The Safety First Conference & Expo will present world-leading safety experts in high level Premium Forums running throughout its four days – May 26 – 29 – in Melbourne this year.

More than a dozen speakers, including Griffith University’s Professor Sidney Dekker and DuPont Sustainable Solutions’ Dr Rod Gutierrez have confirmed they are bringing new research, strategies and real-world advice to share with safety professionals via the Premium Forum events.

Alternating with free, open briefings taking place throughout the Safety First Conference, the three Premium Forums are intimate sessions on core themes: Safety Leaders Skills, Human Factors for Safety Leaders and Psychological Injury. Key to the Premium Forums will be the opportunity to ask questions of each speaker.

Anthony Reed, Event Director for Safety First comments, “One of the real benefits of the Premium Forums is the opportunity to benchmark your practices against best practices and achievements in the industry. Each of the sessions has been designed to give you high level ideas and strategies – and because they’re taking place behind closed doors, you will have a rare opportunity to quiz industry leaders about what they – and you can – do differently to influence safety outcomes.”

The Premium Forums include:
Premium Forum A – Safety Leaders Skills Pro Tuesday 26 May 1.30pm – 4.00pm
Participants will discuss advanced skills including:
• Exploring behaviours that can unintentionally boost risk in the workplace
• Communicating in ways that help create a culture of safety
• Measuring your success as a safety leader

A highlight at this event will be speaker Dr Angelica Vecchio-Sadus, HSE Manager, CSIRO Manufacturing Flagship is one of Australia’s top women in health and safety. Her presentation will cover different indicators of success you can use at various stages of the journey – such as measuring lead indicators of change before overt statistics become evident – to track progress towards your workplace safety goals.

Premium Forum B – Human Factors for Safety Leaders Wednesday 27 May 2.00pm – 4.30pm
Participants will gain a greater understanding of social influences, including:
• Is the human factor a problem to control or a resource to harness?
• A case study revealing the key factors that played a serious role in major incidents

These sessions will begin with a keynote by Prof Sidney Dekker, Griffith University, and the Safety Science Innovation Lab. Prof Dekker is renowned globally as an exciting, and challenging thinker who will pose the question of what set of circumstances in your workplace puts people in a position where they end up doing things that go wrong?

Premium Forum C – OHS Safety Leaders – Psychological Injury Thursday 28 May 3.00pm – 5.30pm
This forum aims to enhance your capacity to positively influence workers’ thinking, emotional state and behaviour, through:
• Looking at personal resilience and the building blocks for a resilient workforce
• Mental health issues, stress and psychological injury including depression and anxiety
• Re-engaging and motivating injured employees after they have returned to work
Dr Rod Gutierrez, Leader – Culture, Capability and Change Management, DuPont Sustainable Solutions will begin the forum with strategies for influencing safety by focusing on what employees think and feel, so that they choose to be safe.

The Safety First Conference’s Premium Forums and drop-in sessions take place against an expo of new and innovative safety products and services, running alongside National Manufacturing Week – Australia’s largest manufacturing event – to provide broad ranging access to industry solutions.

“Safety First Conference & Expo is the only one-stop workplace safety event in Australia – and it will be a great resource for safety professionals seeking to boost their own skills, and their organisation’s safety standards,” concludes Reed. “Look forward to seeing you there!”