With the Eurozone crisis threatening to bring the world into another global recession, Gartner is advising CIOs to be on guard as the responsibility to ensure business continuity is in their hands.

Continue reading Gartner to CIOs: Weigh on Euro crisis

Tags: CIO, crisis management, Euro, gartner

The upcoming 15th Edition of the Disaster Resource GUIDE is complimentary to BC/EM/ERM industry professionals.

Continue reading 15th Edition of the Disaster Resource GUIDE Coming Soon!

Tags: Disaster Resource Guide

If your organization is already on its social media journey, you may want to think of yourself as a traveler. It can be an exciting time out there on the road, but it can also be a challenging time -  especially if unforeseen problems arise and you make mistakes.

While many mistakes can be easily rectified, others can have severe consequences. It is only natural that the following question surfaces as you explore the use of social media in crisis management: What can I do to avoid costly mistakes upon developing and implementing social media strategies that are geared toward improving my organization’s crisis management?

This article attempts to answer your question by highlighting 10 common mistakes made by organizations that are using social media today.

See Social Media and Crisis Management: 10 Common Mistakes,  by Gideon F. For-mukwai, MA, CEM for Disaster Recovery Journal.

Tags: crisis management, social media

Every new technology brings with it the capacity to screw things up in an entirely new way. With social media, it’s now become possible to turn what was once a verbal gaffe behind closed doors into a public peccadillo.

Continue reading Social media firestorms: A first responder’s guide

Tags: crisis communication, Facebook, public relations, social media, Twitter

ASIS International and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) issued a joint ASIS/SHRM Workplace Violence Prevention and Intervention American National Standard aimed at helping organizations implement policies and practices to more quickly identify threatening behavior and violence affecting the workplace, and to engage in effective incident management and resolution.

Continue reading ASIS/SHRM Workplace Violence Prevention and Intervention Standard

Tags: Workplace Violence Prevention

Business Continuity Awareness Week is facilitated by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI), the international membership body for business continuity management with over 6,000 members in 100+ countries.

Continue reading Business Continuity Awareness Week 2012: March 19th to 23rd

Tags: BCAW, business continuity awareness week, Business Continuity Institute

Hurricane Irene and the recent East Coast earthquake are critical reminders of the importance of timely communication among managers and their employees.

Continue reading When Natural Disasters Strike, Touch Base Regularly With Employees

Tags: crisis communication

In the immediate aftermath of a disaster or pandemic, people usually take stock of how unprepared they were for a crisis and are full of good intentions that next time disaster strikes, they will never again be caught unaware. But just a few months after any major crisis, a reality check usually shows that good intentions have given way to what now seems to be more pressing budgetary priorities, and planning momentum for a disaster has subsided. Continue reading A Decade After 9/11, Business Continuity Is Still A Work-In-Progress On Wall Street

Tags: budget, Business Continuity, financial crisis, investment, Wall Street

The 2011 19th edition of the Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook is the most comprehensive resource for emergency planning, business continuity, disaster recovery and restoration available. The Sourcebook contains more than 16,000 listings of professional organizations and companies with locations throughout North America. These companies and organizations are broken out into about 500 individual product, service and organization categories on over 1,000 pages!

The Edwards Information Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook is the most comprehensive and impartial publication of its kind. With that as our objective, we can include as much relevant information as possible, without requiring that a payment or promotional fee be paid. While advertising is accepted from select companies and organizations, our mission is to ensure that the user of the Sourcebook has all the information he or she needs to do their job, be better prepared, or recover quickly from an event. As a result, the Sourcebook is unique amongst the publications and websites in the disaster recovery and business continuity industry.

The information contained in the Sourcebook includes data provided by listed companies as well as other reference information which the editorial staff deemed important for our end users. Each year Edwards undertakes a thorough review of both the relevance of the categories included, and the accuracy and currency of the resources and company information provided. 2011 was no exception in this regard and as a result of our review, more than 50% of the listings were updated and thousands were added. We also streamlined our category structure to make it easier to identify companies or organizations of interest, including new categories for government agency and information resources.

