Do yourself a favour

I attended WCDM for the first time in 2010, and it is fair to say I probably only went because they accepted my proposal to present a paper.

It was such a great experience that I was very keen to return again this year, despite not being a presenter.

My view has not changed after the past week – already thinking about 2012! So, as we say in Australia, do yourself a favour and get there in June 2012.

No event is perfect, the quality of presentations and presenters varies. That should not be a surprise as many are not professional presenters or lecturers – they are regular practitioners sharing their experiences and knowledge. Essentially it is the variety and diversity on display that makes the a great conference.

The variety of sessions (6-7 concurrent choices) coupled with the representation by the various areas (EM, BC, DR, etc) that make up this industry. You can be assured of hearing something new and also being reminded of things you may already know, but had forgotten the value of.

With the reputation that the conference has built over 21 years they also get some top shelf keynote presenters.

There is also a huge potential in this gathering. At WCDM you will find the fractured bodies of knowledge and representation of the competing certification vendors within the industry. This make for interesting discussions over lunch and at other informal gatherings.

Marg Verbeek made the comment during the panel session on the last day that our biggest challenge was Collaboration. We don’t do it as well as we could. I don’t think we should be surprised about this;

• We have to overcome the barrier of not sharing a common language, which will limit our ability to share and collaborate at deeper levels
  • I am not talking about English/French/Chinese here – but within this industry the different sects have different meanings and concepts attached to the same words.
  • Please join this discussion on LinkedIn as an example
• For a group to be able to collaborate they will need leadership, again we dont have it
  • We have a competition for leadership
    • to define a profession and hierarchy
      • risk vs BC vs EM
      • Convergence into a single ‘master profession’
    • to own/define the Body of Knowledge
      • between the diverse membership associations and National.International Standards bodies.
    • to control the training/certification
      • between the ‘professional’ membership groups

I believe that an event like WCDM has the potential to help address these problems. It will never get it done alone – and in 4 days per year. But it is a focal point and a catalyst that can be built upon.

What is your view – are Emergency Managers and BC Managers part of the same profession?

Can they work from a single, coherent body of knowledge?

Can we learn from the medical profession – respecting the value and role of different specialisations?

Happy to hear from anybody who has ideas on how to progress these issues.

Anybody interested in developing a joint presentation around this for next year’s conference?

Footnote: Despite this post being positioned as the first in the series, it was written after the conference. The posts that follow in the series reflect my day by day observations and review of the sessions I attended.