Bristol City Council and the Continuity Forum building community BCM!
Category Business Continuity Management Briefing BCM - CCA - BCM Promotion
Promoting BCM ... a local authority experience
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Reaching Businesses in Bristol - So you think its easy do you?
It is on the eve of our third Secure in the Knowledge event that the Continuity Forum has approached us to write about the success of the first two. We sincerely hope that what we write here does not prove a hostage to fortune!
The first two events, “Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion” and “Secure in the Knowledge” have been hailed a success – interesting programmes with engaging speakers and a wide variety of stalls from public and commercial organisations seduced a large (200+), varied and attentive audience. The success of the first event provided a massive platform for the success of the second and, we hope, the third.
Planning our first event, “Ship shape and Bristol Fashion”, (SS&BF) took place before the Civil Contingencies Act presented Local Authorities with the formal duty to promote business continuity. There were clear indications that such a duty would materialise, so we were keen to start engaging local businesses on resilience issues and develop our expanding contacts with businesses in the city before we were ordered to! More importantly many businesses were eager to become involved and to participate.
On the same day as SS&BF, we also organised a public display outside the Council house where the seminar took place, titled “Bristol prepared”, where we were joined by the Avon Fire and Rescue Service, Avon Ambulance Service (now Great Western Ambulance NHS Trust) and Avon and Somerset Police. Displays included their resilience and decontamination equipment, (a national first). It gave delegates and the public a chance to see the resilience we were actually building. Supporting them with their own displays were members of Voluntary Organisations; RAYNET, WRVS, Salvation Army and Red Cross
For our second event, harnessing a national initiative like Secure in the Knowledge was a natural and commonsense move, building upon contacts and partnerships, learning from the SS&BF event and with the terrorism issue fresh in every ones minds we were optimistic of a good audience.
Planning Secure in the Knowledge was relatively easy. Taking the path of least resistance and playing to our strengths (two of the team are former policemen) we made the most of our contacts with the blue light services and stirred up a lot of interest. The police were keen to help us find speakers of note from their ranks. Special Branch had a vested interest in seeing the Secure in the Knowledge message proliferate and reach its intended audience. We also think they were tempted by the opportunity to come out of the shadows and stand up ‘legitimately’ in front of a crowd! Whatever the motivation, they provided speakers who gave a fascinating oversight of the local threat from international terrorism and some excellent commonsense security advice.
The Fire Service, particularly the Arson Task Force, saw the value of using the event to promote their own community safety messages and the core business continuity advice from John Sharp of the Continuity Forum and Mike Osborne from ICM provided a well structured but varied platform of topics
The support given by the Continuity Forum has been invaluable; their advice and guidance in planning, advertising and promoting the events was essential. It was through their memberships and contacts that we managed to secure nationally accredited speakers such as Richard Flynn from the National Counter Terrorism and Security Office and, of course, their very own John Sharp.
Our existing contacts with Bristol business was not expansive but had a firm base, especially with the national and corporate companies. We have always maintain contacts with the universities, health care trusts, port authorities and other public sector interested parties, who have a history of fully supporting our work and events. These contacts represented a core of valuable support, but would not be sufficient to fill our prestigious Conference Hall which we use to hold our events. We were also conscious that, although they are groups we want to include and build relationships with, it was not the SME group we were really trying to target.
We knew the success of the events ultimately depended on our ability to not only get the word out, but also to persuade busy business people that it was in their interest to come along – bums on seats. We were confident that the focus on the terrorist threat would provoke interest, but didn’t know whether this would equate to attendance. We embarked on a three-prong strategy – to work our way through the existing contacts we had; to explore contacts of other Council departments with a business-facing side; and to mail shot every business support/representative group and every business we could find details for.
Our participation in the Business Contacts group – a group set up by the Council’s Business Support Team comprising of as many as possible of the Council’s ‘business facing’ teams – proved productive. We were able to get business contact information and support from the Foods Standards, Environmental Health, Licensing, Economic Regeneration, and Neighbourhood Regeneration teams – a broad cross section of Council. Promising reciprocity, we persuaded many of these teams to actively promote the event to their business contacts. This support was most welcome and certainly ensured that the Council was joined up in its knowledge of events being hosted.
However, the real legwork was done through direct marketing – working the list of business support and representative groups and using the yellow pages to mail shot, email, and phone businesses directly to canvass support. This was time consuming and hard work, but proved to be the only reliable way to get businesses to take note and more importantly, the only way to directly target the SMEs and voluntary organisations. It was this push that really boosted numbers.
We had a mixed response from external business support groups. Some were active in their response – inviting us to speak at meetings and canvassing members. Others did not have the will or the means to offer direct support, but all are still considered important contacts.
The overall result, however, was a very well attended and very successful event. Businesses who attended have spread the word to their own contacts and down their own supply chains and we are starting to feel the benefits of the ‘ripple effect’ of the successful events. Our credibility among other business facing colleagues in the Council has been enhanced; other Council teams have a greater understanding of the resilience message and are more willing to help us promote it through their offices.
We are conscious of the audience we reached - we now have a strong network of businesses and organisations in Bristol who are engaged with us on the issue of resilience, We recognise however that there is a lot of work a head to fully engage with the SMEs community
Feedback from attendees has been overwhelmingly positive, with many using the experience to push continuity planning agendas within their organisations and extend their continuity contacts and cooperation outwards.
We see the future as building on the success of these – working independently and with other Cat 1 responders to deliver continuity and community safety/community resilience messages to all the willing partners we can find in the local business community.
Our immediate future events are aimed at either particular business sectors – our next event is aimed at the night-time economy in Bristol, Secure in the Knowledge 24/7 (14 September 2006) - or at particular risks – on the 18 September 2006 we are holding a Pandemic ‘Flu forum, Both will be held in the City Council House, situated in the middle of this wonderful City.
For full details contact:
Bristol City Council
Jim Gillman 0117 9224313
Simon Creed 01179223233
Continuity Forum
Sara McKenna
020 8993 1599
The Continuity Forum team is available to assist any public sector body deliver or support BCM events and workshops. For more details on these activities and the general activities of the Continuity Forum please contact us directly on +44 208 993 1599 or visit or website at www.continuityforum.org.
Please do contact Sara Mckenna or Russell Price for more information on attending these valuable sessions.
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For more details on our events, workshops and industry development work, as well as the general activities of the Continuity Forum please contact us directly on +44 208 993 1599 or mail us HERE!
Please do contact Sara Mckenna or Russell Price .
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Creating Continuity ... Building Resilience ...
If you would like to know more about how your organisation can get involved and benefit from working with the Continuity Forum, please email us HERE! or call on + 44 (0) 208 993 1599.
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