O'Neill
Management Consulting, LLC
Consultants to the Utility Industry

                      Announcing the 6th Annual Conference on

            Emergency Preparedness & Service Restoration for Utilities


When:   March 16-18, 2011  (noon Wednesday until noon Friday)

Where:  Fogelman Executive Center, 330 Innovation Drive (at Central Ave.)
        University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152

Who:    Recommended for utility/regulator executives/managers involved in:
          Emergency Management (planning, logistics, operations, etc.)
          Service Restoration (storm managers, dispatchers, mutual aid)
          Regulatory/public/customer communication (external affairs)
          And others (risk management, business continuity, compliance)

By:     Chaired again by Dan O'Neill of O'Neill Management Consulting, LLC
        with participation from leading utility managers and consultants

What:   The agenda will adhere to the proven format of previous years:
          First Day Afternoon: Emergency Planning, including a Tabletop Exercise
          Second Day Morning: EM Organization, Regulation, and Communication
          Second Day Afternoon:  Innovations in processes and tools
          Third Day Morning:  Lessons Learned from recent major events
          (See Energy Central listing for agenda details)

          And this year including two special events:
            Cocktail hour on the evening of the first day (16th)
            Bus ride to and from Beale Street on St Patrick's Day evening (17th)        

How:    To register, call Dan O'Neill at 404-816-5647 
        Or e-mail a reply to danoneill@oneillmanagementconsulting.com 
        In any event, you will receive an e-mail confirming your registration

Credit: Attendees who request it can receive a certificate of completion for 
        continuing education credits 

Cost:   Tuition fee of $1,000 (for the entire conference) per first attendee, 
        and $500 for each additional attendee from the same organization 
        Make check payable to O'Neill Management Consulting, LLC
        Payment also acceptable by American Express, Visa, or MasterCard

Stay:   At the Fogelman Executive Center itself, call 901-678-2000
        $90 per night plus tax - limited space available, so book soon
        Or across the street at the Holiday Inn University of Memphis,
        an 'all suites' hotel, 3700 Central Avenue, call 901-678-8200

Attire: Business casual. Outside temperature likely 50-70F

Agenda

Wednesday, March 16th
12:30 PM Check-in (get badge, find a seat, meet fellow attendees)
1:00 PM Welcome to Memphis - Jerry Collins, CEO, Memphis Gas Light & Water
Overview of the conference - Dan O'Neill, Chairman
Introductions and learning goals - Attendees
1:45 PM DHS's Voluntary Private Sector Preparedness Program, PS-Prep - Jim Caverly of DHS has co-presented a joint DHS/EEI webinar on this topic and will review the program with us and engage in a discussion - R. James Caverly, Director, Partnership and Outreach Division, Department of Homeland Security
2:45 PM Setup for Tabletop Exercise - Objectives, ground rules, roles, and cues - Dan O'Neill, Charlie Fijnvandraat, O'Neill Management Consulting, LLC
3:00 PM Break for networking, communication, and 'human factors'
3:30 PM Tabletop Exercise - A live simulation of a utility's response to a major event, with attendees playing roles and/or observing and critiquing
5:00 PM Lessons Learned from Tabletop Exercise - Group Discussion
5:45 PM Break
6:00 PM Reception (refreshments only)
Thursday, March 17th
8:00 AM Continental Breakfast
8:30 AM Review of Major Events in 2010 and Associated Regulatory Activity - Each year we take a look back at the major events in North America and note the associated regulatory activity, e.g., audits, get-well programs, etc. - Dan O'Neill and Charlie Fijnvandraat, O'Neill Management Consulting
9:30 AM Achieving Customer Satisfaction with Communication about Outages - Based on his work with three utilities and an industrywide research consortium, a consultant remarks on ways to improve outage communication, including ERT's - Charlie Fijnvandraat, O'Neill Management Consulting
10:30 AM Break
11:00 AM Organizing for Emergency Management – How different organizations will organize differently regarding Emergency Management, Business Continuity, Risk Management, Storm Operations, Mutual Assistance, etc. - A panel discussion among the speakers, with audience participation, including some who have been through mergers and reorganizations of the EM function
12:00 PM Lunch on site (included)
1:30 PM Advances in Timely and Locationally Accurate Weather Forecasting - The latest in the continual quest for better weather data, this time from a company that has installed special instruments on hundreds of commuter airplanes to gather tropospheric data at more times and more places than NOAA weather balloons - James Ladd, CEO, AirDat LLC
2:30 PM Process Assessment and Improvement in NU's E911 Program - NU saw a need to re-visit its program for handling emergency calls from police, fire, and the public (wire down, fires, etc.). They approached the problem systematically and achieved results - Mike Zappone, Manager, System Restoration and Emergency Preparedness. Northeast Utilities
3:30 PM Break
4:00 PM Innovations in Restoration v Two recent developments that help companies respond to inquiries about storms - using observers to log the way you handled the storm in the control room, and using forensic analysis to determine why damage was what it was. Bob Grant, CEO, River Consulting Group (with possible participation by a client)
5:00 PM Innovations in Mutual Aid and Logistics - Insights from the only company that belongs to four different mutual assistance conferences - Jim Nowak, Manager, Emergency Restoration Planning, AEP
6:00 PM Adjourn for the day
7:00 PM Bus to Beale Street (Happy St. Patrick's Day)
9:30 PM Bus from Beale Street
Friday, March 18th
8:00 AM Continental Breakfast
8:30 AM Lessons Learned from Preparing for the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto - It seems that more and more utilities are having to prepare and manage through major events associated with a convention, Olympics, or international meeting. These events are definitely not handled like 'business as usual' and there are great lessons to be learned from each - Suzanne Bernier, Manager, Emergency Management, Toronto Hydro
9:30 AM Lessons Learned - Snow and Ice in the South! - On the second weekend of January, 2011, Entergy saw the threat of severe snow and ice forecast for their territory. They 'pulled the trigger', mobilized assistance, and weathered the storm well, with more lessons learned for others in similar circumstances - Mike Fricke, Manager, System Outage Response, Entergy
10:30 AM Break
11:00 AM Lessons Learned - Managing Near-Miss Major Events - In the Atlantic, the year 2010 had the most named storms since 2005, and the third most in history (tied with 1995 and 1887), but many of them missed the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Still, they triggered extensive mobilizations in some instances, e.g., Alex, Earl, with valuable lessons learned about how and when to call up and then stand down - Jim Nowak, Manager, Emergency Restoration Planning, AEP
12:00 PM Wrap-up and Adjourn (The Fogelman Executive Conference Center provides complimentary shuttles to and from the Memphis airport. Just let them know)

O'Neill Management Consulting, LLC Consultants to the Utility Industry

O'Neill
Management Consulting, LLC
Consultants to the Utility Industry