Economic Resilience Zone:    Resources    Mega-Maps (under development)

Events:

11 August 2011, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel MD:  “EMP: Threat and Opportunity”

8 June 2011, The Tower Club, Tyson's Corner, VA:  “It doesn’t do you any good if you’re open for business and your customers and suppliers aren’t”

Events (archive):

Recommended reading:

“EMP: Threat and Opportunity”

A meeting of the DC Regional Economic Resilience Group

 free and open to the public – reservations required (see below)

Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

 9:30 AM  registration

10:00 AM – 12:30 PM  educational session and group discussion

Since the end of the cold war, interest and concern regarding EMP has taken a back seat to other threats such as cyber, bio-terror, etc.  Yet this threat is just as real today, perhaps even greater.  EMP can occur in different forms - natural or man-made, nuclear or non-nuclear, each with potentially disastrous consequences.  Much of our energy and communications infrastructure is highly vulnerable, and an EMP event of any type could cripple our already fragile economy.

The August 11 meeting of the DC Regional Economic Resilience Group will be devoted to the topic of EMP vulnerability, and what we as businesses and organizations need to do now to prevent a Fukushima-like disaster with equally serious or greater economic consequences.

The meeting agenda is as follows: 

1) An overview of EMP, the different types of EMP, and the fragility of our critical infrastructure to an EMP event

2) Review of related government and community EMP and infrastructure protection activities.  Special attention will be given to the Secure Grid ’11 national table-top exercise and conference sponsored by NORTHCOM and National Defense University (NDU) planned for 4-6 October, 2011 at APL and NDU.  The October exercise will be an ideal opportunity to experience first-hand the potentially devastating effects of a naturally-occurring EMP event on our nation’s infrastructure and economy and how to improve our resilience to such an event

3) Discussion of business implications and opportunities

4) Lunch (on your own) and networking in APL cafeteria, adjacent to the meeting room.

Reservations required (contact Art Murray: amurray@aksciences.com; 540-837-2969)

This meeting is part of a series in which we examine economic resilience from a total systems perspective, including the many interdependencies of our information-based economy.  EMP and critical infrastructure protection is just one area that we need to be addressing in a holistic way.

Background: 

In our complex massively-interconnected economy, one or more threats (bio-terror, cyber-attack, etc.) could result in a prolonged disruption in the flow of goods and services throughout the DC region and beyond.  While many businesses have disaster recovery plans in-place, we are hard-pressed to find anyone addressing the broader issue of economic resilience.  The continuing disruptions resulting from the recent events in Japan bear this out.

We define economic resilience as: The ability of an economy to absorb a catastrophic event and quickly return to a new state of stability that is stronger than the previous state.  Resilient enterprises and economic regions are naturally dynamic and more competitive under all circumstances of doing business in a complex, fast-changing global market.

This means stitching together a supply network to an extent never before attempted.  Bio-science, energy, logistics, command and control, cyber-security, communications, transportation, hospitality, education, even agriculture, are just a few of the industries that need to work together if we are to withstand a Japan-like crisis or worse.

The DC Regional Economic Resilience Group is aimed at developing and selling resilience-based products and services.  The private sector must take the lead.  In the current budget climate, we can no longer depend solely on government to fund large-scale initiatives such as this.

Our overall mission is to form business alliances to develop products and services for strengthening economic resilience.

Many DC-area firms already have basic capabilities in-place, developed for defense, homeland security and other government customers.  These products and services can be re-purposed for delivering enhanced operational resilience across a variety of industries, and can be tailored and marketed to metropolitan regions throughout the world.  

We hope you’ll join our rapidly-growing group of business leaders and help pave the way for keeping business and commerce up and running when disaster strikes.

For additional information please contact Art Murray: amurray@aksciences.com; 540-837-2969)

“It doesn’t do you any good if you’re open for business and your customers and suppliers aren’t”

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Last modified: 07/19/11