Safety and Health Expo 2014: bringing safety to life

An overview of SHE 2014 from Lindsey Bredin, PR manager for the exhibition. The show is put on in association with SHP.

With Safety & Health Expo’s move to London from Birmingham’s NEC this year, UBM Live really wanted to change the way safety and health was presented at the exhibition.

Not only was the show co-located with the IOSH conference for the first time, but it was the first year that visitors could come to Safety & Health Expo and walk over to our other shows – FIREX, IFSEC, Facilities Show, Energy & Environment Expo and Service Management Expo, a recognition that a safety professional’s remit is becoming much broader.

A great example of this was the BBC’s health and safety lead, Fiona Ambrose, who was filmed at FIREX and talked about the challenges the broadcaster faces implementing health and safety improvements internationally:

After last year’s exhibition at the NEC, some exhibitor feedback suggested that we needed to do more to present health and safety in an interesting way. What could we do to really inspire people to be safer at work?

Interestingly, most of our exhibitors have told us that our efforts to ‘make saving lives more lively’ was one of the major achievements at this year’s event. For instance, Geoff Thorndon from Bunzl Greenham told me about meeting “a whole new customer set” that visited from the other shows.

Over the three days, over 15,000 people attended the Safety & Health Expo. Many of these were visitors from the other co-located shows. Visitor feedback indicated that many hadn’t appreciated the importance of good health and safety and what it brought to their business. As organisers, we were determined to demonstrate the benefits of good health and safety in a lively and interesting way.

One example of this was the Fall Arrest and Rescue Demonstration Zone. Alan White from IKAR who ran the zone told me that many visitors do not appreciate the importance of health and safety in the workplace. However, when they saw the demo zone, they “realised that they are working at height too” and this changed their perceptions.

Another thing that we did very differently was Safety & Health Live:

This was a highly entertaining showcase for PPE, which was brought to life with professional dancers. Not only did it bring some much needed glamour and youth to the exhibition floor, it was also a “good and innovative way to get over a serious message,” said Gareth Smith from Draeger Safety.

Alongside this, we had gold balloons to symbolise innovation, twitter campaigns and the launch of health and safety week. What would you like to see at next year’s show to liven up the exhibition?

Lindsey Bredin is PR manager at UBM Live