The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at UCF is offering a FREE disaster planning workshop, entitled “One Plan, Any Disaster,” across Central Florida starting May 21 through June 2009. The workshop explains the strategies and tools small businesses need for disaster planning in order to reduce economic damages and survive. The workshop also provides information on how to swiftly strike back to safeguard a business against hurricanes, wildfires, sinkholes and floods. Critical components of business continuity planning and insurance will also be discussed.

Each workshop will also host one the Florida SBDC’s two Mobile Assistance Centers or MACs. Participants will be able to tour the MAC – a 38-foot mobile RV equipped to be deployed immediately after a natural or man-made disaster. The MAC was designed to provide disaster assistance to small businesses during post-hurricane situations and for rural clients who need assistance and either do not have an SBDC location near them or are unable to travel to a Florida SBDC location.

Disaster Planning Workshop Dates and Locations:

  • Thursday, May 21, Seminole County Emergency Operations Center, Sanford, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
  • Wednesday, May 27, African American Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Orlando, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
  • Saturday, May 30, Hurricane Expo, Oviedo Marketplace, 10 am – 12 p.m.
  • Tuesday, June 2, Daytona State College, Daytona Beach, 2 – 4 p.m.
  • Thursday, June 4, SBDC at UCF, Downtown Orlando, 6 – 9 p.m.
  • Monday, June 8, So. Lake Chamber of Commerce, Jenkins Auditorium, 6 – 9 p.m.
  • Tuesday, June 9, Kissimmee/Osceola Chamber of Commerce, Kissimmee, 6 – 9 p.m.
  • Wednesday, June 10, UCF Technology Incubator, UCF Research Park, 6 – 9 p.m.
  • Wednesday, June 24, Brevard Community College, Cocoa Beach, 9 – 11 a.m.

To register and for additional information regarding these workshops, visit the SBDC Web site or call (407) 420-4850.

With its main office in the Disney Entrepreneur Center in Downtown Orlando, the SBDC at UCF is part of the UCF College of Business Administration and the Florida Small Business Development Center Network, providing business seminars and free one-on-one business consultation to small business owners. The SBDC at UCF serves an eight-county area that includes Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia Counties, and maintains five satellite service centers. The SBDC at UCF is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.