ISRM previews global virtual conference to address post-COVID-19 challenges

Running under the banner ‘Learning from COVID-19: Old Lessons, New Lessons – The Future Starts Now’, the virtual conference is free-to-attend and takes place over three days between 12 noon and 2.00 pm on Monday 27 July through to Wednesday 29 July, duly bringing together senior global thinkers, strategists and policy-makers from leading institutes and organisations around the world.

Lord Toby Harris, the ISRM’s president and a senior UK national security expert, opens the conference on Day 1 leading discussions around what COVID-19 has taught the business community when it comes to crisis management.

Support for businesses

The conference will be chaired by Dr David Rubens CSyP FISRM FSyI (pictured, right), founder of the ISRM and a guest on Episode 6 of the fortnightly Security Matters Podcast, who has been a prominent figure supporting businesses during the pandemic through the delivery of excellent weekly webinars on the subject of risk and crisis management that have been attended by over 4,000 participants to date.

Rubens informed Security Matters: “The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wake-up call for all of us. It’s an opportunity to examine every aspect of what we considered to be our crisis management capabilities and learn lessons that will allow us to create genuinely resilient, risk-sensitive and crisis-ready organisations for the future.”

He continued: “The ISRM conference is truly unique in that it allows anyone with an interest in strategic risk and crisis management to benefit from the insights provided by some of the leading industry and sector thinkers in the world. The post-COVID-19 reality will be one characterised by multiple potential crisis scenarios. This conference will afford all participants a deep understanding of the challenges associated with those scenarios, as well as a range of frameworks, templates and methodologies allowing them to prepare their organisations in the best possible manner.”

Conference programme

As well as Lord Harris, the hugely impressive line-up of speakers includes Dr Stephen Flynn (founding director of the Global Resilience Institute), Xavier Castellanos (regional director of the Asia Pacific zone at the International Federation of the Red Cross), David Horobin (head of the crisis management cluster at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy), Dr Adel Alaraifi (executive director of the Risk and Resilience Institute in Saudi Arabia) and Marcus Oxley (founding executive director of the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction).

The full conference programme is as follows:

Day 1: What COVID-19 has taught us about crisis management

Lord Toby Harris (ISRM president and senior Government national security expert)

Dr Stephen Flynn (founding director of the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University in the USA)

Xavier Castellanos (regional director of the Asia Pacific zone at the International Federation of the Red Cross)

Day 2: What we need to learn in order to be resilient against future shocks

Dr Robert MacFarlane (deputy director of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat at the Cabinet Office)

David Horobin (head of the crisis management cluster at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy)

General (ret) Stanley McChrystal (CEO and founder of The McChrystal Group)

Day 3: How the world can ready itself for both the challenges and the opportunities of the post-COVID new reality

Peter Willis (COVID-19 project co-ordinator, Resilience Shift)

Marcus Oxley (founding executive director of the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction)

Dr David Alexander (Institute of Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London)

Dr Adel Alaraifi (executive director of the Risk and Resilience Institute in Saudi Arabia)

*Registration for the conference is open to all interested parties at this link https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0NFpXjSOTVy84bOHrpYJzg

**The ISRM was founded in early 2019 with the objective of creating a global forum wherein senior practitioners, academics and policy-makers can come together to share information, help progress and promote the underlying understanding and capabilities associated with strategic risk and crisis management and develop their own personal and professional networks.

Since its foundation, the ISRM has become recognised as one of the leading organisations in the sector, establishing chapters in 15 countries and developing strong links with a wide range of academic and industry bodies alike. The membership is open to all and places emphasis on Continuing Professional Development and the sharing of Best Practice.

***Security Matters is an Official Media Partner of the ISRM