DRI Canada Professional Development Workshop and Luncheon
6/2/2025
9:00 AM - 6:30 PM MST


Location: Courtyard Calgary Airport, 2500 48 Ave NE, Calgary, AB


Registration ends on 5/30/2025



Event Description

The DRI Canada Board of Directors is pleased to host a professional development day in Calgary, June 2, 2025, conveniently located at the Courtyard Calgary Airport.  Join us for the day, or for lunch.

Navigating Integrity Through Chaos and Crisis, is a full day workshop, presented by Suzane Bernier, CBCP.  
Josh Bowen, ABCP, will be our guest speaker over lunch, presenting Beyond the Checklist: Institutionalizing Readiness in an Age of Compounding Disasters
The day will finish with a presentation Douglas Olthof on the Social Recovery from the 2024 Jasper Wildfire, followed by a reception. 

Navigating Integrity Through Chaos and Crisis Workshop
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Cost:  $129
Participants will be registered for the lunch event and receive a certificate of completion and eight (8) continuing education points.

Beyond the Checklist: Institutionalizing Readiness in an Age of Compounding Disasters
11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Cost:  Free
​Participants will receive a certificate of attendance and two (2) continuing education points.

Social Recovery from the 2024 Jasper Wildfire
4:00 pm - 5:20 pm
Cost: Included in full day registration

Navigating Integrity Through Chaos and Crisis
In times of crisis, ethical clarity can mean the difference between trust and turmoil. This interactive one-day workshop is designed for business continuity, emergency management, and resilience professionals seeking to lead with integrity under pressure. Drawing on real-world case studies and Canadian examples, participants will explore the ethical complexities of crisis management—where split-second decisions meet long-term consequences.

Guided by award-winning crisis consultant and author Suzanne Bernier, this session offers a structured yet dynamic learning experience, including group activities, decision-making simulations, and expert-led discussion. Participants will learn to recognize ethical blind spots, apply proven frameworks for ethical decision-making, and communicate transparently and responsibly during high-stress scenarios.

Key Takeaways:

  • Understand the principles of ethical leadership in crisis situations
  • Build confidence navigating ethical dilemmas across sectors (healthcare, public safety, tech, etc.)
  • Learn to balance stakeholder interests, public trust, and organizational values
  • Explore the intersection of ethics, technology, and resilience
  • Practice media response strategies that uphold accountability and trust
  • Whether you're facing data breaches, reputational threats, or operational disruptions, this workshop will help you lead with purpose, not panic.

 

Beyond the Checklist: Institutionalizing Readiness in an Age of Compounding Disasters

As disasters grow more frequent, complex, and interconnected, the traditional boundaries of business continuity and disaster recovery are no longer enough. In this provocative and forward-looking keynote, Josh Bowen draws on insights from over two decades of experience in emergency management and crisis leadership to challenge how organizations define and pursue readiness.

Drawing on real-world experience from disaster zones and the boardroom alike, Josh explores why static plans fail in dynamic crises—and what it means to build organizations that are truly ready for the unexpected. He introduces a practical model for institutionalizing readiness through cultural transformation, adaptive leadership, and systemic thinking.
Attendees will walk away with a deeper understanding of how to move from checklists to capability, from compliance to culture, and from resilience as an outcome to readiness as a way of being. This keynote is aimed at crisis, risk, and resilience professionals who want to lead with foresight, operate with agility, and shape the future of organizational resilience in a world of permanent disruption.

Social Recovery from the 2024 Jasper Wildfire

Disaster recovery operations typically proceed through the identification of a number of distinct but interrelated priorities. Social recovery is one such priority that begins from the recognition that disasters happen to people and communities. Social recovery is the thread that connects all the other recovery priorities but can often be the most difficult priority to define and to measure. This presentation will explore how social recovery objectives have informed all other priorities in the Jasper wildfire recovery context and how positioning Jasper residents as active participants in recovery is contributing to the re-establishment of strong networks of community support.

About the Speakers
Suzanne Bernier is a former journalist and government press secretary, Suzanne is now an international, multi-certified, award-winning crisis management consultant, trainer, speaker, and author.  She has helped governments, communities and companies plan for, respond to, and recover from disasters for almost 30 years. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for RIE Toronto, and serves as Global Ambassador for Stars of HOPE USA and as an advocate for mass attack survivors.

Suzanne has had numerous career highlights that include being a guest speaker at The White House, developing and delivering the first Pandemic Tabletop Exercise and Action Plan for the United Nations Headquarters (New York), receiving BCI’s Continuity & Resilience Consultant of the Year – North America, and of course, authoring the critically-acclaimed book, Disaster Heroes.  She is also a current faculty member of DRI International, acting as their international crisis communications instructor.


Josh Bowen has more than 20 years of crisis leadership and emergency management experience and training in disaster, military, and academic settings. He is currently serving as the Vice President, Organizational Excellence at Team Rubicon Canada, a veteran-led humanitarian organization that serves global communities before, during and after disasters and crises. Josh is a Lecturer at the University of Alberta teaching crisis leadership and served as a Subject Matter Expert supporting the Government of Canada’s National Risk Profile initiative and National Adaptation Strategy.

Prior to joining Team Rubicon Canada, Josh served as the Senior Director, Emergency Planning at the Canadian Red Cross where he led the team responsible for organizational readiness, hazard risk monitoring, and exercises. Prior to that, Josh spent five years at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) where he held several roles including as an Instructor in the Disaster and Emergency Management program, founder of the Centre for Applied Disaster and Emergency Management (CADEM), and led NAIT's response to COVID-19 as Director, Coordinated Response Team.

Josh is also a veteran, having served 13 years in the Canadian Armed Forces as an Infantry Officer, where he was directly involved in five disaster response operations. He holds a BA in Peace and Conflict Studies, an MA in Disaster and Emergency Management, an Executive MBA, and is an alumnus of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard University.

Doug Olthof is the Housing and Social Recovery Manager with the Jasper Recovery Coordination Centre (JRCC). He has been with the Municipality of Jasper since 2017 and prior to the wildfire was the co-lead of a national immigrant and refugee settlement program funded by Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Doug holds an interdisciplinary PhD from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC and got his start in disaster recovery in Thailand following the 2004 tsunami.