xMovember Background

Anyone who has met me can attest to the fact that I am one of many individuals who constantly promote the culture within xMatters.  I believe that it is one of the most compelling reasons that people love to work with and be associated with the xMatters organization.  We are personal, personable and like to have fun and do the right thing. 

So what started out as a conversation regarding the charity fundraiser known as Movember naturally turned into a company backed, competition for raising cancer research funds. The management here stepped up and agreed that xMatters will match any xPert or client private donations to the foundation up to $5,000.  We now have two teams organized and invite all xPerts and clients to join in the fun.  Any private donations may be made on one of the team pages below or may be communized directly to me at hammer@xmatters.com (yes, that is one of my real email aliases). We will tally donations and match them on the last day of Movember.

About Movember

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

To read all about the humorous campaign that is being put together at xMatters read part 1, to understand the more serious side read part 2.

Part 1 - xMatters for fun:

On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face. For the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.

Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Through their actions and words they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

The idea of participating started with the EMEA team as part of an idea to give them something to talk about with clients and to promote some of the fun culture within xMatters.  Check out the video and register on one of the team pages at http://mobro.co/xmovember/ or http://us.movember.com/mospace/1508210/ and click on Join My Team:

Part 2 - My personal motivation:

So this is a great event which raises charitable funds for men's health organizations such as Lance Armstrong's Livestrong and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.  I think many of us have experiences personally or within our families with similar health problems.  A startling fact is that 1 in 3 men will have some problem with their prostate in their lifetime!

My personal story which I have shared with few.  Many of you know that in 2009 my family spent time in the UK for many months while I was working with the xMatters EMEA team.  It was a great experience and I have such great friendships as part of this time.  My father, who has never traveled internationally was set to visit us while living over there.  On the eve of his visit I received one of those phone calls we all dread.  He annual physical results revealed some problems.  Through a very invasive biopsy process they identified a very aggressive, rapidly spreading prostate cancer.  The options as you get older may include very invasive surgery or even possibly doing nothing.  In his case, he chose surgery, but it was unknown as to the possibility of success or the possibility of post surgery functionality.  It is hard to imagine the emotional process one goes through.

After a very long surgery process and recovery, I am happy to report that my father is now 2 years cancer free and living a healthy life, spending time with his grandchildren.  I am participating in Movember to honor my father's tenacity in going through the process and not giving up for his family.

Invitation

So we hereby invite all xPerts and xClients alike to participate in any way you feel.  If you are into growing your own, we would love to see your photos and updates as you will likely see all of ours (All mustaches in the above video were fake, by the way) or join one of our teams (preferably my team, as I am more fun!).  Here are the game rules per the Movember website:

Step One: Personalize your Mo Space (Donation) page
•    Login and update your profile picture, personalize your motivation and claim your own personalized Movember URL

Step Two: Build your Team
•    Login and build your team using the suggested emails, Facebook and Twitter posts

Step Three: Grow a Mo
•    Start Nov 1st clean shaven
•    Then grow your moustache all month – nurture it, groom it, respect it
•    Remember no beards and no goatees. Click here for Movember Rules
•    For Movember style inspiration download The Style Guide

Step Four: Raise funds
•    Login and view the Donation section where you will find suggested wording to ask for donations via email, Facebook, Twitter or in person.
•    For cash/check donations follow the steps on the Donation Form

Step Five: Roam Proud
•    Host your own Movember party – for more information on how to run your own event visit the Mo Parties page
•    Show off your Mo at one of Movember’s Gala Partés. Find out details of your nearest Gala Parté and get free tickets when you raise $100 and $200

The details below are good to keep handy: 
•    Your Registration Number: 1352424
•    Team Name: xMovember

Movember – changing the face of men’s health

It’s (not) your average conference...you’ll have to be there to experience it!

We are pleased to announce that David Nolan from Fusion will be one of our featured speakers at this year’s event.

David has established a strong track record as a business leader with a balance of vision, fiscal management skills, execution and results. He served as president of Comdisco's Disaster Recovery Services division from 1993 to 1998, a period of unprecedented earnings CAGR of 44%. His tenure at Comdisco provided the foundation and industry presence in the Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning markets. After Comdisco, David became president of ARC Field Operations from 1999 to 2001 where he added the production operation side of the business to his portfolio of experiences. ARC provided technology services to help companies build and manage IT Infrastructures. Most recently, David was Senior Vice President of Networking, Security, and IT Services at Forsythe Solutions. Forsythe acquired the integration and consulting businesses of Telenisus in February 2002 where David had been COO. As part of the acquisition he was tasked to build Forsythe's security business based on the Telenisus foundation, turn around the services business, and overhaul the networking business. From 2002 through 2005, he led the turnaround and expansion of all three lines of business for Forsythe Solutions and rounded out his experience base in IT Risk Management.

