The Risk Management Process provides organizations with the tools necessary to identify and manage loss exposures. As an effective management tool the organizations should establish a Risk Management Policy Statement that would include goals and objectives to be met by staff. The policy would also highlight the organization’s commitment to the plan and provide staff with authority, responsibility and accountability.

Risk management is not a one person function. Risk management requires an understanding by all staff of the overall goal of preventing accidental loss. Working with other departments is critical to the success of a risk management plan.

Control of the risk management process can be maintained through a system of constant monitoring and through an examination of the financial impact that risk management has on the overall cost of self-insured claims, uninsured losses, worker compensation costs, engineering costs and administration.

Risk management procedures include identification, measurement, control, finance and monitoring your work, policies and procedures.

Risk management policies and procedures can easily be followed through the use of a variety of management tools currently in place or put into place, such as equipment and facility schedules, inspection forms and security check lists including catastrophe plans, to name a few.

Keith will provide his insight and solutions to these issues and concepts in his presentation.

Keith R. Gibson, CRM (Risk Manager, Municipal Insurance Association of BC) is the Risk Manager for the Municipal Insurance Association of British Columbia, an insurance reciprocal for 169 of the Province of British Columbia's local governments and Instruments of Local Government. He provides advice on contract language, policies, insurance coverage and writes newsletter articles and claim reviews to assist members with the prevention of a future claim.

Prior to joining MIA 20 years ago (1989) he held Risk Management positions in both the public and private sector.

In 1995 Keith was awarded the Don Stuart Award from the Canadian Risk Management Council in recognition of his outstanding continuing achievements and superior contributions in the field of risk management.

HR Talk -  Thoughts and Experiences

Christine Maassen - Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Silverbirch Hotels and Resorts.

Before joining Silverbirch, Christine served as Vice President of Human Resources for Gateway Casinos and Entertainment, a major gaming and casino operator in Western Canada. Prior to that challenging assignment she was Executive Director of Human Resources for the Canadian Tourism Commission during the exciting period leading up the 2010 Winter Olympics. Christine immigrated to Canada from Belgium in 1988.

Building on her classic European culinary training, she started her hospitality career in food & beverage operations, serving in progressively more challenging senior leadership roles with Versabec, Resto-Casinos Inc, and with Le Cordon Bleu Paris, Ottawa Culinary Arts Institute and Signatures Restaurant. Through this experience Christine discovered that her next calling was in Human Resources. She returned to University and earned her degree B.A.A. in Human Resources and Industrial Relations from Université du Québec en Outaouais in 2006 and a Graduate Certificate from Executive Coaching, Royal Roads University in 2008.  She is now enrolled in a Masters of Arts in Leadership program.

The Heart and Mind of the Negotiator, Negotiating Rationally, Getting to Yes, The Art and Science of Negotiation. Most material one reads on negotiations deals primarily with the “art” of negotiations. The soft skills. How to get to agreement. How to counter arguments. How to identify the “interest” and not focus on the “position” of issues. These are all good and necessary skills to have.

This presentation, however, will focus, not on the soft skills, but on the hard skills necessary to complete a negotiation, an outsourcing negotiation. How do you plan a negotiation? How do you start a negotiation? Who should be involved? When? What do you need to do to ensure that a negotiation is complete, is complete on time, and achieves what you needed to achieve? We will focus on the mechanics of managing a negotiation.

What Participants will Learn:

• The structure of a typical outsourcing contact and how to use that to structure to determine the structure of the teams responsible for negotiating your agreement
• The logistics of the negotiations environment
• How to identify and document the key issues to negotiate
• How to determine your range of reasonable and acceptable negotiation outcomes
• How to develop a negotiating plan that will tell you what you will have to negotiate and when
• How to ensure that the appropriate skills and knowledge are at the negotiating tables at the right time
• How to ensure that you and the other members of your negotiating team are ready for each negotiation session
• How to track outstanding issues and final agreements on individual issues
• How to ensure that your legal counsel, responsible for drafting the agreement, gets what you agreed to
• How to ensure that the agreement is signed, and that all loose ends are tidied up

This presentation will use, as an example, the negotiations for an outsourcing contract worth several hundred million dollars. Once you see and learn the mechanics involved in negotiating a contract this large, you will be able to adapt and tailor the negotiations toolkit to fit even the smallest outsourcing contract.

