In the aftermath of the 2008 financial recession, companies globally have faced tremendous pressures to cut costs. Like marketing, business continuity is often an early casualty of such measures. And just as a lack of marketing leaves a company disadvantaged when the upturn comes, so skimping on business continuity can cause a company to go out of business.

In response, this year's Business Continuity Awareness Week will focus on the true cost of business continuity. The theme for the week is counting the cost, which will highlight the potential costs of not having an effective business continuity management system in place.

"When the alternative is going out of business, it's clear that business continuity offers great value for money," says Cindy Bodenstein, Marketing Manager at ContinuitySA, which is providing four speakers at the global event this year. "It's a theme that resonates with us here in South Africa because business continues to battle against global economic headwinds – but, at the same time, we have to recognise that incidents that threaten business survival, from weather to social unrest and terrorism, are unfortunately becoming extremely common. And as it's an election year, with higher levels of social tension, business disruption is a fact of business life."

Business Continuity Awareness Week (BCAW) is an annual global event organised by the Business Continuity Institute, and this year will take place from 17-21 March. During the week, leading international business continuity experts will deliver free Webinars. This year's topics presented by ContinuitySA experts include:

* Gaining efficiency and saving costs through ICT continuity on Monday 17 March at 10am (Jaun Harmse, Senior BCM Advisor at ContinuitySA).
* Counting the cost of poor communication in a crisis on Tuesday 18 March at 12pm (Tracy Linnell, General Manager: Advisory Services at ContinuitySA).
* Unpacking short-term insurance for better continuity on Wednesday 19 March at 12pm (Tracy Linnell and Jaun Harmse).
* Do you understand your outsourced business continuity reliance? on Thursday 20 March at 10am (Peter Westcott, Senior BCM Advisor at ContinuitySA).

Full details of the upcoming events and Webinars are available here.

For further information about Business Continuity Awareness Week, visit the BCI Web site: http://thebci.org/index.php/upcomingevents/bcaw-2014.

ContinuitySA will also host a breakfast presentation on "ISO22301 vs BS25999 onwards to certification", on 18 March at 8am, at the ContinuitySA Media Briefing Centre, in Midrand. For more information or to register your place, please click here.

Addendum – more detailed information on topics being presented