Event Will Focus on Leadership--'C Level' & High Seas Level
New this year at the 96th annual National Safety Council Congress & Expo is an "Executive Edge Track" established within the technical sessions that includes workshops and sessions designed specifically for those engaged in the decision making, strategic planning processes, resource allocation, and the integration between EHS and operations in their organization. The council says it recognizes that leadership is the most critical factor for EHS and business success. It adds that the new track is based on the "overwhelming success" of the 2008 Executive Forum and the 49 percent increase of executive-level attendees from 2006 to 2007.
Executives interested in the new track will have a choice of three sessions--one on Monday, Oct. 26, and two on Tuesday, Oct. 27--followed by a corresponding workshop on Wednesday, Oct. 28, from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Monday's session, "Leading-Edge Management: Using Leading Indicators to Guide Strategy," will be led by Joe Stough, founder of Syntex Management Systems Inc., and Glenn Murray, safety programs manager at Exxon Mobil Corp., and takes place from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday's first session, from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., is "World-Class Leadership: Leading with Safety," presented by Dr. Tom Krause, founder of Behavioral Science Technology, and Bill Bozzo, VP and director of ES&H at DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations. Tuesday's second session, from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., is "Safety in Action: EHS Management System Implementation," and it will be comprised of evidence-based case studies and a discussion of the enabling factors behind effective EHS management systems.
On Wednesday morning, at the same time the workshops for the above classes get underway, Bill Williams, VP for Health, Safety, and Environment at Maersk Inc., will discuss leadership and management systems of a slightly different variety when he delivers the 2009 Leadership Keynote (scheduled from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.). Current events and world news followers may well know that Maersk is a subsidiary of the Copenhagen, Denmark-based A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, the largest container ship and supply vessel operator in the world. And many in attendance will no doubt recall the dramatic tale from April of this year when the Maersk Alabama was hijacked by pirates and its captain was held hostage for four days. But few will know the details of the captain's rescue, nor how Maersk's crisis management system trains, communicates, and equips its employees to face such dangers and return to safety. Williams will expound on these and other details in his must-hear talk titled "Freed from the Pirates' Hands--Prepared for Crisis." Even for NSC, which has been holding these conventions for close to 100 years now, the leadership keynote will likely exceed expectations.