Don’t miss this year’s Relevance Revolution. You’ll spend your days in interactive sessions lead by industry experts, our all-star client revolutionaries, and xMatters thought leaders sharing best practices, exploring our product roadmap, and providing use cases from some of the top companies in various industries.

Learn from hundreds for your peers as well as receive hands-on training. Some of our seasoned revolutionaries from the previous forums had this to say:

"The Relevance Revolution was a great opportunity for me to network with other xMatters users!"

"I'm so glad I attended - I learned so much from the xMatters staff and speakers."

And if that wasn’t enough, we have unforgettable plans for our networking breaks and lunches, with a party Thursday night that including drinks, dinner, music…the works!

So, what are you waiting for? Don’t miss this event. Sign up today and be sure to ask for discounted group rates.

Are you a client interested in sharing your story? Contact us marketing@xmatters.com

Event Details

Location:

The Ritz Carlton

160 East Pearson Street, at Water Tower Place

Chicago, Illinois 60611-2308

Date:

Thursday, October 6, 2011 - Friday October 7, 2011

http://relevancerevolution.com/

Did you feel it? Did your desk shake? Were your windows rattling? On Tuesday an earthquake rattled more than a few desks and nerves through-out the eastern United States and Canada. For some the earthquake was very real with desks moving and buildings shaking. For others, the first they learned of the earthquake was on Twitter and Facebook.

That's right - people were learning of the earthquake on social media before it hit the traditional news media channels of television, radio and the newspaper. Times have certainly changed. It seemed almost immediately the earthquake was a trending topic on Twitter and the hashtag #earthquake was added to every other Tweet.

So what does this mean to you? Disaster communication really has gone social. More and more people from all demographics and locations are hooked into Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr and blogs getting instant updates and notifications sent to their iPhones, iPads, smart phones and android devices.

To truly be in the know, you have to be connected. Connected to your team and connected to the world. When considering how you can use social media at times of crisis, it is really vital that you have a plan and a strategy. Now, not to boast too much bue we'd like to think our jointly hosted webinar with the Disaster Recovery Journal on Wednesday (one day after the earthquake) titled Social Media: What Is Your Strategy? was pretty darn timely.

In this webinar Regina Phelps adn Abbas Haider Ali discussed the importance of having a social media strategy to enable you to react in times of crisis and threat. We won't rehash the entire webinar here, but if you missed, use this link to download and watch the webinar (it's free).

So in the space of two days we have an earthquake that is communicated over social media and we have a webinar about using social media in times of crisis communication. You'd think that would be enough to emphasize how vital and integral social media communication is for business, personal and news communication.

But we can't help but direct your attention to the eastern coast of the United States - yes Hurricane Irene. A quick search of Twitter reveals that the hashtag #Irene has quite literally taken over the social media channel.

Major news outlets from the New York Times to Time magazine and the Weather Channel are tweeting about Irene's progress. Twitter feeds such as the HomeDepot are posting 140 character messages about how to prepare for Hurricane Irene. A quick look at Twitter and Facebook this morning reveals that bottled water is flying off the shelves in New York City, people are cutting their vacations short, airports are being overwhelmed with anxious travellers, and people are filling up their cars with gas. And this doesn't include the videos you'll find on YouTube of images of Hurricane Irene's power.

Convinced yet? Lets face it, there is no hiding from the importance of social media when it comes to crisis and disaster communication. Yes there are even iPhone apps available to help companies communicate during crisis. In fact Apple Inc. announced this week that the new iOS 5 operating system will give users the option of receiving early earthquake alerts on their iPhones. This warning app connects directly into Japan's national earthquake warning system - such a notification can give people seconds or minutes to prepare for an earthquake.

And as we know - sometimes all it takes is a few seconds to make a difference in crisis communications. So in light of the recent news and developments, there really is no excuse to not be connected, prepared, communicating and ready. Don't miss out on this key component of your crisis communication strategy - make social media a part of how you do business and protect your business.

(It is worth reading this article from Fast Company Magazine about the Red Cross position on social media communications during disaster and crisis - another example of how prevalent social media is in our well-being and response abilities.)

