Emergency Planning Briefing Event

Spent most of yesterday in a training event with about 15 other colleagues discussing the nature of emergency planning and business contingency planning from a very wide variety of perspectives. Some of the emergencies or critical incidents were quite obvious (like fires, floods, natural disasters) but others less so (Hillsborough). The top two according to the Cabinet Office facing the UK are (a) Flu Pandemic and (b) Terrorism. The group added a few others like credit crunch and energy sources. It was a good event with a lot of interaction from a wide range of professional and personal experiences and it was interesting how often IT was referred to - not as the cause of an emergency (although sometimes IT is a potential cause) but also as a tool to support communication and co-ordination during the crucial response stage and later recovery stages of an emergency situation. Better order up some PPE.