Throwing chocolates to delegates, audience participation, push-ups, book giveaways, hand-eye coordination exercises – not the usual elements of the opening keynote speaker of a safety conference. Day 2 of the Safety Institute of Australia’s recent conference had a more traditional opening with presentations from a State workplace safety regulator and Australia’s occupational health and safety (OHS) agency. If entertainment is your thing, jump for the chocolates, but if information is why you attend conferences, Day 2 was the better one.
The first speaker was Clare Amies, Chief Executive of WorkSafe Victoria. Many conference speakers begin with a definition or background. Amies started with some performance statistics. The Victoria inspectorate visits around 45,000 workplaces each year. This sounds a lot but unless this is contextualised to the number of workplaces in Victoria, it is only an indication of activity rather than effectiveness.