Make It Safe, B.C.'s comprehensive exploration of safety in the workplace returns to Vancouver this fall.
This year's theme – "People Planet Profit" – underscores the interconnectedness of all aspects of safety, through two in-person days of best practices and hands-on training, and two days of Make It Safe Online, notes Wayne Arondus, CEO of the Manufacturing Safety Alliance of B.C. Additional sessions will visit Kelowna, Prince George and Nanaimo in spring 2025.
Make It Safe Vancouver 2024 welcomes health and safety professionals, HR team members and business leaders to the Anvil Centre in New Westminster on Oct. 9 and 10.
With topics ranging from workplace mental health and diversity, equity and inclusion to regulatory changes and preventing welding and musculoskeletal injuries at work, the sessions explore the broad scope of health and safety on the job site, Arondus notes. The second day of Make It Safe Vancouver 2024 will deliver hands-on workshops and expert roundtables to equip attendees to build supportive and holistic workplace health and safety programs.
Youth in the workforce is another key area, he adds, pointing out that we can now have up to five generations in the workforce, with different approaches and concerns. Beyond the pay scale, for example, many younger workers are also keenly interested in company policy around health and safety matters, such as support for mental health and work-life balance.
Younger people may also learn differently than their parents and grandparents did; understanding that can help employers more effectively share safety information and other materials in new ways for their employees – this is a focus for the new Make It Safe NGen Youth Challenge happening in conjunction with Make It Safe Vancouver.
"We want to engage younger workers not only to see what they're thinking but how they're learning," Arondus notes.
Among the must-do sessions is the keynote address, People Planet Profit: A Leader’s Experience with Nicole Stefenelli, whose 1990s university recycling project has grown into Urban Impact, a thriving waste diversion business serving locations from Whistler to Chilliwack.
While customer service and environmental performance remain at the heart of their businesses, at the top of their 13 corporate values is Safety First, Always, and this commitment to health and safety – and to finding creative solutions – earned the company the 2024 Manufacturing Safety Innovator Award. In her presentation, Nicole will share what motivates their values-based approach to health and safety, the critical role leadership plays, and the keys to Urban Impact's vibrant safety culture.
Continuing the learning sessions online, the equally rich and diverse lineup of topics and speakers Oct. 30 and 31 includes a keynote address from Stuart Hughes, Head of Safety for the Mercedes-AMG' Petronas Formula One Team.
Expanding on the conference theme of People Planet Profit, Hughes leverages nine years in the high-performance environment of Formula One racing to connect a fourth critical dimension: Performance. In this fast-paced keynote, Hughes will share insights on how consistency plays a critical role in performance and how well-being can enhance human performance. He'll also look at how teams can use curiosity and the new PELE model to help their organization accept variance as a valuable learning tool, and consider the value of ground truth, to ensure learning and development supports organizational performance.
2 conferences, 1 ticket: Register today!
Registration for Make It Safe Vancouver includes two days of conference sessions, keynotes, practical workshops and Ask the Expert roundtables. In addition, tickets from the MIS Live event also include access to the 20+ more great topics featured during the online conference sessions Oct. 30 and 31, available on-demand for a year. Individual and group tickets to Make It Safe Online are available separately. Learn more and register today at https://makeitsafe.ca