CIREN Discussion & Workshop: Business Preparedness and Response in Wartime

19 March 2026, 11:00
Baltic Security Conference, ATTA Centre (B2B Area)

The session will feature expert speakers – the authors of the manual Ojārs Stūre and Vitālijs Rakstiņš.
The discussion will be moderated by Jānis Vanags, Member of the Board at CIREN.

The event marks the launch of the second, revised and expanded edition of the manual “Business Preparedness and Response in Wartime”

What to expect

Entrepreneurs, executives, media representatives and professionals will have the opportunity to:

• assess business preparedness for “X hour” and wartime scenarios,
• discuss practical solutions for business continuity,
• explore key updates introduced in the second edition of the manual,
• evaluate the role of businesses in national defence and societal resilience,
• identify practical steps to prepare for crisis situations.

Speakers

Ojārs Stūre

Ojārs Stūre is a Crisis Management Trainer and Consultant helping organisations overcome adversity through preparedness, communication, and leadership under pressure.

With experience from RAF-AVIA, Mediacom, and airBaltic, he brings decades of expertise in public relations, crisis communication, and operational recovery.

Vitālijs Rakstiņš

Vitālijs Rakstiņš is a resilience and crisis management expert with nearly 20 years of experience in the defence and security sector.

He has held senior roles within the Ministry of Defence, leading functions related to crisis management and the development of national defence service structures. He is also a researcher at Riga Stradiņš University and has contributed to international resilience programmes within NATO expert groups.

Vitālijs is a co-founder of CIREN and the author of several practical resilience and preparedness manuals.

Jānis Vanags

Jānis Vanags has over 15 years of experience in executive board and senior management positions across aviation, retail, healthcare, and service industries, spanning more than 30 markets in the EU, CIS, and the Middle East. In addition to leadership roles in businesses with up to EUR 900 million annual turnover, he collaborates with NATO and national defence institutions on resilience-related issues, including strategic reserves, civil-military synergies, and hybrid threats. Mr Vanags is a policy group member at the Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance, a lecturer (MBA level) at Estonian Business School, an Advisory Board member at Riga Technical University, and the founder of CIREN – Civilian Resilience Nordic, a Northern European NGO.

About CIREN

CIREN (Civilian Resilience Nordic) aims to strengthen the protection of societies across Northern Europe by enhancing preparedness for natural disasters, terrorism, hybrid threats, military conflict, and other man-made crises.The organisation works to improve resilience across the private, public, and civic sectors by advancing risk reduction, preparedness, emergency response, business continuity, and recovery capabilities.