June 1, 2007

CHAMBER CONNECTION

D-Day for Disaster Preparedness Conference is designed to
deliver life-saving information to business community

By Pat Dando
President & CEO, San Jose Silicon Valley
Chamber of Commerce

After our return last fall from New Orleans, it became abundantly clear that inadequate preparation fueled the devastation that continues to plague a city that is still struggling nearly two years after hurricane Katrina. With proper preparation, the magnitude of this disaster could have been significantly reduced. It was a wake-up call we will not soon forget.

With that in mind, the Chamber has partnered with the Collaborative for Disaster Mitigation (CDM) and San Jose State University to provide citizens with the means to survive and obtain assistance following a disaster.

On June 6, the anniversary of D-Day, the Chamber will be holding D-Day for Disaster Preparedness: Business Continuity Planning, a half-day conference designed to deliver life-saving information to the business community. It is our hope that you will use the knowledge in developing your own disaster plan so that you can protect the significant amount of time and resources you’ve invested in making your business thrive—investments that can be wiped out in minutes with the next earthquake, flash flood or fire, not to mention something as minor as a burst water pipe that silently goes unnoticed until the resulting flood has destroyed the walls, floors, equipment and inventory.

The goal of this workshop is to improve your chances of staying open for business following a disaster, a formula that will take you from securing your home and family into the office, so you can continue the investment in your future and the future well-being of this beautiful community—a community that we must remember is seismically active, with a propensity for flooding, landslides, earthquakes and wildfires that could wipe out everything we’ve worked for in the blink of an eye.

The success of any disaster planning relies heavily on partnerships, and businesses of all sizes will play an important part in any future response efforts. Yet, as important as that response will be, even more critical is the role we can play in local and regional emergency planning. By being proactive, we will be all the more ready to react when the time comes. We need to prepare for the inevitable, to be ready to go days, even weeks without power, adjust to major highway closures and cope with lives lost when the time comes, because it’s not a matter of if, but when.

To register for D-Day for Disaster Preparedness: Business Continuity Planning Conference, visit www.sjchamber.com or call Carol Kassab at (408) 291-5286.