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TAKING THE STING OUT OF RISK

From STORAGE Magazine Vol 7, Issue 1 - February 2007

Business Continuity - The Risk Management Expo 2007 is the definitive event on risk, resilience and recovery, and is set to hit the capital in March. The expo promises to be a 'must see' for those concerned about ensuring the highest levels of business continuity across their organisations

Increased terrorist attacks, environmental disasters, reliance on data, and the pressure on companies to ensure their businesses continue to operate productively, have all meant that business continuity and risk management have shifted high up the corporate agenda. That is why ‘Business Continuity - The Risk Management Expo 2007’, covering risk, resilience and recovery, is a must for any diary from 28-29 March at ExCeL in London's Docklands.

Business Continuity Expo offers exceptional insights for end-to-end business continuity. In an increasingly unstable world, the unthinkable often does happen - and it is critical that organisations implement an effective business continuity strategy to minimise business interruption and maintain operational continuity.

The Business Continuity Expo provides organisations with the tools and solutions to protect their interests before, during and after an incident, while at the same time increasing business productivity and profitability. The exhibition will showcase practical solutions and products, while exploring best practice, standards and the strategies that enable an organisation to protect its vital assets, mitigate risk, manage crisis and recover after a disaster.

Business Continuity combines an exhibition with hands-on workshops and an in-depth two-day conference where personnel across all disciplines, including IT and corporate executives, can find the tools, knowledge and expertise that will help them to arm their organisations against any potential disaster and ensure operational continuity.

Now in its fourth year, and under new management with Reed Exhibitions, ‘Business Continuity - the Risk Management Expo’ promises to be the most informative event of its kind on risk management, drawing on the industry's leading speakers, experts and vendors.

There will be an award-winning formula of educational and practical workshops for businesses in every sector, including retail, government, utilities, education, oil, gas, manufacturing, finance and banking. The programme provides an enlightening peer-to-peer forum that explores the threats, solutions and best practices, as well as offering an insight into how to mitigate risk and manage crisis.

The free seminars will cover every aspect of the business continuity lifecycle and, with more then 60 to choose from, there will be something for everyone - from corporate governance, risk, compliance, resilience and brand management, as well as the practical solutions required for contingency planning, incident manage- ment and recovery. The seminars will also be categorised into three different streams:

• The Strategy Seminars: focusing on the challenges and issues facing managers, CEOs and other board level directors
• The Solutions Seminars: covering the technology, tools and products that will ensure that an organisation is able to protect its vital assets
• The Management Seminars: focusing on the processes and policies to enable the continued operation of core business processes.

Contingency planning experts will be on hand to discuss everything from exercise and scenario testing, data centres and secondary sites, IT back-up and IT & telecom infrastructure, to communications infrastructures and logistics, outsourcing and supply policy.

If it's crisis and incident management you are interested in, there will be specialists to talk to about information availability, emerging communications, facilities and management security, personnel & HR management, casualty management and media relations.

Incident and disaster recovery will also be covered by a team of experts, discussing information retrieval and recovery, salvage and clean-up, brand and reputation management, HR management and legal recourse, as well as decentralised workforce solutions.

By attending ‘Business Continuity - the Risk Management Expo 2007’, visitors will be able to find the experts and solution providers to ensure their business-critical functions remain up and running, no matter what the fates throw in their path. Visit the show to find the answers needed to ensure your business retains its reputation, protects your physical and intellectual assets, and remains within the legal and regulatory framework that is now required of most organisations.

Additionally running beside the exhibition and free workshops, there is a two-day conference that consists of high-level presentations, case studies, workshops and analysis from the world's leading business continuity experts.

Drawing from case studies - with speakers across vertical sectors, including finance, manufacturing, retail, oil & gas, leisure and travel and the public sector - the programme will look at the whole spectrum of sophisticated business continuity management, from risk analysis to protecting your brand and reputation.

The Business Continuity Conference has been divided into six distinct streams to ensure that, no matter what your business agenda, your subject will be covered.

 The six streams will embrace the following areas:
• Business Continuity Policy and Strategy, which will focus on how investment in business continuity can deliver real tangible benefits
• Business Continuity and National Resilience, focusing on the public sectors responsibility for security
• Information Availability, looking at the tools and techniques that a business could employ to protect itself and to ensure they are appropriate
• Presenters who, as part of the show's risk management stream, will analyse case studies so they can expose the in-depth issues, solutions and inhibitors that companies need to understand
• The Stakeholders and People stream will give an insight into how to get the most out of staff by exploring the human and government aspects of business continuity
• And the final stream, Emerging Issues, covers topics such as international- ising BCM and practical steps to implementing BS25999.

Also, a number of conference programme sessions have been designed for professionals within the government sector who need to know about current thinking and practices - these include debates and sessions from top speakers and experts on the following areas, covered at the conference:

'Practical steps to implement BS25999' by Nicki Dennis, risk, quality, fire, health & safety, security, BSI

'Lessons from the past - Ideas for the future', jointly presented by Peter Power, Visor Consultants, managing director, and Dr Sandra Bell, director, homeland security & resilience - RUSI.

'What do we really want from local authorities?' by Kevin O'Hare, emergency planning manager, Sembcorp.

Information availability in outsourcing: Case study analysis from the Buncefield Site by Mark Farrington, business recovery director, local government & corporate, Northgate IS.

'Learning from disasters' by Professor Brian Toft, Visiting Professor, Coventry University.

Pandemics and the dentist's waiting room', by Dr Kevin Bryett, CEO, VRi and Grant Organ, senior director, corporate prepardness practice, Kroll Security International.

'What does BS25999 mean to my organisation?' by John Milne, head of business continuity, Financial Services Association.

'Why is the Civil Contingencies Act relevant for BC?', by Chris Needham-Bennett, managing director, Needhams 1834.

'BS25999 - Founding resilience today and compliance in an incident', by Chris Green, head of business continuity, HBOS.

'Emerging governance codes Internationalising BCM', Bryn Woll, managing consultant, Marsh. ST

For tickets or further information on the Business Continuity Expo and Conference, please call 0870 429 4480 or visit: www.businesscontinuityexpo.co.uk