Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Small business crisis plans few and far between

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

New Zealand small and medium-sized firms are highly unprepared for a future crisis similar to the Christchurch earthquakes, a study has found.

Massey University’s annual BusinesSMEasure canvassed 1000 companies across the country. It found only a small proportion of the firms surveyed had a formal continuity plan in place and fewer than 10 per cent had a written crisis management plan.

Read the full article here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/small-business/news/article.cfm?c_id=85&objectid=10803946

Would Business Continuity Awareness Week Benefit from Remarketing?

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

So Business Continuity Awareness Week 2012 came and went (in March, in fact). Sponsored by the BCI (Business Continuity Institute), this annual event brings together BC professionals and other interested parties for a week of events and presentations. However, the risk of emphasising a special week once a year is that people then think the pressure is off for the rest of the year. The BCI is aware of the issue; on the BCAW website, it points out that like “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas”, that BC awareness has to be a day-in, day-out exercise. The answer may be in some nifty viral marketing.

As a “product”, BCAW seems to push a number of the right buttons. The main theme this year was time, and the unspoken but possibly unjustified feeling of many organisations that they will be able to handle disaster if and when it happens, rather than taking the time upfront to prepare for business continuity. Other noteworthy aspects concerned the 2012 Olympics, supply chains, lean Six Sigma and even applying BCM to the global economic crisis, as well as the Internet Business Continuity Management game, called BC24. The trick is now to build up mindshare with persistency, so that people think about it more over the year, and not just within one week.

Compared to conventional publicity and advertising, BCAW lacks an effect of repetition. Advertisers also know that besides repeating their message, one of the most powerful levers to get inside prospective customer’s heads is to be approved and recommended by people to their friends and colleagues. Combining the two, so-called viral marketing uses information and even online gimmicks to get people to spread the word among themselves. The BCI already has BC24 (see paragraph above), which could be the basis of a fun yet educational gadget that people could then email to others.

Canberra Business Continuity Certification – Bringing Public and Private Sectors Together

Friday, September 9th, 2011

Attaining the prestige of business continuity certification in Australia is one good reason for attending a course. For many professionals, there’s also another one – mixing with BCP peers and exchanging points of view. The give and take between private and public sectors is a good example. Private industry and service sectors often take their lead from the public sector in terms of which policies and strategies to implement. After all, successfully running a 1.7 trillion dollar economy means due care and planning, especially in terms of business continuity. Likewise, Government gets some of its best ideas from hearing about solutions and best practices from independent enterprises.

The Canberra venue for the BCLE-2000 Business Continuity Planning course reflects this. OpsCentre is running this DRII course in response to the drive for business continuity certification in Australia. The course will be held in Canberra from Monday November 28th to Friday December 2nd. The course runs for 4.5 days and covers the 10 professional practices for BCP professionals and the qualifying exam for CBCP (Certified Business Continuity Professional) qualification. In keeping with the CBCP program, the course is for professionals with a minimum of two years of business continuity experience.

Canberra with its concentration of Federal Government departments is therefore a location with particular potential for exchanges between professionals seeking business continuity certification in Australia. The principles of BCP remain the same in any industry, including risk evaluation, business impact analysis and BC strategy development and planning. Instructors make use of case study material and other selected exercises that will bring out the best of the mix of experience among the course attendees, ensuring the BC planning expertise that is taught and put into practice is balanced and relevant for all.

Full course outline and registration form are available on our DRI Australia Website.

Sydney Round Table Event – Testing Business Continuity Plans

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

OpsCentre’s Managing Director, Rod Crowder, will be facilitating a round table event on behalf of Continuity Forum, to be held 29th Jun 2011. The topic is Business Continuity Testing/Exercising.

For more information and registration details please go to the Continuity Forum website here.

We hope to see you there.

Cloud Computing: Risky Business Round Table

Monday, March 28th, 2011

OpsCentre will be hosting a Round Table on the 28th of April at the Vibe Hotel in Sydney; to register click here.

We will be discussing the risks associated with cloud computing with industry professionals.

To get you warmed up for the discussion have a look at this very informative clip posted by Macquarie Telecom discussing Cloud computing and the risks associated with off-site data storage.  

Click here to watch the Macquarie Telecom Clip.

Business Continuity Awareness Week Events

Monday, March 21st, 2011

OpsCentre have updated our Events page with details and links for some of the Australian activities for Business Continuity Awareness Week (this week).

Plus we’ve also put up the topics for our June and August Round Table Discussions in Sydney.

Happy BCAW!

Japan Earthquake – Before and After

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Some amazing photo’s of the Japan Earthquake have just released by ABC.

Slide your mouse left and right over the images to reveal the before and after scenes. Click here

OpsCentre Round Table Event – Cloud Computing: Risky Business?

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

OpsCentre is hosting another Round Table event at the Vibe Hotel in Sydney on 28th April 2011 to discuss Cloud Computing Risks.

Details have been updated on OpsCentre’s Events page and there is a link through to more information and registration.

OpsCentre Events Page

Webinar: Disaster Recovery Planning & Testing – The Real Cost of Downtime

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

Novell is hosting a complimentary Webinar on the Real Cost of Downtime on January 19, 2011 (or Thu, Jan 20, 2011 6:00 AM – 7:00 AM AEDT if you’re in Australia).
The main topics to be covered are:
- Traditional disaster recovery challenges, particularly when it comes to testing and recovery planning
- Best practices for reducing disruption and improving coordination and communication
- How virtualisation is a potential game changer in increasing the level of trust businesses have in disaster recovery plans
Register to participate here.

OpsCentre has added an Events section to the website

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

OpsCentre has updated the website with a new section on upcoming events that may be of interest to you. This event page will highlight upcoming industry events relevant to Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and Risk.

You can find the new Events page here… OPSCENTRE EVENTS

OpsCentre Roundtable Event – Managing Emerging and New Era Risks

Monday, October 11th, 2010

In the 21st century, a number of New Era or Emerging risks are challenging our traditional risk management methodologies, tools and techniques.  Risk professionals must keep up-to-date with them: assessing, mitigating and managing these risks, each and every day.

 What is a New Era, or Emerging, Risk? Categories include Economic, Environmental, Geopolitical, Societal and Technological.  Examples include Demographic shift, Climate changes, Social Networking, Terrorism, Pandemics and Critical information infrastructure, to name just a few. 

Join us for this roundtable discussion to share your ideas and find out how your peers assess and manage new era risks and ensure protection of their organisation’. 

OpsCentre extends an invitation to the roundtable event to Chief Executives, Chief Financial Officers, Managing Directors, Business Continuity Managers, Risk and Compliance Managers, and all senior executives looking to understand and identify “Emerging Risks” during 2010/11.

Rod Crowder, Managing Director of OpsCentre, will facilitate an open and unbiased discussion between participants; providing an opportunity to comment and discuss individual perspectives and share related issues and experiences with each other.   He will outline a number of action areas where senior executives can gain rapid traction on this important challenge.   

Our round table discussion topics include:

What are the major categories of Emerging Risk?

Do existing Risk Management practices cater for these types of risk?

What emerging risks will your organisation face next?

How are organisations assessing qualitative and quantitative Emerging risks?

What risk response strategies need to be implemented?

Is there a need for collaboration with an external party to deal with emerging Risks?

What methods are there of effectively using indicators to monitor Emerging risks?

 

We look forward to sharing your views and perspectives at our Roundtable event.

When:
Thursday October 21, 2010
from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM EST

Where:
Vibe Hotel Sydney
111 Goulburn St
Sydney 2000

Register Now