Ken Nowlan (CIO, BC Transmission Corporation) In 1984, while the leader of the IT group at a large North American financial institution, and before the term “outsourcing” was used, Ken was asked to outsource his entire department. Since then Ken has negotiated IT and BPO-related outsourcing agreements totaling over $2.0 billion in value in both the public and private sectors. As the value and complexity of the contracts increased, Ken’s project management experience led him to believe that leading a negotiation had several similarities to managing a project. Through the course of those negotiations, Ken has developed a “toolkit” of tools and techniques that will prove invaluable to anyone charged with completing a contract negotiation: a toolkit that he will share with you. Ken Nowlan is the Chief Information Officer at BC Transmission, the provincial utility responsible for the bulk electric transmission system in BC. Previously Ken was President and General Manager of Corium Consulting Services Ltd., a management consulting firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, focusing on optimizing the management of information technology. As a practicing consultant, Ken focused on fill-in executive management, IT governance, strategic planning, and advising in and leading outsourcing negotiations. Ken holds a BMath (Comp. Sci.) degree from the University of Waterloo and an MBA degree from Simon Fraser University. Ken was awarded the Certified Management Consultant (CMC) designation from the Institute of Canadian Management Consultants and the PMP designation from the Project Management Institute. Ken has spoken several times on the topics of outsourcing and outsourcing negotiations, including several speaking engagements and webinars for various PMI SIGs and symposiums.

A Net Zero building generates as much energy as it consumes over the course of a year. Buildings account for about one-third of Vancouver’s energy consumption. Much of the energy we use is derived from fossil fuels, which, when burned, release greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the environment. Therefore, reducing our energy use and seeking greener options is one of our biggest sustainability challenges. Net Zero building practices are a step toward GHG-neutral (or carbon neutral) low-impact building design.

What Participants will Learn:

• This interactive session will provide the audience insights from the Engineer of Record on the planning, design, and construction of the Net Zero Building on Parcel 9 of the Olympic Village. Details on the brainstorming sessions during integrated design meetings, analysis, how the project was managed during the design stage, challenges, lessons learned and successes will be discussed.  

Albert Bicol, (P. Eng, LEED® AP) champions the use of sustainable solutions in his projects and initiated / leads Cobalt’s Sustainable Master Planning services. He has extensive expertise in Sustainable Master Planning (SMP), passive building design, modelling building energy usage, thermal comfort and indoor air quality conditions. Albert has a wide range of experience in Canada, USA, and Asia. This experience includes the SMP for several university campuses, mixed used developments in the Philippines, and 20 building (eight city blocks) sites for the Southeast False Creek 2010 Vancouver Olympic Athletes Village which includes the design of a 61-unit seniors housing complex with Net-Zero Energy/GHG emissions goals. Albert is currently providing concepts for three projects targeted to meet the Living Building Challenge and several large sustainable projects in the United Arab Emirates. As a LEED Accredited Professional, Albert peformed reviews for the USGBC and Canadian Green Building Council on projects applying for LEED certification. Albert has been invited to deliver over 200 presentations and has been a keynote speaker on sustainable building design, SMP and the true “Net Zero” approach in Canada, the US, and Asia and was named as one of Building, Design and Construction’s 2007 ‘Top 40 Under 40’

