Doug Parker, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, will address the National Safety Council’s (NSC) Safety Congress & Expo in Orlando on September 16, the NSC announced August 28. Parker, who heads the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), will speak about “Safety as a Core Value.”
The conference and expo will run September 16 to 18 at the Orange County Convention Center. The NSC also is offering professional development seminars September 13 to 15 and 18 to 19.
The premise of Parker’s keynote will be that worker safety is a core business value and that stakeholders must come together to brainstorm and implement occupational safety solutions to eliminate workplace injuries and fatalities. He will address the safety challenges American workplaces are facing and the opportunities for employers and safety professionals to work together to increase the culture of safety in the United States.
Parker will be joined by NSC President and CEO Lorraine Martin for a “fireside chat” and questions and answers.
Other keynote sessions during the conference will include:
- “Driving Change: SIF (Serious Incident and Fatality prevention) Model in Action,” providing insights into the NSC’s SIF approach and how the council collaborated with an organization to develop and implement a tailored strategy, measure its impact, and incorporate feedback for continuous improvement;
- “A Tale of Two Safeties: BBS (Behavior-Based Safety) and HOP (Human Organizational Performance),” featuring Tim Page-Bottorff, MS, CSP, CIT, senior safety consultant at SafeStart, and Corrie Pitzer, Safemap International founder and CEO, who will explore the differences, misunderstandings, and quarrels between two approaches that focus on safety in opposite ways;
- “Psychologically Safe Workplaces: What Can We Agree On?” featuring inQUEST Consulting’s Scott Hoesman and Nakia J. Green, who will explore how to create work environments where everyone can thrive, focusing on strategies to ensure psychological safety for employees, customers, and partners, as well as addressing complex issues surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion; and
- “The Future of Human-Robot Interaction” with researcher and leading expert in social robotics Dr. Kate Darling, who will examine questions about the technology itself and what society’s future relationship with robots could look like.
The event will include 25 professional development seminars, over 125 targeted technical and educational sessions, and an expo floor with more than 950 exhibitors. Information about the event is available on the NSC’s website at congress.nsc.org. The NSC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating the leading causes of preventable death and injury and focused on roadways and the workplace.
Over the past several years, the NSC has focused its efforts on addressing work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and workplace opioid overdoses and deaths. Workplace overdose deaths have increased 619% since 2011, according to the NSC.
The NSC released new ergonomics research last fall, covering emerging technologies for MSD prevention, including computer vision, passive exoskeletons, and wearable sensor technology. This past spring, the NSC offered employers free opioid overdose eLearning resources, an online workplace well-being hub, and options for bulk online purchasing of overdose-reversal nasal spray (Narcan (naloxone)).