Gaming Theory and Exercise Constructs: A Means To A Solid Contingency Plan

Date: May 14th, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Location: United Way, 50 Waugh Street, Houston, TX 77007)

Bring your lunch, listen to the presentation, participate in the discussion and stay for the networking!

Speakers: Austin Stone, National Business Development and John Kunert, Director of Business Continuity, NorthStar Recovery Services

Stay tuned for more details.

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Sandy Asch, Founder, Alliance for Organizational Excellence

Keynote Synopsis: ROAR: How to Build a Resilient Organization that Thrives in Disruptive Times: Lessons Learned from the San Diego Zoo Story

Based on her best-selling book, Sandy Asch, presents an innovative model that offers insight and actionable guidance for how to build emotional, physical, relational, mental and value resilience. ROAR SETS you apart by giving you the mindSET, skillSET, and toolSET to stay relevant and thrive.

About the Keynote Speaker: Bestselling author of ROAR: How to Build a Resilient Organization the World-Famous San Diego Zoo Way [theRoarBook.com] and Excellence at Work: The Six Keys to Inspire Passion in the Workplace, internationally recognized speaker, global consultant, Best Place to Work expert, Woman of Influence Award winner and architect of the Resilience at Work^TM model.

Sandy partners with companies to create workplaces that are passionate, focused, healthier and resilient. 30,000 leaders in 350+ companies in 50 countries and 6 languages have implemented her strategies to win awards, navigate mergers and embrace change.

Sandy’s presentations are filled with stories and case studies that are rich in content and highly interactive. The ideas that she shares provoke deep thought, challenge old paradigms, stimulate meaningful dialogue and activate immediate application. She holds a masters degree in Organizational Management and has taught graduate classes in Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Resources.

Chloe Demrovsky, President and Chief Executive Officer, Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRI)

Keynote Synopsis: Don’t Ignore These Global Business Risks in 2019

Our research shows that professionals continue to be most concerned about technology failures including major IT disruptions and severe data breaches. While cyber resilience is of great concern, the disruption caused by natural disasters remains a real and growing threat. This session will provide a global perspective and trends analysis of how resilience professionals view the profession and the external factors that are shaping it. We will ask questions including whether the consolidation of resilience disciplines is really occurring and if the role of the resilience professional is changing.

About the Keynote Speaker: Chloe led DRI to a record number of certified professionals, oversaw the creation of a new digital strategy, and managed the most substantive revision of DRI’s core training program in its history. She designed DRI’s international market development strategy operating in over 50 countries.

During her tenure, DRI’s conference reached a record level of attendance and the organization launched a series of diversity committees including:

• Women in Business Continuity
• Young Leaders in Resilience
• Veterans’ Outreach Program

She is a regular Forbes contributor, has appeared on Bloomberg TV, MSNBC and Fox and served as an expert source for The Associated Press, USA Today, ABC News, and many more. Chloe has presented at dozens of events on four continents, conducted on-site briefings for government bodies, and built the relationship with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. She is on the board of the DRI Foundation, a CBCV, the adjunct faculty at New York University, is a Rockefeller 100 Resilient Cities Subject Matter Advisor

Chloe holds a Master’s of Science in International Business from New York University, a Bachelor of Arts from Bard College at Simon’s Rock and speaks four languages. Follow her @ChloeDemrovsky

Kelly Williams, Director of Enterprise Solutions, OnSolve

Synopsis: Time for a Health Check! Is your notification system efficient, effective and ‘crisis ready’?

As professionals in business continuity, crisis communications are an important part of our knowledge base, preparation and training. Most companies utilize notification software tools to communicate with their people during a crisis event and to manage critical next steps.

Kelly zeroes in on the most common problems when the software tools you’re using do not work as planned. People aren’t responding, they’re hanging up, the wrong alert was sent etc. If critical communications falls within your area of responsibility, it’s time for a health check! Learn key strategies for ensuring you don’t just have a notification system in place but that your notification system is efficient, effective and ‘crisis ready’.

