Please plan to join CIO members and guests at the April 19 meeting of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum. The topic for this meeting is "Emergency Management/Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity - A Collaborative View".

The harsh reality is that a major business interruption or natural disaster can happen. There are critical factors that enable a business to continue operations or quickly resume operations. Today, business is more interrelated, integrated, and virtually connected to entities outside its company. The information technology executive must also be aware of the level of preparedness of the local, state and federal governments, suppliers and other business partners as well as of the state of preparedness within their company's critical business infrastructure. It is not just a matter of planning and testing within an isolated context. At the April 19 meeting, the Forum will get an update and information sharing from three viewpoints: a view of preparedness of state government looking at its own infrastructure, a view of state emergency management and federal emergency management highlighting what information technology executives need to know, and a view of how some businesses are maintaining and testing their preparedness.

First, Mr. John Droneburg, Director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), will present an overview of the Maryland Emergency Management Center, including a discussion on how MEMA interfaces with federal and adjacent state governments, port security for the port of Baltimore, and an overview of how MEMA and other agencies like MCAC operate and interface with business during a disaster or major interruption of critical economic operations,

Second, a view from within the State of Maryland will be presented by Ellis Kitchen, State Chief of Information Technology. Mr. Kitchen will focus particularly on first responder wireless interoperability, state data center disaster recovery, government networks security, and continuity of operations for the state of Maryland. Matt Fuchs, Cyber Security Project Manager, at the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, will discuss the Anti-terrorism Advisory Council(ATAC) and provide an update on the effort to establish a framework for key stakeholders to accomplish cyber security.

Third, we will look at how businesses are preparing, planning and testing for disaster recovery and business continuity, emphasizing key lessons learned and shared experiences. Steve Bergman, CIO, Goodwill Industries International will moderate a panel representing key management roles in these functions. The panel includes Don Taylor, CIO, Perdue Farms, Inc., Tim Talbot, Vice President, Technology, PHH Arval, Robert Cornelius, Director of Business Continuity for Constellation Energy Group and Frank Leonetti, the North American Professional Services Manager for the Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Practice of Sun Microsystems.

Please join our members at the meeting! The meeting starts at 8:00 AM and ends by 1PM. Brunch and lunch are provided. Pre-registration is required. Please let us know if you will be staying for 1-3PM demo and discussion session. Meeting logistics including agenda, directions to the meeting place and parking information will be emailed to you after you register. For registration for this meeting, please contact: Catherine Swift at cswift@towson.edu or 410-704-4252.

To make inquiries about this meeting or about membership in the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum, please contact: