Representatives from the State Emergency Management Office (SEMO) will be among the featured speakers at six regional seminars on emergency preparedness being hosted by The Business Council in December.

“This is a great opportunity for businesses to look at current emergency plans, and assess what should change to be better prepared in the future,” said Maribeth Riley, the Council’s manager of meetings and homeland security. “By having a plan in place your business will be better able to respond to any type of emergency; allow you to return to normal operations faster and limit the negative impact to your company.”

Each one-day seminar will include updates with local and regional preparedness representatives. Regional SEMO representatives will speak at several seminar locations, including Buffalo, Syracuse, Long Island and Albany.

The agenda also includes:

• A session on how participants can learn from past emergencies to help their businesses be better prepared.

• An overview of the three-step planning process for emergency preparedness. The three steps are: vulnerability and risk analysis, risk management strategy and plan development, and plan implementation.

• A session on facilitating the planning process, which will include topics such as understanding vulnerabilities; insurance considerations; disaster scenarios relative to geographic regions and business sectors; evaluating current business capabilities, plans and procedures; and evaluating critical company assets, personnel, services and operations.

The sessions will be led by Michael J. Griffin and Pete Sammis from Strategic Planning Partners, LLC, a Long Island homeland security and disaster preparedness firm.

The seminars, which are being cosponsored by regional chambers of commerce, are being held at six locations around the state, including:

• The Millennium Hotel at the Buffalo Airport on Tuesday, December 5.

• Monroe Community College in Rochester on Wednesday, December 6.

• The Holiday Inn Carrier Circle in Syracuse on Thursday, December 7.

• Fox Hollow on Long Island on Tuesday, December 12, 2006

• The Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel on Wednesday, December 13, 2006

• The Holiday Inn Turf on Wolf Road in Albany on Thursday, December 14.

For a complete agenda, registration, and sponsorship information, visit www.bcnys.org/whatsnew/events/emergencypreparednessagenda.htm.