In June, Needhams 1834 ran a seminar in London aimed at exploring challenges for business continuity from the growth of protest in the UK. Delegates heard from speakers from the British Council on the challenges for crisis management and continuity they faced as a consequence of international uprising and unrest.
The seminar shared experiences, know-how and predictions on the challenges ahead and how best to ensure the security and continuity of business operations.
They heard from an Agenda Security Services expert on the darker side of civil unrest in the UK, looking at the more extreme tactics employed by activists in the animal rights and other protest groups with suggestions for mitigating the threat.
A speaker from the Royal Borough of Kensington outlined the civil and business responsibilities they faced in dealing with increasing authorised and unauthorised protests, and the difficulties of juggling their responsibilities and, using a case study to demonstrate, how the character of protest appears to be changing.
A final expert speaker provided a Metropolitan Police Service perspective of the changing landscape of protest, its organisation, operation and execution, including the response from the police and businesses presenting a case study highlighting the challenges that organisations now face in this period of civil unrest.
This was followed by an inter-active table-top exercise entitled “The Summer of Discontent – Main Business Continuity Exercise”. All invited delegates were able to partake with Needhams 1834 and the expert speakers provided advice.
The event was wrapped up with an exercise debrief, question and answer session and networking opportunities.
The event was a highly successful seminar which left delegates with effective, strategic and tactical ideas for effectively managing business continuity in their own organisations.
Author: Steve Pearl, Non-Executive Director
Agenda Resource Management Ltd
www.agenda-group.co.uk
