David Dant

Having worked in the commercial insurance industry for over 25 years David Dant has built up a wealth of experience in formulating risk management programmes for national and international organisations across a wide range of industry sectors.  His work has spanned multi-national PLC’s through to embryonic research & development and start-up companies.
 
David’s core belief is that business continuity planning should form the backbone of any business’s risk management programme.  A business that relies solely on commercial insurance to provide cover in the event of a threat to the business fails to recognise the substantial shortfalls that any commercial insurance policy used on its own will deliver.
 
As part of the presentation team David will be able to bring a different perspective on the relationship between risk management, business continuity and commercial insurance policies during the seminar.

Eugene Baston

Until Eugene Baston established his own Media & Marketing Consultancy he was External Relations Manager for British Waterways, handling a very diverse range of communications issues across the country.  Invariably things can go wrong on a 2,200-mile, 200 year old network, and Eugene uses these events to illustrate the importance of communication channels during any unexpected event affecting a business or community.

 Key Points:

• Companies that prepare a communications plan which anticipates a range of unexpected events that can befall a business will resume trading more quickly than those who didn’t make provision for talking to colleagues, customers and the community. 

• Ensuring your people know what to say and to whom through extending a company’s brand and reputation into crisis management tools is a fundamental part of a well-planned business.

At Operation Ostrich Eugene will demonstrate the linkage between a company’s operational capacities and its need to communicate what is happening if a dramatic event affects a business or organisation.  He’ll outline how a Communications Plan can be developed and maintained to ensure a business suffering a trauma doesn’t need it to be seen as a crisis by its competitors, customers and employees.

John Basinger

John Basinger runs his own Business Continuity practice, helping SME and Corporate businesses of all types. Before that he was a commercial loss adjuster for 30 years, handling large and complex losses such as fires, floods and terrorist bombings. John therefore has a lot of practical knowledge of handling real life disasters.
 
Key Points:
 
• Companies who take a hands on approach to risk management are more resilient and invariably more profitable businesses

• Companies who have viable disaster plans stand a much better chance of staying in business in the event of a serious incident.
 
John is part of the expert team facilitating a practical, thought–provoking exercise during the seminars.  He’ll draw on his extensive practical experience in the field of Business Continuity Planning to generate debate about what businesses need to think about when it comes to Business Continuity Planning.

Ben Jackson

Ben Jackson’s contemporary business success as the principle of 2B’s Management Consultancy based in Bicester belies his own past experiences of when things can go dramatically and unexpectedly wrong for SME’s.  While Ben’s 35 years of experience in drawing business partnerships together, business title publishing and being a vital link in Oxfordshire’s business community shine through today, it wasn’t always a story of ‘happy ever after’.

Ben is acutely aware of the issues faced by businesses that experience traumatic events, but in his case the events that unfolded in his family business were many and came thick and fast, seriously affecting the business’s viability and future wealth of the family partners.  Beginning with the news that the firm’s premises had been razed to the ground, Ben will take the audience through a real-life crisis of significant proportions that left him convinced of the need for adequate planning to counter the “what if” scenario.

It’s the combination of these experiences that allows Ben to talk with passion and conviction at the Operation Ostrich seminars on the issues a business can face in such circumstances.