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What we’ve been doing, where we’ve been travelling to, and what’s next.
I released two new books this month:
The Quick Reference Guide to Planning for Higher-Risk Destinations The Field Checklist for Hotel Security Assessments More details in the publications section, below.
We’ve continued to build out a range of products and services focused on contingency planning for military conflict scenarios impacting Taiwan.
We now offer the following suite of complementary products and services:
I’m applying the finishing touches to the Taiwan Contingency Planning Manual this week and should have it available on the website by Friday.
If your organisation has people in Taiwan, you’ll find these products and services to be useful. Please reach out for more details.
While in Hanoi last month, I started working on a new application called ‘Incident Manager’. Development is going well. Most of the key features are in place, and I’m hoping to have a beta version available by the end of August.
I’ve worked with multiple crisis management applications over the years. I’m aiming to do things a bit differently with Incident Manager. The application is an extension of the work I’ve been doing with my consulting practice, which is to enable crisis teams to manage complex incidents effectively.
First, I want the application to help teams make sense of complex situations. To achieve this, it’s key to avoid confusing interfaces and to ensure that the right information is available when it’s needed.
Second, I want to focus on team performance. I’m experimenting with concepts such as ‘task load’ and a few other interesting aspects to help teams attain optimum performance during an incident.
Third, I want to focus on the space between incidents. I’ve incorporated features to help teams learn from incidents. I’ve also included a feature to help guide team on what types of incidents they need to focus on during training and exercises.
The app doesn’t do ‘everything’, but I’m confident that it will be a great tool for organisations to help them improve their performance during an incident.
If you work in corporate security (i.e., someone likely to want to use the application within your organisation) and you’d like to help me kick the tires, please reach out and I’ll invite you into a team.
I’ve stopped using Twitter for work.
While I rarely posted on Twitter, I was constantly using the app to monitor different situations. Twitter was unique in that it provided a blend of traditional news with updates from some guy who is literally there as it happens.
I’m now on the hunt for a replacement for Twitter than enables me to maintain a high level of situational awareness. I’m on Threads, which is great, but for now it’s mostly a mix of celebrity musings, motivational quotes, and cat pics. All good ‘social media’, but not great for situational awareness and operational response. If any of you have any recommendations for apps, please let me know (I’m aware of Mastadon and Blue Sky).
Training workshops and customised training solutions.
Build the skills to effectively plan and execute security evacuations in various situations with our interactive and immersive workshop. Learn the essentials of assessing resources, developing evacuation plans, and preparing for contingencies to ensure the safety of individuals during critical events.
In this hands-on workshop, you’ll discover how to:
Throughout the workshop, you’ll explore real-life case studies that underscore the significance of effective planning. The session culminates in a practical exercise where you’ll devise your own evacuation operation and present it to the group for valuable feedback.
Learn more about this workshop here.
Updates on our in-house gear, sharing a behind-the-scene look at our design and manufacturing processes.
Last week I finally received the initial prototypes of 8 different bags from the new manufacturer. Most of the bags are in good shape. Some aren’t quite the same as the designs and will need to be prototyped again before moving to production.
Overall, I’m really happy with the designs. These are bags I’d be happy to use myself, which is my primary objective.
The biggest decision right now is whether I continue with this manufacturer. While the quality of the products has been good so far, communications are a struggle. As a result, everything is taking way longer than it should. It’s extraordinarily frustrating.
There’s a lot of money at stake, so it’s important I get things right from the start.
On a more positive note, I’ve finalised all of the materials that will be used for the bags, including fabric, webbing, zips, and components. I’ve locked in all the suppliers. So, at least from the supply chain perspective, we’re good to go.
Our latest articles and updates on selected publications.
Dangerous Travels is our weekly article series for 2023, focused on travel safety and security. Here’s the Dangerous Travels articles for this month:
Practical techniques you can apply to assess risks when travelling.
Why planning is an essential activity, even for experienced travellers.
Approaches to planning for contingencies when travelling to higher-risk locations.
The importance of building trusted local support networks, and how you can leverage these networks to support you and help reduce risk.
Techniques you can apply when building a secure and resilient local support network.
In addition to Dangerous Travels, I’m also writing a weekly article for The Business of Security. These articles focus on the practical aspects of setting up and running a company as an independent security professional.
This month, the Business of Security continued to focus on different aspects of business design, then moved into services and service design:
How to differentiate yourself as an independent security professional by focusing on style and substance.
A short definition of services, why clients might need services, and a quick introduction to some of the limitations of services.
Approaches you can apply to differentiate your services as you develop your business as an independent security professional.
Different factors to consider as you go about designing services as an independent security professional.