The Sourcebook is available in either hardcopy format or CD Rom format, or can be purchased as a print/CD combo. Also available is an Onsite/Offsite Combo – two copies each of the print and CD version!

The Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook CD-ROM version contains a complete PDF copy of the print version of the directory, as well as an indexed HTML version with quick-access to over 15,000 vendors in more than 500 categories.

The HTML version also provides hot-links to each vendor’s website for fast access to the resources you need.

The portable form-factor makes the CD version of the directory a useful component of an “onsite/offsite” strategy so you can have copies of this critical resource at-hand whenever and wherever you need it most!

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2011 Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook

Print Edition $225.00

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2011 Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook

CDROM Edition $225.00

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2011 Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook

Print/CD Combo $275.00

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2011 Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook

Onsite/Offsite Combo $395.00

(TWO PRINT COPIES PLUS TWO CDs!)

Tags: directory, Disaster Recovery Directory, Disaster Recovery Sourcebook, disaster recovery yellow pages, Edwards Disaster Recovery Directory, Edwards Information, sourcebook, sources, vendor selection, vendors

NEW BOOK!

Emergency Management Exercises:

From Response to Recovery

Everything you need to know to design a great exercise!

by Regina Phelps, RN BSN MPA CEM

Get your copy of this brand new book today – and see below for a special offer!

Exercises are a mainstay in the field of emergency management and business continuity planning. Although many companies conduct exercises, and the organizers may be emergency response subject matter experts, they do not excel in the discipline of designing and conducting the actual exercise – which means they simply don’t get the best results out of their effort.

This thoughtful, new book starts with a “silly little question:” Why are we doing this? What seems like a simple query is actually one of the keys to get the most out of every exercise you design.

This text peels back the design process with the goal of creating the best exercise experience possible. Whether you are developing a simple tabletop exercises or working on a full-scale extravaganza that resembles a Hollywood movie, this book will provide you with gems of wisdom that will make your next exercise sizzle. An internationally recognized expert in exercise design, Regina Phelps shares many of her secrets to ensure your exercise success.

2011, 233 pages. $79.95.

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CONTENTS

1. Why conduct emergency management exercises?
2. The six types of exercises
3. The design team: your secret weapon in exercise design
4. Your roadmap – the exercise plan
5. The real story: the development of the exercise narrative
6. The drivers – exercise injects
7. Where the magic is created – the design team
8. Make your exercise sizzle – audio-visual tools
9. Supporting documents to make it all work – additional background exercise documents
10. Bringing it all together – the exercise team
11. Finally – the big day arrives: managing the exercise day
12. How to conduct an orientation exercise
13. How to conduct a tabletop exercise
14. Creating reality: how to conduct a functional exercise
15. Preparing the after-action report and exercise follow-up
16. Developing an annual or multi-year exercise and training calendar
17. Exercise design resource list
18. Glossary

Regina Phelps RN BSN MPA CEM is an internationally recognized expert in the field of emergency management and continuity planning. Since 1982, she has provided consultation and speaking services to clients on four continents. She is founder of Emergency Management & Safety Solutions, a consulting company specializing in emergency management, continuity planning and safety. Ms. Phelps has extensive exercise design experience. She designs between 100 and 150 exercises per year.

SPECIAL OFFER!

Receive a copy of the classic book, DISASTER RECOVERY TESTING: EXERCISING YOUR CONTINGENCY PLAN for Half Price – only $24.98 – with prepaid purchase of Emergency Management Exercises!

Tags: 978-0-9831143-0-7, 9780983114307, crisis management, emergency management, Emergency Management Exercises, exercise, Regina Phelps, Risk Management, Testing

If you don’t know James Lukaszewski, that’s probably just as well for you and your company.

If you do, then you understand why he’s regarded as one of the “experts to call when all hell breaks loose.” And why he’s held in Yoda-like esteem for his wise, concise, positive approach to guiding clients through their worst internal and external problems.

Continue reading Jim Lukaszewski: He’ll manage crises but prefers to avert them

Tags: crisis communication, crisis management, Lukaszewski