What would you do if you were locked out of your office for 5-days?

If your business is unable to service its clients for 5 consecutive days or more, (e.g. have to abandon / surrender your facilities), the FEMA statistic says 80% of these businesses will be out of business within two years.  Large corporations are able to fund, plan, build and test disaster recovery & business continuity plans.But what about the rest of us mere mortals? What is realistic preparation for Small & Medium businesses?

Through a panel of industry experts, we plan to inform and educate small & medium businesses about the need to prepare a Business Continuity Plan and latest best-practices, special considerations, and techniques to help your SMB continue functioning, business resilience, in the face of a business disruption event.

Pictures of the event here.

Presenters / Panelists

Scott Ashley, BCP/EM practitioner. Get Ready Emergency Training Inc. Scott has over twenty-five years experience in emergency management, both from his early years as a paramedic, and later in business development and implementing emergency management and business resilience programs. Scott gained his expertise while working with various EMS services both in Canada and the USA. Scott worked on the national emergency response and business continuity plans for numerous Fortune 100 companies and professional services firms. Scott sits on the Advisory Committee for the School of Emergency Management & Public Safety at George Brown College in Toronto.

Danny Deganis, COO and co-founder of Modular Data Protection Services Inc. Danny is a twenty year IT industry veteran. Having worked with MSPs and VARs in the areas of data protection and disaster recovery planning over the past 5 years, Danny co-founded Modular DPS in 2011 to address some of the major barriers to market entry that IT service providers face when considering a move into cloud delivered data protection services.

Carlos Paz-Soldan, Founder & CEO at Tenet Computer Group Inc. Carlos is President and founder of Tenet Computer Group Inc. (est. 1984), a Toronto-based I.T. company. Carlos has been involved in I.T. since the mid ‘70s, and has worked for and with companies large and small, in South America, Africa and North America. Carlos has worked in Emergency Planning and BCP for several years, including DR planning for a large Canadian Bank, Pandemic Planning for major hospitals in Toronto, and the creation of a mobile application that automates the creation and distribution of Emergency Plans. Tenet’s app has been tested by FEMA under its NIMS STEP program, and is used by governments and corporations across Canada, USA, UK, and South America.

Mauro Lollo, Mauro is a recognized technology business leader and technical futurist. As the co-founder of a leading national Canadian IT integration company, he led through many disruptive changes during the evolution of the modern IT industry. He also founded several other organizations and maintains involvement in venture start-up efforts and high-tech incubators.

Sylvain Rollin, President, ERMS Corporation. Provider of a comprehensive and enterprise-class emergency and incident mass notification system.

Event Snapshot for Your Calendar

Topic: SMB Business Disaster Planning – What’s Realistic?
Target Audience: Technology entrepreneurs, business owners, professionals, educators and students
Meetup Track: Technology Innovation
Date & Time: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 @ 7pm
Location: Dueling Pianos / Wendel Clark’s – Entertainment Central, 370 Dundas St. East, Oakville | Map: http://g.co/maps/b2vb4
How much it costs: Nothing but your time.
Pre-Event Q&A Silicon Halton members can participate in a pre-event conversation with the organizers and facilitator in our private Linkedin group. Help them make this meetup relevant to you.

On-going-Event Q&A Silicon Halton members can participate in an on-going conversation with the presenters in our private Linkedin group.