Meetings and Events

If you take all precautions possible when planning your meeting or event, you shouldn't have any of the moments mentioned in this week's quote. While you cannot plan for every contingency, you can prepare yourself to deal with any disruption if you follow the advice in this week's articles and do everything you can to manage risk.

A risk management plan can help you with many of the contingencies that could arise. (Item #1) Since you can't do away with all risks, you do ensure that you can manage them should they occur. (Item #2) Start with this checklist, add your own items, and then use it when you're planning. (Item #3) 

Liquor at meetings is always a concern; see these steps to limiting your liquor liability.(Item #4) Your organization, and even individuals, could be at risk of liability exposure if you're not aware of all the laws that could land you in trouble. (Item #5) Meeting planners need to be risk managers. (Item #6)

Mass Notification Systems

If a disaster or disruptive event occurs, a mass notification system (MNS) may be the one thing that can keep your organization off page one. This week’s articles cover many aspects of planning, buying and using a mass notification system.

A mass notification system is not the same as a fire alarm system; it requires far more flexibility and offers a lot more options. (Item #1) Here is a list of best practices recommended by campus protection professionals, emergency notification equipment manufacturers and other subject matter experts. (Item #2) New communication technologies and formats call for increased scrutiny of the behavioral factors that impact their effectiveness and define their role in specific alerting and mass notification applications. (Item #3)

Does risk analysis provide real value when planning an MNS? (Item #4) Check with your cell providers to make sure they aren't blocking your SMS/text alerts. (Item #5) Here are 10 factors to consider when buying an MNS. (Item #6)

Getting Management Buy-In

The lucky ones among you already have management buy-in for your business continuity plans. Was it easy? Probably not, but there are ways to make it easier for the rest of you. This week's articles provide many tips on what you need to do to get management to understand that BC is not just a cost center but the path to survival.

Here are four tips to gain upper management attention. (Item #1) How to give the board a message it needs to hear. (Item #2) The first step in deciding how to sell BC investment to a difficult manager or director is to determine what kind of boss you have. (Item #3)

Much has been written about getting "senior management buy in" for business continuity, but what about everyone else? (Item #4) You have to tie BC to the bottom line to get top-level support. (Item #5) How do you ensure that your business continuity plan, disaster recovery plan and risk assessment get the required support from the top level of the business? (Item #6)

Employee Issues & Business Continuity

Employees may be your greatest asset, but they could also be your downfall if you aren't careful. Issues such as sexual harassment, discrimination, breach of privacy and others can put your business at risk if you end up in court on the wrong end of a lawsuit. This week's articles give you some information about issues that could help you prevent problems with employees.

There are a number of laws you need to know about to avoid legal issues with employees. (Item #1) Background screening too expensive? You have no idea the cost of not background screening. (Item #2) Do any of these problem employees sound familiar to you? (Item #3)

Here are some examples of employee relations issues. (Item #4) Employees and other insiders can wreak havoc with your digital assets. (Item #5) Make sure you're familiar with these privacy laws so you won't run afoul of the law. (Item #6)