About the Speaker:For the past decade, starting with MIR3 and now with OnSolve which acquired MIR3 in 2016, Kelly has been helping companies of all sizes and in every industry streamline and improve their business continuity and communication processes across the enterprise.

She is involved in all aspects of implementation, training, rollout and ongoing account management for many of the largest companies in the world including many in the energy sector and the Fortune 100.

OnSolve is a market leader in the critical event management and notification space with software-based communication and collaboration tools delivering multimodal critical notifications and alerts in emergency situations threatening public safety or to support business continuity and employee safety initiatives. The company’s cloud-based software solutions support the exchange of critical information, across channels including voice, text, email, desktop, mobile alert app, RSS feeds and social media platforms.

Mike Venske, Manager of Account Services and Meteorologist, StormGeo

Synopsis: StormGeo Hurricane Insights

Businesses continue to feel the effects of hurricanes two to three years after the hurricane has passed. It is imperative that businesses in hurricane prone locations make preparations well before a hurricane track is announced.

Summary:

• Insights from StormGeo clients on how they protected their businesses, employees and customers during the 2018 hurricane season.
• 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Forecast, including the number of named storms and the areas most likely to be impacted.
• Hurricane preparedness pointers for your business.

About the Speaker: Mike has over 15 years of meteorological experience ranging from operational forecasting to all levels of client and vendor relationship building, implementation and maintenance. He currently serves as primary liaison between StormGeo's clients and StormGeo's internal teams including Operations, Research & Development, Information Technology, Sales, Accounting, and Marketing. Mike has an extensive knowledge of StormGeo clientele needs, products/services, database systems and Geographic Information System applications.

Prior to StormGeo, Mike was employed by WeatherBank in Edmond, Oklahoma and is a graduate of Purdue University. He currently resides in Houston, Texas with his wife of 14 years, his 10 year old daughter, and his 8 year old son.

StormGeo is one of the world's leading provider of data science and weather intelligence, serving a worldwide customer base with advanced solutions with 22 offices in 16 countries and operates seven 24/7/365 weather centers for customers in Oil & Gas, Shipping, Renewable Energy, Cross Industry, Aviation and Media industries.

Teresa Tonthat, Chief Information Security Officer, Texas Children's

Synopsis: What Keeps CISOs Up at Night

About the Speaker: Teresa Tonthat serves as the Chief Information Security Officer for Texas Children's, the largest children’s hospital in the United States recognized for pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology, and research.  Tonthat has more than 18 years of experience in information security, information technology audit, compliance, and cyber risk. She is responsible for establishing long-term security strategy, assessing cyber risk, emerging threats, and developing value-added security capabilities for the organization.

Tonthat joined Texas Children’s in January 2018.  During her tenure, she has provided leadership over the delivery of multiple security capabilities in an effort to continuously strengthen the organization’s security posture. Prior to joining Texas Children’s, Tonthat was responsible for information security at Halliburton.  Under her leadership, a multi-national global security team was focused on mitigating cyber risk within the digital oilfield operations in over 80 countries.

Tonthat holds a Bachelor's degree in Management Information Systems from Louisiana State University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston.  She serves on various information security executive councils and organizations such as the American Petroleum Institute (API), Oil and Gas Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ONG-ISAC), Healthcare ISAC, eHealth Initiative (eHI) Advisory Board, Symantec Healthcare Advisory Board, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS).  Tonthat enjoys learning and getting immersed into the operations at Texas Children’s, while spending time educating people on security and risks to collectively help enable the organization to meet its mission.

Melissa Rhodes, Customer Community Manager, Assurance Software

Synopsis: Moving from Preparing for the Exercise to Truly Being Disaster Prepared

How much time is spent during your DR exercise "preparing" for the test? There may always be certain logistics to work out, but are the resources spending the early part of your exercise updating plans, scripts or the DR environment? Have you ever wondered what an exercise would look like if the resources were not aware they were testing that day? Learn how one organization planned and executed a surprise exercise, the lessons learned and how to move towards being truly disaster prepared.