2022 NSC Congress Expo Kicks Off in San Diego
NSC's Congress & Expo kicked off with a keynote from NASA astronaut Mike Massimino.
- By Sydny Shepard
- Sep 20, 2022
Are you ready for it? The National Safety Council’s 2022 Congress & Expo has officially kicked off following an Opening Session at the convention center in San Diego, Calif. on Monday, September 19.
The three-day conference offers safety and health professionals the opportunity to connect with other pros in their field to network, learn and educate. The overall theme of this year’s event? Resiliency.
Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover from difficulties, and is a term known all too well by OSH professionals. In the years following the emergence of a global pandemic, fast changing federal rules and regulations, inflation, labor shortages and supply chain issues, I’d say it’s a word that the professionals sitting in the San Diego Convention Center Ballroom on Monday morning wear as a badge of honor at this point.
The sentiment was echoed by NSC President and CEO, Lorraine Martin, in the Opening Session.
“Look around this room, you are the leading safety and health professionals in the country. I’m honored to be in your presence,” Martin said. “Each of you as safety and health professionals rose up to lead and serve in the most uncertain times. Despite all the challenges, you continue to be resilient and adapt.”
The Keynote presentation “Being Resilient and Adaptable in Times of Change and Uncertainty” depicted real-world scenarios experienced by NASA Astronaut and and NY Times Bestselling Author Mike Massimino. The keynote fit the theme of resiliency perfectly and added an additional element: adaptability.
Massimino, who is known as the astronaut who made one of the most intricate repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope that space has ever seen, has a deep understanding of success and life-threatening incidents where adaptability is not only needed, it’s required.
His relationship with “adaptability” started before Massimino even became an astronaut. In fact, Massimino tried not once, not twice but four times to get accepted into the astronaut program. On his third try, he became disqualified from the interview due to a failed eye exam.
“Once you are disqualified for health reasons, that’s it. You’re done,” Massimino said. “But I wasn’t ready to accept that.”
Massimino sought out an ophthalmologist to begin vision training in an effort to better his eyesight. It worked.
After being declined from entry three times, Massimino joined the 1996 NASA astronaut program.
It’s a situation that safety professionals are no stranger to. There is no “forgetting it,” or option to not move forward when you are talking about occupational safety and health. You must try, try again to ensure the safety of all.
For those who cannot be in San Diego for the Congress & Expo, OH&S invites you to follow our live coverage of the event on our social media platforms and at ohsonline.com/live.
About the Author
Sydny Shepard is the former editor of Occupational Health & Safety.