Conducting a safety review
November 1st 2007 IP&E editor, Tim McManan-Smith attended the second in the series of regional safety events recently held at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton. Here he found a great reaction to the mixture of freely available educational content and product and service suppliers
The Health and Safety 07 event, held at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton in October was a huge success with a great mix of seminar content and a diverse range of the top companies exhibiting safety products and services. The most popular attraction proved to be the free seminar programme which was delivered by industry experts and by IOSH members representing the Manchester and North West Districts Branch. Mark Harrison of GSH Building Fabric, a visitor to the event encapsulated all that was good about the event saying:
"The seminars at the event were excellent, particularly the Working at Height paper which contained a perfect mix of the practical and the theoretical. The fact that the seminars were free and that I could also gain CPD (Continuing Professional Development) points by attending was a huge bonus. I will certainly try and attend again next year."
The exhibition was very busy on both days of the event with Paul Clow, UK and Scandinavian regional manager for DuPont Personal Protection commenting: "For the visitor, the quality and diversity of the seminar programme and the exhibitor offering encompassed all the requirements of a health and safety show, reflecting the many complex issues that affect the health, safety and wellbeing of today's workforce.
"As sponsor of Health & Safety 07, we have been delighted with the industry's response to this compact and concise event, which will continue to improve and grow. It has given us the opportunity to help bring together a comprehensive package of education and safety products to a local audience."
The next in this series of regional Health and Safety events will take place at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey on the 26th and 27th February 2008 with the dates for Bolton 2008 being the 8th and 9th of October. Tim Else, event director, reflecting on the success of the 2007 events said, "I have been so pleased that visitors have used the events as we envisaged them.
They have, in many cases, been able to call in at their places of work before or after visiting the event, which allows them to make best use of their time. The seminars have been enormously well attended and I would advise all visitors to the 2008 events to both pre-register for the show and the seminars they wish to attend, as many of the seminars have been 'standing room only'."
While the seminar programme for Sandown 2008 is still to be finalised there are plans to include new seminar topics such as stress management and ergonomic issues. This stronger focus on health and safety issues for 'softer' environments will also be reflected in the companies exhibiting at the event. As well as an increased number of safety product providers addressing issues such as PPE, Materials Handling, Noise protection and Respiratory Protection there will be more health and safety service providers and consultants helping visitors with their problems around risk assessment, health monitoring and training.
The regional Health and Safety events have proved to be a great addition to the safety calendar for 2007. With the breadth of information available a visit represents a great use of time for visitors from virtually any industry. The little extras, such as free seminars and free parking all really do help to provide a worthwhile experience for the time-pressured visitor.
If you would like to assess whether a trip to the Health and Safety 08 event at Sandown would benefit you then it might be worthwhile getting a free download of all the seminar notes from the Bolton event. These are available at www.healthandsafetyevents.co.uk.
Registration for the Health and Safety 08 series of events is now open via the same website. More articles from Health and Safety Events: | 