NEW ! Risk Management – Rewards and Penalties 6:00 pm - 15 minutes presentation

Risk Management is a much discussed topic in both business and project management. There are anticipated rewards from the astute management of opportunities, and penalties to be avoided from the careful management of negative risks. Risks and opportunities do not obey organizational rules, processes or procedures, nor do they respect functional or project boundaries! Risk management is an approach that seeks to identify and understand the risk exposure and opportunity possibilities of projects and organizations. It can help in the creation and implementation of effective decisions and actions that best benefit both individual projects and entire organizations. In this presentation Eamonn O'Laocha will be talking about risk and opportunity, risk identification and understanding, and the approaches that can be used in risk management. He will also be mentioning the specialist risk management credential for project managers (RMP), that is now available through the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Eamonn O'Laocha (MBA, PMP) is an independent management and project management consultant. Eamonn's career spans over 15 years. He has worked in many diverse industry settings from manufacturing engineering to University research environments. He has worked within organizational settings that include small business start up enterprises to global blue chip corporations. Eamonn is actively researching project management practice in complex settings and majors in the transformation of project management practice.Eamonn contributes as an instructor on the PMP certificatin preparation courses offered by the CWCC PMI.

The Vancouver Olympic Village was completed and handed over to VANOC on October 30th 2009. The Village comprises 1100 units of residential accommodation, 60,000 sq. ft of commercial retail space, a 44,000 sq. ft. community center with a daycare, boating center, restaurant and the restoration of the 1930's Salt Building. Some innovative design features include Vancouver's first Neighbourhood Energy System using waste sewer heat, an extensive natural storm water management system, a network of public spaces, outdoor amenities and seawall circulation - all set within a LEEDTM neighbourhood community with LEEDTM platinum and gold buildings  

What Participants will Learn:

• What was learned in undertaking this massive and ground breaking development and how might these lessons be applied to the future of urban renewal and the development of Sustainable Communities.
• How do these lessons fit into Vancouver's commitment to be the Green Capital of the globe - and how can BC capililize from the expertise and experience garnered by this project.
• What does it all mean for how projects are planned, designed and developed as our communities seek to meet the commitment to global warming, resource reduction and zero carbon footprints

Bring your thoughts on these issues to an interactive discussion on the concept of Sustainable Community development and the commitment to building a Green future for Vancouver and Canada.

Background information may be found at www.thechallengeseries.ca

Roger Bayley (Professional Engineer) is the founder, owner and principal of Roger Bayley Inc. providing professional consulting services based on Advocacy, Design and Management for a Global Future. Roger created the original 300 page proposal submission for the Millennium Water - Vancouver 2010 Olympic Village project on behalf of the developer, Millennium SEFC Properties Ltd, including assembly of the consultant team, the scope of work proposed, and the scheduling and program definition. Ever since being awarded the contract for this massive undertaking of housing 2800 atheletes, he has been instrumental in managing all aspects relating to planning, permits, sustainability, client coordination and meeting all of Vanoc's stringent guidlines, throughout the entire project.

NEW ! Utilize social media tools for your professional networking and career development 6:00 pm - 15 minutes presentation

In this presentation, Dennis will speak about how to best utilize social media tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Blogging for your professional networking and career development. This session will be a great opportunity to gain first hand perspective from one of BC’s most successful (and FUN!) recruiting firms. McNeill Nakamoto has a reputation for creating remarkable experiences by turning the ordinary recruiting process into something highly memorable. Whether you are in transition, looking for new opportunities or running your own business, this session will be of value as you will learn how social media networking can improve your situation. For more information on Dennis and McNak, please visit www.McNak.com and www.McNakBlog.com.

Dennis Wolff (Conductor, Permanent & Contract Talent) As Conductor, Permanent & Contract Talent, Dennis Wolff is a recruitment expert with McNak - Western Canada's best experience staffing company that is at the forefront of cutting edge recruitment. He has a significant track record of matching high potential professionals with outstanding companies across the Lower Mainland. As a recruitment consultant, Dennis has developed an expertise for understanding corporate culture and matching talented individuals with exceptional employers.