Update Post Hurricane Irene

Now that we've all had some time to recover from the effects of Hurricane Irene. Well, most of us - there are lots of you out there with flooded homes, washed out roads and no power... The one thing we've heard a lot about and read about is the poor media coverage. Yes, there was media coverage but rather than really providing us with information on how to be prepared, how to communicate, and what to do in the event of flooding and danger - the mainstream media really gave us hysteria. Televsion news clips, radio reports and newspaper stories telling and showing us the damage and really working up a level of hysteria. This is where social media shone through. Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, people were able to get the real story about what was happening - it was from Twitter that most of us learned that Hurricane Irene had been downgraded to a Tropical Storm and that it was likely to cause less damage than predicted. Using Twitter and Facebook people were able to communicate with one another and get the news out quickly about road closures, dry and safe locations, and to communicate to others that they were safe. While the mainstream media was focused on footage and reports of disaster, social media came to the forefront providing actionable and useful information for those who wanted and needed more than sensational video footage.

There are lots of lessons to be learned from a disaster and threat such as Hurricane Irene. Particularly in terms of communication - consider how you used social media to communicate with your team, friends, and extended network. This was weekend was an excellent example of how vital social media is in communication and helping to ensure that the right message gets out. As this weekend shows - you need a social media strategy. (Do a search on Twitter today for #Irene and you'll see that people are still updating one another.)

A  little over a year ago the town of Marshall, Michigan and the Kalamazoo River got a hard and fast lesson in oil spills and communication. In this blog post we’ll look at how Calgary, Alberta, Canada based Enbridge Liquids Pipeline handled the communication aspect surrounding the July 26, 2010 oil spill.

Here are a few facts about this oil spill:

• State of emergency was declared in Kalamazoo County.
• More than 800,000 gallons of oil were spilled into the Kalamazoo River.
• Largest oil spill in the history of the midwest.
• 65 kilometers of the Kalamazoo River were soaked in oil.

Before this oil spill, the Kalamazoo River was home to numerous wildlife including turtles, fish, muskrats, and Canada geese. As well this river was popular with Marshall residents as a peaceful way to get out on the water in their kayaks and boats.

Now, a little over a year later, the clean-up of the river is largely completed and residents are optimistic that the river habitat can return to its original status. What is interesting about this oil spill is how well the news surrounding it was handled. A search of the Internet shows very little negative news about Enbridge and how it handled one of the largest freshwater oil spills in American history.

This is a true testament to a strong and cohesive communication plan.

Managing Communication

With an oil spill, there really is no way for a company to hide. The mistakes and the oil are there for everyone to see and smell. In the past, companies really haven’t handled similar oil spills well - attempting to shield the media from the damaged sites and even trying to cover-up such environmental disasters.

Well, kudos to Enbridge - they did a good job of managing this oil spill. In fact so well that many of us likely didn’t realize that an oil spill of such a large magnitude had occured.

The keys to success for Enbridge in this matter were consistent communication and controlled messages. Yes, there were initial newspaper reports where citizens were quoted as stating that they really didn’t know what was going on and what would happen to the area.

But, Enbridge officials were quick to get their clean-up staff and public relations officials on site. With honest and open communication - they told the entire story about the spill and on the anniversary of the spill they were obliging to journalists interested in the clean-up progress one year later.

Consistency Prevents Panic

The lessons learned from this oil spill, which could have resulted in a  public relations disaster for Enbridge, include:

• A consistent message must be communicated on all platforms.
• You cannot hide from mistakes - particularly those which result in a disaster.
• Public perception will very much determine how your company is portrayed in the media.
• It is okay to admit your mistakes but do so only when you have a solid plan of action to present.
• Brag - yes - talk about the strides your company has made in recovering from a disaster and how you have worked with the community.

Through-out this entire one-year process, Enbridge has worked with the community of Marshall and environmental agencies to ensure that as much damage as possible was prevented. In addition, Enbridge has purchased a number of homes that were damaged as a result of the oil spill. And for those homeowners who were not happy with the Enbridge settlement, the company reacted proactively with confidentially agreements being signed upon further settlements being reached.

Enbridge is not hiding behind its mistakes and the crack in the pipeline. Rather company officials are quick to tell the media and public about the 3,200 animals that were affected and how the company managed the care of 400 turtles this past winter.

Ultimately, it is the honest approach taken by Enbridge officials that has worked to keep this story largely unreported and from causing mass panic and rumors from breaking out among Marshall citizens and others. Jason Manshum, an Enbridge official, was quoted recently as saying, “We have made a mess in this area, and for residents and businesses in this area. We have been working extremely hard over the last year to clean up.”

