On Friday, March 9, the BCI formally announced the finalists for the first annual BCI Awards - North America that are being held in conjunction with DRJ Spring World 2012 on Tuesday 27th March, Coronado H at 7:30pm-9:00pm. The Awards are sponsored by xMatters.

Open to all BCM professionals regardless of professional membership and/or certification, the BCI Awards – North America will immediately be recognized as the de-facto standard for business continuity professional recognition of achievement.

The BCI Awards – North America will be recognizing excellence in 13 categories:

• Business Continuity Manager of the Year
• Public Sector Continuity Manager of the Year
• Business Continuity Rookie of the Year
• Business Continuity Personality of the Year
• Business Continuity Consultant of the Year
• Lifetime Achievement
• Business Continuity Initiative of the Year
• Business Continuity Team of the Year
• Business Continuity Strategy of the Year
• Recovery of the Year
• Business Continuity Management Planning Software of the Year
• Specialist, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Company of the Year
• Most Innovative Product of the Year.

Lorraine Darke, the Executive Director of the BCI has championed the creation of these award events on a global basis and viewed expansion into North America as a key move in their organization’s maturity. She further supports this decision by saying that “although Business Continuity Management has long been established as a discipline in North America, BCM professionals have never had an opportunity to be recognized and applauded by their peers. With over 1200 members in the United States and Canada, the Business Continuity Institute is the fastest growing membership organization in North America so we felt the time was right to launch BCI Awards - North America. These Awards will complement other BCI Awards around the globe bringing further recognition to the BCI and, more importantly, BCI members as true Thought Leaders.”

Darke goes on to say that “the Institute brings together 7000+ members in 100+ countries as a business continuity community offering support, personal development and learning through publications and events. By acknowledging our BCM “heroes”, whether they are in the running for Lifetime Achievement or Rookie of the Year, we are personally thanking our members and the wider BCM community for the wonderful work they do.“

To help make this evening more special, the BCI has teamed up with xMatters, “The Relevance Engine Company.” In a recent message from Troy McAlpin, the CEO of xMatters, he stated ''We're thrilled to sponsor the first annual BCI awards – North America at DRJ Spring World. The BCI is expanding their presence in the United States, giving business continuity professionals a chance to further their education and certification in their profession. We're happy to partner with the BCI to further their mission as well as giving these professionals a technology that will aid in their advancement."

About the Business Continuity Institute

The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) is the world’s preeminent Business Continuity Membership organization. Established in 1994, the BCI focuses on enabling practitioners in the emerging discipline of Business Continuity Management (BCM) to obtain guidance and support from their fellow practitioners, as well as to offer professional training and certification programs to disseminate and validate the highest standards of competence and ethics. The BCI is a membership organization – owned by the members and run for their professional benefit – with more than 7,300 members worldwide in over 100 countries. Individual membership of the BCI brings a wide range of benefits including: publications, workshops, forums and conferences but most importantly an internationally recognized certification. For information on training and certification as well as membership, please visit: www.thebci.org