Heather Beach, director, UBM OSH
I am proud to work for the health and safety sector, which has such a great record in the UK. A sector which is vilified because of management teams that use health and safety as an excuse for not doing things they don’t want to do, and because of the civil litigation culture – 30%+ of corporate claims are for slips, trips and falls.
Yes it IS a profession in change – when I first got involved, 20 plus years ago working for SilverPlatter (who some might remember were the first to put H&S legislation onto CD-Rom!) it was a highly technical profession. These days the soft skills are essential as safety is about leadership, culture, CSR, sustainability and influencing – about competence rather than compliance. Could safety even become sexy?! Well we can all dream….
Celebrating UK Safety
Safety and Health Expo is changing alongside the profession.
This year, for the first time ever, the IOSH 2014 – Welcome conference (which previously had its own exhibition) is sitting alongside the flagship, 30 year old event, Safety and Health Expo. IOSH conference has an International Risk Management stream – reflecting the fact that 27% of our users (survey: Dec 2013) have responsibilities for overseas offices and factories and the growing international focus of the event.
Safety and Health Expo has moved from Birmingham’s NEC to London’s ExCeL — which became such a great focal point during the Olympics. ExCeL is one of the few venues to offer enough space for the IOSH conference and Safety and Health Expo and allows the event to grow not just from a UK perspective but also internationally. The UK deserves a global flagship event!
Exhibitors
The team did very well for the last 5 years to keep SHE flat in terms of exhibitor and visitor numbers. As the previously large PPE suppliers and distributors bought each other up and recognised that the UK is a mature market, they moved their focus to overseas development, spent big time on Dusseldorf’s A+A exhibition and pulled out of SHE.
The show desperately needed a shot in the arm and the move to London, collocating with the IOSH conference, and a little lift from Liftex (;)), have done that with almost 300 exhibitors booked — up 25% on last year! Some of the previously big global players are back too — most notably BM Polyco (but watch this space for more announcements soon!) and the show this year boasts 60 international exhibitors for example Regatta.
Visitors
Safety and Heath Expo scores highly with visitors in terms of meeting their objectives, and registration is already very strong for 2014 (50% up on last year so far!), but to the question of “what would make this a must-go to every year” we were asked for three things:-
Of all of these, the third is the easiest achieved. With strong links to associations, clients wanting to demonstrate their thought leadership and two information services (SHP and Barbour), providing strong content is in our DNA. We have five theatres providing high level content this year – SHP Legal and Cultural Arena, BOHS Occ Hygiene Theatre, The Business Driver Safety Arena, Liftex and Lone Workers. This together with the IOSH conference, CoreSkills + sessions and the Barbour Director’s Club, the visitor’s desire for seminar content is being assuaged…
Innovation. We have been working with BSIF to extend their awards to Europe — to provide a greater range of entries and they will be providing Product pods on their stand to celebrate the shortlist for their Product Innovation Awards. SHP under the egis of Nick Warburton is supporting this, by running product features in the lead up to SHE. We are also very happy to welcome Liftex to the show – this is a deal with the Lifting Equipment Association wherein we host their show inside SHE and they will demonstrate innovations in the Lifting and Handling arena within their theatre.
The WOW factor. In the old days, when the show was 90% PPE manufacturers and distributors, exhibitors took very large stands and had large demo areas, the show had more WOW than it does today. However, this year, our very own David Bishop has managed to attract back some of the old key accounts (exciting news on returners to be announced veryu soon!) all of whom are eager to do something different and fun with their stand. The Working at Height arena will present an enormous scaffolding demonstration with plenty to watch. And then there is the Catwalk…. well we aren’t calling it a cat walk because apparently we don’t want it to be all jazz hands and pointy boots!
Health and Safety Live! is building on a concept which was addressed 5 or so years ago in SHE by offering a loud and fun feature demonstrating workwear and other PPE. Janie Fox, our new portfolio manager, knows how to do this very well… formerly at the workwear show (and a bunch of lingerie shows….), Catwalks and glamour are mother’s milk to her and we look forward to her adding that to SHE in 2014!
International Vs UK
This is no question, SHE is the UK’s leading show by some country mile. Can it ever compete with A + A in Dusseldorf on the international stage? (No one can say I lack ambition!). I’m not sure, but we differentiate. And by being THE international event for Education, Innovation, Networking and Thought Leadership we can be very different from the hall of product with zero visitor experience (not even any seating — my poor feet!) provided there.
About me
Heather Beach, former exhibitor for 20 years (SilverPlatter and Barbour), now as Director for UBM’s OSH Global portfolio, with the honour of being responsible for Safety and Health Expo, IOSH conference 2014, Safety and Health Practitioner, and Barbour. I am passionate about this industry and look forward to your feedback — good and bad!
