With the aim of using technology to solve some longstanding health & safety problems, Arco has launched the Arco Innovation Award. Thirty-six start-up companies have shortlisted and will present their innovations to a carefully selected panel of judges. SHP recently spoke to Arco Marketing Director Adam Young, himself a judge on the panel, to find out how the competition will work.
Adam explained that the judges will narrow the finalists down to a shortlist of five who and those companies will be invited to a demonstration day. They will be asked to do a Dragons Den style pitch, a demonstration and then they will be quizzed on what they are bringing to the market.
The first batch of Arco Innovation Award finalists, in the Software & AI solutions and Augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and virtual reality (VR) categories, has been announced.
“The judging panel is made up of myself, Arco’s Director of QSHE UK and Asia, Neil Hewitt, Errol Taylor the Chief Executive of RoSPA, Jane Byford the Safety, Health and Environment Manager at BAE Systems, Jordon Vincent, Design Executive Shueco, SHP safety technology expert John Kersey and SHP Editor, Ian Hart. The final panel member will be the readers on SHP, who will also have a vote on the overall winner,” said clarified.
“We’ve selected the panel members because they all have a passion for technology. John Kersey, for instance, writes on safety technology in the trade media. We have others who are working on pilots with new technology product solutions within their own businesses. But the main thing is they have a level of expertise and can be an effective judge and be excited about the potential of technology.”
Watch the full interview with Adam here.
Adam Young, Marketing Director, Arco
Adam originally qualified as a Chemical Engineer at the University of Bath and then retrained as a marketer with an MA in Marketing from the Bristol Business School at the University of the West of England.
On leaving university Adam joined Carlsberg UK where he spent fourteen years in various marketing and sales roles. Adam moved to Arco in 2008 to take up a newly created role as National Accounts Director and from there transferred to head up the marketing team in late 2011. In 2016 Adam joined Arco’s Digital Transformation team to lead a number of Digital Experience work-streams before returning to the marketing team in 2018.
Neil Hewitt, Director of Quality, Safety, Health and Environment UK & Asia, Arco
Neil joined Arco in 2013 as Director – Quality (Technical Standards) and Health and Safety. He graduated with a post graduate diploma in Total Quality Management from Northumbria University. He is a member of the Chartered Quality Institute and has been awarded Chartered Quality Professional status. With over 30 years’ experience in quality and regulatory matters in a variety of industries, his passion for the subject started early in his career while working and studying the implementation of total quality techniques in the UK and Japan.
In his current role at Arco, Neil has been responsible for the development of the company’s Product Assurance Department and the implementation of an industry leading UKAS accredited PPE testing facility as well as our Health, Safety and Wellbeing strategy. Neil is also responsible for the Supply Chain Team based in Arco’s Xiamen office in China. Neil is recognised as an industry expert and sits on numerous PPE standards committees.
Errol Taylor, Chief Executive, RoSPA
Errol is the Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). RoSPA was established in 1917 as a road safety organisation and over the years, the charity’s remit has grown to include workplace, leisure and home safety.
Errol joined RoSPA in 2004, initially to head up its commercial activities. Prior to RoSPA, he enjoyed senior customer-facing roles within the services, engineering and retail sectors. A fellow of both the Institute of Directors (IoD) and the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), he is qualified as a Chartered Director with an MBA, an engineering degree and he is proud to be a gold grade RoSPA advanced driver.
A keen advocate of partnership working, Errol is the non-executive Chairman of EuroSafe and a member of the advisory Board to the Office for Product Safety and Standards. He has also supported the work of the Chief Fire Officer’s Association (now the National Fire Chiefs’ Council) and the National Water Safety Forum.
Jane Byford, Safety, Health and Environment Manager, Technology and the Built Environment, BAE Systems
Jane has been a Safety, Health and Environment professional for 15 years, working within the aerospace manufacturing environment. During this time, she has worked in a number of diverse areas including aircraft assembly operations, overseas working, control of major accident hazards and emergency planning. A key part of her current role in the Facilities Management team is to focus on plant and equipment installation and construction projects and she has therefore gained a significant amount of technical knowledge for equipment safety systems.
Jane has also completed an MSc on Safety and Risk Management with Heriot Watt. Her dissertation looked at robot/human collaborative working environments. At the end of the dissertation Jane felt that her journey had just begun and that her research had surfaced a significant amount of questions about relevant industry 4.0 and collaborative technologies in the workplace.
Jane is now working with Cranfield University to progress this understanding through several research projects and her own PhD.
John Kersey, Technology Expert and SHP Advisory Board member
Having started his career in the construction sector, John has held a number of senior roles in leading UK businesses, including project management, facilities management and health and safety. Currently he works with a global facilities management company.
John firmly believes that safety tech – Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) as connected safety, offers an exciting and inspiring means of making a significant improvement to workplace health and safety.
John has presented at the Safety and Health Expo (2018 & 2019) and at IOSH. A member of several IoT/AI industry groups, including the IBM PowerAI group he has also contributed both to a Barbour webinar and a Cisco Macro podcast on safety tech. He is a regular contributor to Safety and Health Practitioner (SHP) and is a member of its advisory board.
Read more from John Kersey here.
Jordan Vincent, Innovation Manager Schueco, UK
Jordan is a qualified mechanical engineer and joined Schuco as an apprentice Technical Engineer five years ago. Since then he has progressed to Innovation Manager for Schueco UK on behalf of Schueco International KG.
Jordan has also been appointed Facade Design Engineer alongside this role. This provides him with the opportunity to keep abreast of the company’s core goals and simultaneously spend time looking at the latest and greatest tech. His main goal is to evaluate the technology available and find the best business model, while making sure it is user centric.
Ian Hart, Editor, SHP
Ian joined Informa (formerly UBM) in 2018 as the Editor of Safety & Health Practitioner. Ian studied journalism at university before spending seven years in online fantasy gaming.
Prior to moving to UBM, Ian worked in business to business trade print media, in the automotive sector. He was Online Editor and then moved on to be the Editor of two publications aimed at independent automotive technicians and parts distributors.
The SHP readers
The final spot on the panel will be made up of you, the SHP readers. Over the coming weeks, SHP will be profiling each of the finalists and allowing you a vote on which you think would be most beneficial to your business and, to safety in general. Once counted up, the favourite will be selected as the SHP readers vote, when the judges meet to crown the final five and, ultimately, the winner.
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