Communication Lessons for You

Ultimately, what can you take away from this? Remember that the keys to effective communication in the event of a disaster or threat are:

• Consistency at all times.
• Manage the message across all platforms - newspapers, television, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
• Honesty is your best policy.
• Follow-up with the media to demonstrate your progress in handling the disaster or threat.
• Work with community members and others to get involved and make sure everyone feels they can have input on how to respond to the situation.

To learn more about how vital a strong communication plan is - with respect to social media, be sure to register for the Social Media - What is Your Strategy webinar on August, 24.

Imagine it is the middle of the month of August and it is hot. Really hot. People are seeking the cool however they can. This means turning up the air conditioning units and buying extra fans in efforts to keep homes and offices cool.

Flashback to August of 2003. It was hot and sticky. Particularly for those living in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and in Ontario, Canada. So hot and humid that air conditioning units were running at 100 per cent. Everyone was doing what they could to get and keep cool.

But then disaster struck. On August 14, 2003, the second largest blackout at the time hit the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Ontario. This massive loss in power affected an estimated 50 million people in eight U.S. states and 10 million people in Ontario.

According to Reuters news service: “This was the largest power outage in North American history, with a total over 50 million people affected. President Bush called the blackout a "wake up call" and urged the modernization of antiquated electricity infrastructure.“

Communication Meltdown

To say that the sudden blackout and loss of power was a shock would be an understatement. In typical fashion most people assumed the power would return quickly. After a few quick phone calls, it was soon apparent that this wasn’t a localized blackout.

My office was essentially shut down. We didn’t have an emergency back-up system so we were all sent home. Now imagine what the roads were like – everyone was sent home. There was only one radio station in operation. Chaos reigned out. Without a reliable news source no one really knew what was going on.

The Real Impact

You might be wondering why both writing about an event that happened in 2003. Ancient history really – right? Well take a look at your thermometer and the temperatures the United States and parts of Canada are currently experiencing. Yes, it is hot! Now is the time to take the lessons from 2003 and really put them into action.

As you know a plan can make all the difference in succeeding through an unexpected disaster such as an energy meltdown and blackout. Lets take a look at some more details of this meltdown:

• Essential services were not able to operate in all areas
• Backup power generation was not reliable and failed in most areas
• Telephone systems were not reliable due to increased demand and left many circuits overloaded
• Water systems failed and many areas were in boil-water advisories
• Cellular service was not stable due to mobile networks being overloaded
• Businesses such as restaurants and grocery stores were literally giving away food – ice cream was melting and food could not be kept cool or safe

As you can likely imagine this energy meltdown of 2003 was certainly not the first nor will it be the last of its kind. In fact in recent years we are seeing more and more similar occurrences.

For example in January 2001, India was hit with a massive blackout that left 220 million people without power for 13 hours. Unfortunately for India blackouts are common – costing corporations millions of lost revenue and expenditures. And more recently in China, perhaps one of the worst blackouts happened in the winter months of January and February in 2008. This time it was snow storms that felled the energy systems – leaving millions of people stranded without electricity and water over Chinese New Year.

What all three of these blackouts shows us is the real cost of disasters. Lost revenue. Jeopardized safety of the public. A distrust in the infrastructure. The key is to learn from these experiences.

Lessons Learned?

So with this brief list of impacts and results of this 2003 blackout and other similar blackouts – what do you take from this? Essentially this emphasizes the extreme need to be prepared. A plan can really make a difference. With a plan you have:

• Reliable and up-to-date contact lists
• A system in place to continue operations
• Know how you’ll interact with vendors and customers
• What to do in the event of complete system failure

What this does is eliminates the chaos. And it was pure chaos in 2003 for people in the United States and eastern Canada. The roads were clogged. Phone networks were down. The radio stations couldn’t operate. People were left scrambling – unsure of what was going on and how long this would last.

Are You Prepared?

We won’t really know who has learned from the meltdown of 2003 until something similar happens again. So now is your chance to be proactive - in these hot summer months, think about how your company would react to a loss of power, a failure of your backup power system, no reliable phone systems and little to no information coming in and out.

The chances of such a blackout and energy meltdown happening again are slim. Or are they? How will you communicate with your staff, vendors, customers and the media? How will you maintain a presence of calm and control? How will your organization survive?

