Witt O’Brien’s Women’s Resilience Forum a Success
Published in Continuity Insights | November 20, 2019
This fall, hands-on workshops, thought-provoking presentations, and fire-side chats drew dozens of top female leaders in corporate resilience, business continuity, risk management, crisis management, corporate security, and cyber security to Witt O’Brien’s first Women’s Resilience Forum.
Measured in terms of the immense positive feedback the firm has already received from its participants, the inaugural was a definite success. Select commentary from the post-event survey included, “I thought this was an absolutely great event and look forward to future events” and “I met an awesome group of ladies that I hope to continue networking with in the future.”
The forum’s creator, Grace Burley, Managing Director of Witt O’Brien’s Corporate Resilience practice remarked, “Our overall goal was to bring together successful women leaders in the resilience industry to form meaningful connections, share best practices and take away real-world and actionable advice.”
Like most women in similar leadership positions, Burley sees a need for women-only events where participants can feel comfortable sharing issues and solutions for success. “This company-sponsored event has long been a goal of mine,” she added. “The overwhelming interest followed by the tremendous success and positive feedback we’ve received is incredible and confirms what I already thought to be true about the need for such events.”
Registration for the forum comes at no cost to attendees. This year’s group included representatives from many large, global, and well-known companies. Cynthia Widick, Former Chief of Cybersecurity Operations at the National Security Agency, delivered the keynote address wherein she outlined tactics to help lessen a firm’s cybersecurity vulnerability, including monitoring the media for publicized cyberattacks, developing a robust crisis management and response plan, and creating an information asset inventory.
Future forums will continue to focus on common challenges and solutions in corporate resilience including crisis management and business continuity programs but may also feature topics such as training executives for potentially contentious interviews, measuring social media sentiment and engaging millennials in the workplace.
Like most women in similar leadership positions, Burley sees a need for women-only events where participants can feel comfortable sharing issues and solutions for success. “This company-sponsored event has long been a goal of mine,” she added. “The overwhelming interest followed by the tremendous success and positive feedback we’ve received is incredible and confirms what I already thought to be true about the need for such events.”
Registration for the forum comes at no cost to attendees. This year’s group included representatives from many large, global, and well-known companies. Cynthia Widick, Former Chief of Cybersecurity Operations at the National Security Agency, delivered the keynote address wherein she outlined tactics to help lessen a firm’s cybersecurity vulnerability, including monitoring the media for publicized cyberattacks, developing a robust crisis management and response plan, and creating an information asset inventory.
Future forums will continue to focus on common challenges and solutions in corporate resilience including crisis management and business continuity programs but may also feature topics such as training executives for potentially contentious interviews, measuring social media sentiment and engaging millennials in the workplace.
Photo credit: Witt O'Brien's
