Business continuity planning is often viewed as a theoretical or reactive discipline, making executive buy-in, funding justification, and employee engagement difficult to sustain before a crisis occurs.
Venue & Community Partners
Designed and executed a large-scale disaster simulation that placed participants inside a live business interruption scenario requiring real-time decision-making and crisis response.
To support the experience, a fictional company—Firestein, Burnham & Frye—was created, and each participant was assigned a professional role ranging from legal counsel and communications representatives to procurement specialists, technology managers, and executive leadership.
What began as a routine company meeting quickly escalated into a staged explosion requiring evacuation and coordinated response efforts.
Participants rotated through a series of scenarios reflecting challenges commonly encountered during real-world disasters, including:
Throughout the exercise, participants learned changing details about their assigned roles—including injuries, fatalities, reassigned responsibilities, and evolving operational demands—requiring teams to adapt as conditions changed.
The simulation involved collaboration with Osceola Police and K-9 Search & Rescue, Osceola Fire and HazMat teams, the Red Cross, emergency responders, and local media. Helicopters, emergency vehicles, SWAT personnel, and live media coverage contributed to the realism of the experience.
The exercise concluded with participants learning that the scenario had been modeled after an actual disaster experienced by Fiduciary Trust, reinforcing the real-world relevance of the training.
More than 300 business continuity professionals participated in the simulation, generating significant attendee engagement and regional media attention.
The exercise increased visibility for both the conference and participating recovery vendors while driving interaction with onsite business continuity and disaster recovery solutions.
Most importantly, the event challenged traditional approaches to conference education by demonstrating the effectiveness of scenario-based learning in preparing professionals for crisis response and operational recovery.
Its success led to recurring mock disaster exercises at future Disaster Recovery Journal conferences and helped establish a new model for business continuity training within the industry.
