Last week we delivered our first face to face Health & Safety conference since 2019, and attendance was excellent. Our speakers did not disappoint with some great sessions on workplace transport, mental health & wellbeing and road risk. Our inspirational speaker and motivational speaker added value with stories of sheer determination and resilience. The British Motor Museum proved to be the perfect venue for both delegates and exhibitors.

Our delegates were given the opportunity to visit our exhibitors throughout the day, including Rite-Hite, D.tec, Nebosh, Traffi, A-Safe, Mentor Training, Vue, Brake UK, AAK, National Cyber Security Centre, NARF and BOC – Sponsors of the Technical Conference. Our exhibitors brought along their products and explained their services and we hope that our delegates were able to take away some great product ideas.

Going forward, we feel there is a place for the virtual platform but face to face prevailed with speakers bringing their stories to life with much more impact, and delegate interaction with the use of visual aids. Feedback from the event has been off the scale.

Typically aimed at Health & Safety professionals, the event attracted both members and non-members. The day started with our inspirational speaker Lisa Ramos and her husband Dave. Lisa was involved in a fork lift accident in 2006, she spoke about both the psychological and physical effects, together with the wider impact on family and friends. Continuing on the theme of forklift safety, Mentor Training’s Stuart Taylor highlighted the 7 deadly sins with fork lift trucks.  HSE’s Scientist Mark Liddle talked about the importance of completing workplace transport risk assessments.

Drugs and alcohol were next on the agenda, this relates to accidents and incidents both in the workplace and on the roads due to mistakes, errors in judgement and fatigue putting employees and others at risk. We were joined by D-tec who explained how this can be managed and how companies can conduct discrete and ethical testing in the workplace. Dr Andrew Kemp of Vue followed with innovation and vehicle telemetry to reduce the risk from workplace transport and road risk.

We then moved on to our mental health and wellbeing section, with Alexis Powell-Howard of Fortis Therapy and Training. Alexis explained the 5 pillars of healthy wellbeing, and offered practical solutions on supporting good mental health. Alexis introduced the delegates to new techniques and used masks to show how someone’s game face can appear quite normal, when inside can be a totally different story. This was followed by Neil Catton of Sterling Risk Services who shared a deeply personal story about his fathers illness, and the long term affect that has had on him and his family. Paul Duncalf of Sysco shared their simple company initiatives that have changed the way they deal with mental health within their organisation. There was  Curry and Chaat and Tea and Talk. Dialogue cards were used to start conversations and these were distributed around the tables to encourage delegates to interact with each other over lunch.

After lunch, we heard from Wim Zwikker of Rite Hite, who had flown over from Amsterdam to speak about the latest dock loading safety innovations available to protect the workforce. Sue Rowland from Brakes talked us through the practical management system they have in place for key control at the depots. To complete this session we heard from Brake UK (road risk charity) around the work of the charity and how businesses can help by becoming Global Fleet Champions. A volunteer and advocate for the charity explained how brake have supported him following the death of his son.

The day concluded with our motivational speaker Chris Moon, Chris took us on a roller coaster ride of resilience and determination. Chris is one of the most fortunate people to be alive, after being captured by the Khmer Rouge and successfully negotiating his release and that of two colleagues when they worked for a land mine clearing charity. While supervising mine-clearance in Mozambique in 1995, Chris Moon was blown up in a supposedly clear area of the safety lane. He lost his lower right leg and right arm and survived only through sheer determination. Less than a year after leaving hospital, he ran the London Marathon, raising money for charities assisting the disabled, defying all expectations for his own future. He has since completed more than fifteen other marathons, including the punishing Marathon des Sables, which is a 137 mile race across the Sahara. His unique experiences help people do what they do better. Having faced many challenges throughout his life he showed how a positive mindset coupled making the choice of not becoming the victim can completely change any situation.

We would like to thank our speakers for their support, our exhibitors and delegates for attending on the day.

Plans for our 2023 conference are underway, and we  look forward to bringing you another packed agenda. Please click to see this year’s event brochure 

If you would like to be involved in the 2023 conference as a speaker, exhibitor or delegate please contact carlabrown@bfff.co.uk