Insight on Debating with the Continuity Forum

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of attending yet one of the Continuity Forums debate sessions we think you might like to gain a flavour of what happens.

Normally at Business Continuity events, seminars or workshops most of speaking is conducted by the host, fairly reasonable really, but it gives you little chance to share your experiences or learn from those of others facing similar challenges. and there is always the chance that the presentations will devolve into sales pitches! 

Whilst we do our very best at our events to avoid this happening we also recognise that there is also a need to explore new topics or areas that are emerging and are relevant to the profession and with this in mind for the past couple of years we have been holding Continuity Forum Debates. These Debates have become very important to us as they allow and encourage considerable discussion to be held on a host of interesting topics engaging a range of diverse participants and as a result lots can be learned in a short time.  Some will be experienced in the area being debated bringing their expertise to bear, others will have more general knowledge. By bringing them together in a debate format our aim is to explore the topic in a new way hopefully distilling the key messages, benefits or aspects more clearly and bringing opportunities or challenges they present the industry into a sharper focus.

We have been really pleased at just how effectively these debates have worked and over the past few months we have covered topics as wide-ranging as Counterterrorism and business continuity, engaging effectively within organisations, the Olympics, workspace recovery, standards and most recently, Cloud Computing and how organisations are adapting to the opportunities and challenges.

One of the great things about our debates is that they are held under very strict Chatham House rules and this adds a lot freeing all those involved to discuss very openly their own situations and experiences. Ahead of the session the key questions to be debated our shared ahead of the session to help people prepare. On the day the group usually between eight and 16 meet for breakfast, lunch or dinner (depending on the subject and budget available!). The discussions are chaired, or should we say facilitated, by the Continuity Forum and from our own preparations we will have a general shape that we would like the debate follow, but our aim is always to ensure that we all learn as much as possible. If you judge the success by how long people want to stay, then every single one has been superb, with us often having to extend the debate time to allow the free-flowing conversation is to continue.

We will be holding more debates in the coming months with another on cloud computing and further sessions on both how the developing world of standards may impact and how we can improve security. If you have any ideas or suggestions for debates or if you would like to consider hosting a debate in conjunction with the Continuity Forum then please do get in touch. Debates can also be held in-house and have proved invaluable in developing BCM internally within organisations and creating effective teamwork.

If you would like to register your interest to attend a debate, just get in touch with us and we'll be happy to help.