Politics, Compliance, Persuasion & Fear Will Highlight Safety 2008 Stage
Highlights from the podium at Safety 2008, ASSE's annual Professional Development Conference & Expo taking place June 9-12 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, include Time magazine's Washington Bureau Chief Jay Carney, who will keynote June 10's General Session and offer his insider's perspective on the wild ride that is the 2008 political scene. OSHA head Edwin Foulke Jr. and NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard will share the stage for that afternoon's Plenary Session, addressing questions on the activities and impact of the regulatory, standards development, and compliance assistance efforts of the federal government.
Dr. Robert Cialdini, W.P. Carey Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Regents' Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, will headline Wednesday morning's General Session, June 11, discussing the art and science of influencing people and how the sometimes subtle powers of persuasion can benefit your program. Focusing on a slightly different strategy for success, comedian Frank Miles will take the stage Thursday at noon for "Laugh at Fear," a lunch program ASSE describes as "bounc[ing] from insightful stand-up comedy to fire, a giant unicycle, and ping-pong ballet."
Meanwhile, more than 200 concurrent education sessions in 17 tracks are on the schedule, covering everything from training ("Taming the Roller Coaster--Resilience in Action") and ergonomics ("How to Reduce the Other Two Thirds of Your Back Pain Losses") to regulatory issues ("How to Plan for an OSHA Inspection") and risk management ("Start Rolling the D.I.C.E. on Your Safety and Risk Management Projects"). Other timely topics, designed for SH&E professionals of all experience levels, include dust explosion hazard assessments, MRSA prevention, "greening" your company, and Hispanic worker issues. Four of the sessions will be presented in Spanish.
ASSE will conduct key issue roundtables during the concurrent session periods and on Thursday will present its 2008 Executive Summit. In addition, 45 pre-conference (June 6-9) and post-conference (June 12-15) seminars are offered on assorted topics, such as construction safety, pandemic preparedness, lockout/tagout, and preventing strains, sprains, and pain. The society is offering a 2008 Virtual Expo with more details at www.asse.org/education/pdc08/.