provide perspective and insight into pandemic influenza planning by highlighting the potential benefits that planning can deliver in terms of employee health and well being, company performance, and the organization’s reputation in the marketplace.

Ralph Dunham
Mr. Dunham will provide a brief overview of the history and impact of pandemic influenza and identify the steps necessary to improve organizational preparedness for such an event.  A pandemic, which will likely be a worldwide outbreak of a new, very contagious strain of influenza, is predicted to occur and is reported daily in the media. Although the timing of the pandemic is uncertain, it is known that the impact will be significant. Experts predict the next pandemic could affect 25 - 35% of the population, which will obviously have a major impact on your employees, business and personal travel.  Best practices are evolving quickly and this session will review current approaches that are being utilized to plan in advance for a pandemic.

This session will provide the following;

  • An understanding of the current status & background of Avian Flu
  • An appreciation of what is different about this threat from a planning and preparedness perspective
  • An outline of the elements of an effective Preparedness Program
  • Opportunities and challenges associated with a "Best-of Class" program
  • Lessons learned that will provide a positive market position

Andrew Wilson
He will be talking about pandemic planning with a particular focus on the special implications of an infectious disease with regard to Business Continuity Planning and modelling the possible loss of staff under various scenarios.   Further, he will address WorkSafeBC activity with respect to our regulations and their implications for businesses in BC."

Breakout Series #200

Breakout #201: Insurance aspects of BCP
Jim Olsen

Many people are acquainted with the basics of business continuity planning, but few have a good understanding of the insurance coverage that needs to be in place if a disaster should strike. For a lot of business owners, the very survival of the entity will depend on whether or not they were insured adequately. This session will provide a briefing on the insurance requirements for an effective disaster recovery program and how this affects business impact analysis studies. Special attention is given to our changing climatic conditions affecting the BCP planning process. Learn about time element coverage’s such as business income and interruption insurance; use and occupancy; extra expense coverage; calculating maximum loss scenarios; loss notification issues; duties of policy holders.

Breakout #202: Emotional Continuity Management
Dr. Vali J. Hawkins Mitchell

Emotional Continuity is risk management that evaluates and manages change based emotions, from small to catastrophic while maintaining compassion and the bottom line.  It is how healthy employees prepare for the worst while hoping for the best in all situations.  Managing workplace emotions from daily annoyances to the extreme influences of terrorism, natural disaster, pandemic preparations, or other catastrophic trauma is no longer the sole domain of counselors, (HR) human resource professionals, or EAP (employee assistance providers). Everyone needs to be prepared! Emotional continuity is a critical concept that protects people and the bottom line. Learning how to recognize employees who are healthy, dysfunctional, pathological (or worse) is a well-tested protocol that protects companies and people in real-life situations. When all is going well Emotional Continuity Management (ECM) insures compassionate risk management.  In the event of a disaster or other incident, ECM helps manage the “thinkable” and the “unthinkable.  What can your company absorb? Are your people prepared for workplace violence or a raging gossip chain?

Statistics clearly show that Emotional Continuity is good for people and business. Top companies know that planning and protecting fiscal and human capital is the key to both human and economic survival. Pre-incident planning and Post-Event intervention has been well documented as the most powerful deterrent to the ravages of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) while it supports people and business recovery. Continuity planning without ECM is not complete. Plans that consider issues of long-term compassionate emotional recovery with a “let’s-get-back-to-work” mentality support people and decrease the risks of nightmare litigations, time-loss, absenteeism, and the risks of increased health or mental health care costs.

In this one-hour breakout, participants will:

  • Learn how to recognize employees who are Healthy, Dysfunctional, Pathological and how to retain them
  • Discover the unique features of Emotional Terrorists and how to protect employees and companies while remaining compassionate
  • Be introduced to the concepts of fiscal risk management associated with emotional disruption
  • Re-define workplace disruption from small and large incidents, overt and covert events, and other recognizable workplace concerns
  • Explore custom designing a non-violent workplace
  • Leave with a new competency for self-care protocols
  • Contemplate the levels of real-life thinkable and unthinkable workplace incidents
  • Be entertained, have some laughs, think, stretch, and share some poignant moments because this is “real” time information for real people!

Breakout #203: Emerging Health Issues for Businesses of Tomorrow
Bonnie Henry MD MPH FRCP(C)

This session will review some of the recent health issues that have had sometimes dramatic impacts on businesses worldwide (including SARS, Avian Influenza and anthrax) and discuss the potential emerging health threats in today's global climate.

Breakout #204: Telecommunications as Critical Infrastructure and Business Continuity practices for Spring Freshet 07
Jason Macdonnell

Though the threat of severe flooding across British Columbia lower mainland last spring did not materialize, it did offer valuable lessons about how critical communications can be maintained during a disaster to ensure emergency officials, utilities and government bodies can coordinate their preparations, response and recovery efforts. 

Jason Macdonnell, TELUS General Manager, Lower Mainland South will speak on what business continuity preparations TELUS was prepared to undertake and be ready to deploy if the floods had occurred.  This included working with provincial and local governments to coordinate communications during flooding, including technology and tools used in planning; establishing a call centre with the Red Cross and the Provincial Government, preparations for Emergency Management Operating Centre and protecting critical equipment sites and network components from potential flooding.  

Luncheon Address: Taking Your Own Pulse First
Dr. Vali J. Hawkins Mitchell

As a great employee you work hard. You are nice, kind, compassionate and a productive team player! But are you being nice to YOU? How do you take care of yourself for the long haul? Disaster work is not for the weak! But being strong does not mean avoiding self-care. First responders “take their own pulse first!” Emotional Continuity Management© means addressing the emotional needs of others AND YOU!

What are the keys to an excellent and adaptable self-care protocol! Simple! Even this brief introduction to Self-Care Protocols will provide you with the 4 Foundations for long-term survival…no matter the circumstances. And by the time you finish your lunch you will have a portable, custom designed tool that is guaranteed to raise your energy and your humor.