Safety 2013 Opens Tuesday with Elvis and Keynote
Attendees were entertained with talk of change and a performance by The King.
Day two of ASSE 2013 kicked off in true Las Vegas form, with showgirls, a marching band and The King himself. As a surprise to the audience, an Elvis impersonator entertained attendees and opened the show with a musical act.
But Elvis wasn't the only entertainment for the morning for the 33 different countries represented at the conference.
The keynote speaker at this morning session was Peter Sheahan. As the founder and CEO of Change Labs, Sheahan has helped develop change strategies for some of the world's most well known brands, including Apple and IMB. He is a best selling author who has made appearances on CNBC and Fox News.
Sheahan discussed the importance of change in the workplace in his lecture "Creative Strategies for Tuning Challenge into Opportunity and Change into Competitive Advantage." He addressed the way industries can adapt to innovation and he first outlined the appropriate response to change: acknowledgment that the world is changing and it is time to do something different.
One example that Sheahan gave to the audience was a young social media expert that spoke to a round of national defense experts. The expert warned the audience that social media would change the face of national defense. However, he was not taken seriously. About four months later, the Arab Spring was mobilized through social media. The security company now has more people employed to analyze software than every before.
"If I track safety as a profession, over the last 40 years, there are few professionals on earth that have made such a positive impact and made as much progress as you have," Sheahan said.
"That very success could, in an almost invisible way, slow your progress down. Because, you know what works."
Once the vision for change is outlined, it is important to align everything in your organization with your vision for change. Sheahan encouraged attendees to be open to change and constantly looking outside the industry into the culture around us for innovation.