This is the second post to a series I’m doing on effective communication plans and exercises.  Previously, I covered the importance of creating a communication matrix so you know who needs to be communicated to, who owns that communication, and how you’ll be communicating to them in an emergency situation.  These communication matrices should be made for various scenarios so you’re always prepared.  After these are completed the next step is having your communication templates locked and loaded.  Here’s my advice:

Be Prepared with Communication Templates

It’s important to be prepared for every situation.  To do that, you should have pre-built communication templates.  When drafting your messages, its important to think about the styles of messages you’ll be sending.  Different parts of the business need to be notified in different ways for different situations.  For example, messages should be broadcasted to the people affected, but at the same time, messages should be sent to the people responsible for resolving the issue.  Having these two different messages prepared and ready to go will ensure that you’re ready to go when an emergency arises.

It is also difficult to think creatively and effectively under pressure and during the height of the disaster.  One very effective tool is SMS and yet there is a 140 character restriction.  It is really hard to think of everything you need to say in 140 characters!  This is one form of communication that is very helpful to have many prewritten options that can be quickly reviewed and modified as need be. 

Staring at a blank piece of paper when the flames are dancing around you and then coming up with the right words to the right audience is pretty darn hard!  Do it now, get it approved by legal and then put them in your backpocket for a rainy day!

On Wednesday June 15 the downtown core of Vancouver, B.C., broke out into complete chaos. Businesses were looted and damaged. Cars were set on fire and flipped over. People were attacked and beaten up. Portable toilets were flipped over.

The reason for this chaos can be traced to the loss of the Vancouver Canucks in the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs. With an incredible amount of people gathered in downtown Vancouver to watch the final game of the seven-game series on large outdoor screens – many of these people who were drinking and in a general state of frenzy – the chaos and riots have been chalked up by many as inevitable.

Planning Equals Prevention

But is this really the case? Were there not measures that could have been taken to reduce, mitigate and perhaps even prevent these riots? As you know preparation and forward thinking are key in maintaining the longevity of any business. This also rings true when it comes to preparing for the unexpected (or what some may say was the inevitable).

During the three hours of chaos that involved every member of the Vancouver Police Department and numerous private security personnel, there are some examples of businesses that were ready and prepared. When the Boston Bruins scored their first goal of the game in the early minutes of the hockey game, the manager of MAC Cosmetics placed a critical phone call to 24 Hour Glass Ltd. By calling 24 Hour Glass and asking the company to urgently come to their downtown store and board up their windows, the staff at MAC Cosmetics ensured that their store survived the riots unscathed.

Staff of 24 Hour Glass tell stories of people suggesting that they were overreacting by boarding up the windows of MAC Cosmetics. The staff responded with a telling statement “Just in case”.

Other businesses who did not act proactively were not as fortunate as MAC Cosmetics. Businesses were literally destroyed with windows smashed and rampant looting. The actions taken by MAC Cosmetics and 24 Hour Glass (who had a special team deployed to the downtown core ready and able to board up any windows and doors), demonstrate that this damage did not need to occur. Imagine what Thursday morning in downtown Vancouver would have looked like if all businesses had responded with proactive action.

Effective Planning

What about the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Police Department – what could they have done differently? There is no doubt that city officials and the police department were expecting chaos and riots. In fact a plan was drafted and tabled in April that detailed a policing strategy for the Stanley Cup playoffs. This is excellent and does show that the city has learned from the 1994 Stanley Cup riots that took over Vancouver. But this plan was written before planners knew that large screens would be set up in the downtown core – ultimately drawing more than 25,000 people to a concentrated area.

When the rioting started, the location of the screens meant that the police did not have the space or room to disperse the crowds. The police, rioters and innocent bystanders were in essence, trapped.

Communication Is The Difference

What could have helped to limit this chaos and the ensuing disaster? Communication. Effective and purposeful communication. Assuming there were city staff, security personnel or police who saw a few proactive businesses getting prepared for the riots – this was a perfect chance to send a message to business owners in the downtown core to take action and do the same. A short and simple message with contact details for companies such as 24 Hour Glass could have been sent out to all managers and owners of businesses in the area – connecting them to the companies and people that could have helped them save their business.

Admittedly, when the rioting starts it is too late to do much. But by using an automated incident process or by implementing a business continuity plan, the right people could have been contacted and alerted to the chaos. Maybe more people could have been brought in? Assuming the City of Vancouver has a disaster plan for such an event, the crisis could have been kept under control with the deployment of a coordinated disaster response.

Now, we’re not saying we have the answers. And we’re certainly not placing any blame. But hopefully you will stop and pause for thought. Realize how critical it is to be prepared, learn from past mistakes, update your plans as new information is learned, ensure that the people you need to contact can be contacted quickly, efficiently and effectively.

Yes, this really does come down to one thing: communication. Relevant communication of critical data to the right people at the right time can make all the difference a city or business needs.