Throughout his professional career, Chris has been on a journey to understanding and prepare his organisations effectively for a wide range of risks. In many cases, those risks became realities and the preparations in place formed the basis of real-world responses. In 2006 Chris was in a senior operational role at the University of Canterbury (UC) where he actively prepared the institution for events which many said would never happen. One of those risks was for an active shooter event on campus and to better understand the challenges UC might face, Chris spent some time in United States learning about past events on campuses to help better prepare for an event at UC. Virginia Tech was a principle catalyst for UC’s own preparations and, on his return to NZ, Chris and the UC Team engaged actively with the NZ Police to understand how an event would unfold in New Zealand, how to work together effectively when the organisation was not in control, and with the support of the Police, to develop and then test strategies for a response and for the recovery to follow. Chris will share those experiences and lessons truly learned in his presentation “Don’t go to sleep at the wheel!”