FEATURE
ANOTHER YEAR…
Safety & Health Expo 2019 played host to more than 300 suppliers and thousands of innovative industry products. It also gave Ryan Lloyd, Editor of
Tomorrow’s Health and Safety, some time to catch up with the winners of the THS Awards 2019 and reflect on another exciting 12 months for the sector.
It would be rather interesting to know Sir Robert McAlpine’s thoughts on the annual Safety & Health Expo. In the 1850’s, after leaving school at a very early age to work in the coal mines, McAlpine became an apprentice bricklayer when he was 16. He progressed quickly working under an engineer to become a foreman and started working on his own accounts at the age of 22.
One can only imagine the working conditions he endured as he worked his way to the top. Industrialisation had created a bleak Victorian reality for British workers, with no so-called ‘red tape’, no official health and safety legislation, no workers’ rights and egregious working conditions. Whilst we lack formal documentation (national or local statistics) of any kind on workers that lost their lives during these times, historians place the figure in the high tens of thousands if not hundred of thousands.
It’s important to remember how far we’ve come in little over a century and a half.
The eponymous civil engineering firm that Sir Robert McAlpine founded would go onto design and construct the very building that welcomed over 12,000 professionals, from 74 countries, into its halls for a jam- packed three-day event celebrating all things health and safety related – the ExCeL arena.
And what a show it was. The Safety and Health Expo 2019 (SHExpo) registered steady visitor growth, securing a 3% increase in visitors compared to 2018 and an annual purchasing budget of £7.2bn. Moreover, with strong growth in heads of department and C-suite professionals, the show proved it has significant global reach.
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SHExpo helped connect visitors and suppliers with its Networking Forum and the 1-2-1 Meetings Service. The high quality of visitor and the improved ratio of visitors to exhibitors made Safety & Health Expo even more important for networking, discovering the latest thinking and innovations, and engaging in the right conversations with suppliers.
Some of the industry’s biggest companies launched their products, including Acre, Rebo, Reactec, Eurofins, PDC Scaffolding, RRC International, Birkenstock, Logical Safety, Mats4U and Alcumus.
The inspirational speakers proved to be particular crowd pleasers. The man who famously kicked the drop goal that won England the 2003 World Cup, Jonny Wilkinson, gave an unguarded speech entitled ‘Success on the field and mental health: a personal account of understanding what matters.’ In it the sporting legend spoke about dealing with depression, anxiety and panic attacks, and how his dedication to the sport he loved meant overlooking other important parts of his life. Heartfelt from the offset, the energy, charisma and openness Wilkinson injected into his speech proved uncharacteristic of a typical trade show – it was all the better for it.
WORKPLACE WELLBEING A keen focus for the show this year was wellbeing; it is now undeniable and calculable in its link to productivity. A topic that everyone in health and safety is familiar with by now, debates around workplace wellbeing and what can be done to spot and support those in need has never felt more relevant. With a multitude of talks and panel discussions scheduled across the three days in SHExpo’s sister exhibition, the Workplace Wellbeing Show, organisations of all scales
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THAT’S IT FOR
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