Association of Continuity Professionals upcoming events

Education SIG: A Realist’s Guide to Business Continuity: Beyond Templates and Tech (23 Jul 2026)

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Emergency managers are frequently tasked with business continuity planning without formal training, dedicated resources, or clear authority. As a result, many organizations default to templates and technology solutions, assuming these tools will simplify the work. Too often, this approach produces plans that check a box but fail to reflect how operations actually function under stress. This session offers a practical, experience-driven perspective on business continuity drawn from work in public safety, healthcare, higher education, and the technology sector. Rather than focusing on tools or maturity models, this session emphasizes the human elements that determine whether continuity efforts succeed or fail: relationships, trust, and a deep understanding of how work gets done.

Healthcare SIG Roundtable Panel Discussion: Topics in Healthcare Resilience (29 Jul 2026)

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:00:00 GMT

This roundtable panel will focus on current challenges in healthcare resiliency, the impact of AI, and the general threat landscape.

ACP DC Virtual Webinar: BCM Maturity, External Threats and the Case for Technology (10 Aug 2026)

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 21:00:00 GMT

ACP DC Virtual Webinar

BCM Maturity, External Threats and the Case for Technology

August 10 | 5:00 PM ET

How do you know where your BC program actually stands? And how do you move it forward with confidence?

In this one-hour virtual session, Marie-Helene Primeau (Executive Vice President, Premier Continuum) and Senad Cehajic (OMERS/Oxford Properties) will walk through the practical realities of BCM maturity: what it means, how external threats are raising the bar, and how the right technology can give practitioners a clearer, more defensible picture of their programs.

Whether you are building a program from the ground up or looking to advance one that has been running for years, this session offers a practitioner-to-practitioner perspective on what works.

Open to ACP DC members and guests. Registration: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/nmkz28s

Government SIG: Continuity of Operations (COOP) Modernization in a Distributed Workforce (20 Aug 2026)

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:00:00 GMT

This session will focus on adapting COOP plans for remote/hybrid government operations. First-hand lessons learned will be shared regarding continuity planning, primarily for a remote/hybrid workforce.

Speakers

Bob Smith

Bob has served in government continuity and resilience for over 20 years. His government service includes serving as a local emergency manager in West Virginia, Virginia, and Florida; serving as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration; developing state-level emergency plans for critical infrastructure; and his current position as Continuity and Emergency Management Program Manager for the Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology. Bob has also worked in the private sector, including designing and leading a global crisis management training and exercise program for a Fortune 500 company and leading emergency preparedness efforts for high-profile events, including the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the Iditarod, and the World Cup.

Early Careerist SIG: Color Me Resilient: The ABC’s of Bouncing Forward (23 Sep 2026)

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Resilient: a word that evokes strength. According to Merriam-Webster, there are two viable definitions: (1) “the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness,” and (2) “the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.” While I greatly respect this longstanding dictionary, I contend that there may be two different messages being communicated. The first sets the stage for strength in the face of challenge. The second, while noting the reference to elasticity, includes a word that may be a bit problematic in the overall definition: “back.” When recovering from difficulties, do we really want to revert to the same shape, or is the goal to expand past what we knew, to settle into an evolved understanding?

Speakers

Michele Turner

Marriott International

Michele L. Turner, MBCP, FBCI, CISA, CRISC, CCRP, CRMP, CHPCP, is an Amazon #1 bestselling author, keynote speaker, and resiliency leader with over 30 years’ experience in the areas of Governance, Risk, and Compliance. She is the Chairperson of the Board of Directors for the Disaster Recovery Institute (DRI) International, and Head of Global Business Resilience and Program Services for Marriott International. This global role includes Above-Property Operational Resilience Planning, Risk Mitigation, Product Management, and Program Services for the Risk Management organization. Prior roles include Head of Global Business Resiliency for Amazon Corporate, as well as Governance, Risk, Compliance, and Business Continuity roles within Microsoft.

Education SIG: The Value of AI to Assist with Emergency Planning, Training, and Exercising: From the Classroom to the Simulation Lab (22 Oct 2026)

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how emergency managers plan for, train against, and exercise responses to an increasingly complex threat landscape. This 30-minute presentation explores the practical value of AI across the full preparedness cycle, examining how emerging tools can strengthen hazard and risk assessment, accelerate plan development and review, generate realistic exercise scenarios and injects, and enhance after-action analysis and continuous improvement.

Speakers

Dr. Bernard Jones, MBCP

St. John's University

Dr. Bernard Jones is an Associate Professor at St. John’s University in the Division of Criminal Justice and Homeland Security. He is a certified business continuity and disaster recovery professional with over 25 years of experience designing, implementing, and managing enterprise-level business continuity, disaster recovery, and emergency management programs across both the public and private sectors.

Cybersecurity/IT SIG: Cybersecurity / IT SIG Roundtable Panel Discussion (19 Nov 2026)

Thu, 19 Nov 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Banking & Finance SIG: Enterprise Risk Management: Topics in the Financial Industry: Focus on the Current Risk Landscape (17 Dec 2026)

Thu, 17 Dec 2026 18:00:00 GMT