Vegas App-eal

ASSE's Safety 2013 conference includes more than 250 sessions and one of the best safety and health exhibit halls of the year.

• By Jessica Acklen
• Jun 01, 2013

If you aren't attending the American Society of Safety Engineers' Professional Development Conference in Las Vegas this month, you might be missing out. With an extensive expo hall, a variety of guest panelists, informative discussions, and safety professionals from all over the world, this June 24-27 conference is one not to miss. More than 4,000 people attended the conference a year ago.

Sin City is the place to be almost any time of year, even though 100 degrees F is the average daily high temperature there in June. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported 4,944,014 convention visitors came to the city last year and that the Las Vegas Convention Center (the site of ASSE's event, along with the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, formerly the Las Vegas Hilton) and Cashman Center set a new recycling record during 2012: 68 percent, or 3,288 tons of materials. "We committed to a comprehensive recycling program in 2006, and we continue to improve our systems to recycle more and more items," said Taryle Spain, director of client services for the authority, which operates both facilities. "We have made a commitment at both the convention center and Cashman Center to being environmentally friendly facilities, and by working closely with our vendors, trade show partners, and local charitable organizations, we're having great success."

ASSE's Safety 2013 conference includes more than 250 sessions and one of the best safety and health exhibits halls of the year, with more than 400 companies and vendors booking space in the expo.

Keynote Speakers
Following the kickoff reception in the expo Monday afternoon, the opening general session on Tuesday, June 25, from 7:30 to 9 a.m. features keynote speaker Peter Sheahan's talk, "Creative Strategies for Tuning Challenge into Opportunity and Change into Competitive Advantage." Sheahan is the founder and CEO of ChangeLabs and the author of six books. Later that afternoon, from 1 to 2 p.m., OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels will lead a discussion on the key issues facing the health and safety industry and its professionals.

On Wednesday, author, teacher, and researcher Richard Rumelt will lead the morning session from 7:30 to 9 a.m. He will discuss some of the topics addressed in his book "Good Strategy/Bad Strategy -- The Difference and Why It Matters," described as a look into achieving the best strategies for business. The Executive Summit Panel, a discussion of current issues by CEOs and other top corporate officials, is set for 7:45 to 9 a.m. Thursday.

Most of the conference's technical tours were sold out more than two months ahead of the event. The tours include Hoover Dam's power plant, The Mirage, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Wyndham Desert Blue construction site, and TIMET Corporation, a titanium manufacturer.

New Features
An innovative assistant for this year's conference is the Safety 2013 app. ASSE's app, similar to the mobile app it incorporated last year, will help attendees stay organized. With a personalized agenda, a schedule at their fingertips, access to speaker presentations and tracks, an exhibitor guide, and an interactive map to guide them from event to event and booth to booth, the app is a great way to make the most out of the experience. It is available for iPhones, iPads, and Android.

ASSE also is introducing interactive research poster sessions at the conference. The society invited safety, health, and environmental educators, students, professionals, and researchers to submit original contributions that can be displayed in an educational poster format and to send a video presenting the poster. Videos will be available during the conference for attendees to vote for the "People's Choice" and the best in each category, with selected videos included in the ASSE Body of Knowledge.

Educational Opportunities
Education sessions are organized in 21 tracks and an additional series of key issue roundtables on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. International issues, oil & gas, executive, transportation, sustainability, construction and mining, health care, wellness, emergency management, fire protection, and more individual tracks offer three or four sessions each day.

In addition to these talks and discussions, there is also opportunity to gain continuing education credits. Accredited as an Authorized Provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET), ASSE can offer attendees the chance to receive up to 1.8 credit hours for attending the entire conference or partial credit hours for each day.

Attendance options vary, so you can schedule your trip to the ASSE conference any way you like. One-, two-, and three-day options are available for those who can't stay for the whole week. Attendance prices and options are available on the Safety 2013 website, www.safety2013.org/.

Expo Hours
Monday, June 24: 3 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, June 25: 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Wednesday, June 26: 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

This article originally appeared in the June 2013 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.