As I wrap up here in San Diego, I wanted reflect on DRJ’s Fall World 2009. It wasn’t hard to see that less people attended than previous years. It wasn’t surprising, with the lack of travel budgets and the state of the economy. The event had many of the same faces from the industry. But I detected a pervasive feeling of angst and frustration that I have not seen at other events this year. People are frustrated – many at being out of work, others at being faced with management that doesn’t recognize their true value to their organizations, and many at being locked into undesirable job situations that have a common theme: a lack of support resources and dollars to do their jobs.
The economy has put our profession under a tough magnifying glass where BCP as cost centers, mass document generation, and expensive solutions with little return are no longer passing muster. It’s a frustrating time, but also presents a unique opportunity to force us to be better – more than just document planners, but professionals who understand the inner workings of our operations and can put the pieces back together during the worst of times. Now more than ever we must be creative – there are those that will pray for the status quo and try to skate by to the end, but as Business Continuity Professionals we are much better than that – let’s not wither away, but prosper as a profession by continuing to make ourselves better – by making our organizations better.