Steam Pipe Explosions and Real Time Collaborations ... Where Is the Link You May Wonder

Guess where I was on Wednesday July 18, 2007 at 6:00 PM....

I just came out of the Bryant Park and 42nd Street subway exit in Manhattan and I look to my right and see a sea of people running towards me and away from the Grand Central Station area. Behind them was a large white smoke cloud. The pictures here and here give you some idea what it was about. This is not from the same vantage point I was at though. What I did see where many people who were covered in mud and who looked panicked.

So, why is this relevant to Business Continutiy? Well, I was in NY where I just presented at the Business Continuity forum, a conference focused on business continuity and disaster recovery. I will post a recording of this presentation later. I gave a presentation on why real-time collaboration services are also a good telework solution.

I thought that it was a little ironic that right after this conference, a major incident happened that reminded many people of Sept 11. Many companies in Manhattan's Midtown area will be affected for a couple more days and can't let their employees back into their offices. I guess they all wished they have implemented WebEx as their telework solution. They allow you to transform any business disruption into business as usual.

Let me give you a less dramatic example: Let's assume that you're on your way to work and suddenly you hit a traffic jam. You turn your radio to a station that has traffic reports (in the San Francisco Bay Area that could be KQED or KGO) and low and behold, there is a traffic accident and they closed down 3 of the 4 lanes of the highway. You're stuck in traffic and at 5 miles / hr you're going to be late for your 9 AM meeting where you had to present the project status to your management team. (Did I say you burned the midnight oil to get the powerpoint to look just right). Rather than panic and call into the meeting from the car to give them the 5 minute cliff notes, you get off the next exit, drive 3 blocks to the nearest Starbucks, log on to the t-mobile wifi hotspot, start your WebEx meeting and it's as good as being there in person.

Anyways, if you were in NYC on Wednesday and you were in Midtown and want to share your experiences, post a reply to this blog entry....

--jan