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This week is Business Continuity Awareness week

23 March 2009

Business Continuity Awareness Week (23 - 27 March 2009) is firmly fixed in the calendar of business continuity practitioners. The main focus of the week is to raise awareness with colleagues and clients and show the growing importance of Business Continuity Management (BCM) as a management practice.

The event is the idea of the Business Continuity Institute who aims to use the publicity around the week to raise understanding of BCM with leading opinion formers in government and industry. The week is an opportunity for organisations to showcase their business continuity activities and to show why BCM is an increasingly important management tool.

Here are some suggestions for you to consider during and beyond Business Continuity Awareness Week. They will enable you to introduce the concept or reinforce the recognition of your organisation's readiness to respond to known or unplanned events that may be disruptive in nature. You are encouraged to modify and customise these ideas to take into account your organisation's culture and the maturity of BCM in your organisation.

INTERNAL EVENTS: Awareness and education

• Encourage your business groups to include BCM as an agenda item during their staff meeting this week
• Encourage your business groups to circulate and update their contact lists/call trees, etc.
• Encourage your business groups to review their evacuation procedures including the involvement of your building managers to conduct fire drills this week
• Include articles in your corporate newsletters and/or on your intranet website
• Produce and circulate an annual schedule of BCM related activities (BIA review, BCP revisions, planned exercises, etc.)
• Have fun! Host quizzes to enhance Business Continuity awareness across your organisation
• Conduct lunch & learn sessions across your organisation:
  • Introduction to BCM
  • What's happening in the industry?
  • Showcase best practices within your organisation - encourage business units to share their experiences and successes
• Invite a business continuity expert to present to your team - this will give a fresh perspective
• Conduct refresher sessions for your Business Continuity Coordinators
• Conduct refresher or training sessions for your governance groups (compliance, audit, risk management, etc.). Invite these groups to present their own perspective on business continuity
• Conduct training sessions for employees
• Launch your exercise schedule for the year during this week
• Conduct a table top exercise with your executives and across your business units.

EXTERNAL EVENTS: Business partners and clients

• Host an Open House for clients and business partners and conduct mini-awareness sessions
• Arrange a tour of your recovery location(s)
• Showcase internal best practices
• Invite senior executives from your organisation to participate in these events to endorse your organisation's management commitment to BCM
• Invite your business partners and clients to share their Business Continuity Plan
• Organise sessions to highlight the interdependencies of your organisation and your business partner/client
• Invite Business Continuity related vendors to share their products/services.