Health & Safety North attracts record crowd

This year, the event moved to Manchester for the first time. Having previously taken place at Bolton Arena, Health & Safety North was hosted at Manchester’s EventCity to accommodate growing demand from visitors and exhibitors.

The new venue proved a resounding success, hosting more than 200 exhibitor stands and offering visitors the most extensive speaker programme to date, with 36 hours of seminars running in two event theatres throughout the two days. All the seminars were accredited by the CPD Certification Service, which meant that participants were able to add value to their visit by earning points towards their continuing professional development programmes. For the first time, visitors were also able to visit the co-located Fire Safety North exhibition, which offered seminars and guidance on best practice on how to achieve and maintain the highest standards of fire safety.

“Health & Safety North continues to go from strength to strength,” said Tim Else, event director at Western Business Exhibitions, which organises the event. “This year we put together our most ambitious ever programme of seminars, which took place in the largest venue we have ever had for this event. Professionals with an interest in health and safety came from all over the north of England and beyond to engage in discussions about the latest trends, regulatory developments, technologies and initiatives. The ongoing support of our partners, including the British Safety Council, British Safety Industry Federation, British Occupational Hygiene Society, National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health and many others, has been crucial to this success and we thank them sincerely for their fantastic input.”

Highlights at this year’s event included a session analysing this year’s results of the Britain’s Healthiest Workplace initiative. Health-related lost productivity is costing the UK economy an estimated £73billion, which, the study claims, would reduce significantly with adequate investment in health and wellbeing. The seminar saw Sean Subel, programme director of the initiative, discuss the results and explore how employers can take the findings on board to develop and benchmark their own performance.

Legal issues were also in focus over the two days, and visitors flocked to hear from Rhian Greaves, a legal director specialising in safety, health and environment at international law firm Clyde & Co., as she discussed the recent changes to health and safety sentencing guidelines. The company has extensively analysed the trends since the new legislation came in place and Greaves shared some of the key findings with the audience, exploring the financial significance of the fines received in relation to the annual turnover of a company, and sharing advice on how employers can manage investigations and optimise the mitigating factors to improve the outcome.

Louise Ward, policy standards and communications director at The British Safety Council, educational partner for the main conference theatre, said: "Health and Safety North was a great event again this year, and we love the new venue at Event City. The seminar sessions were all really well attended. The speakers were great, covering a range of topical issues and there was lots of lots of interaction with the delegates. Feedback has been really positive and we’re looking forward to building a great seminar programme for next year."

Exhibitors also praised the joint event for bringing customers together from across the industries.

"Health & Safety North was brilliant," said Colin Gilbert, director at Defib Machines. "The show greatly exceeded our expectations and provided us a fantastic opportunity to access key buyers from across a huge range of sectors. We look forward to exhibiting again next year."

Craig Halford, managing director at Jactone, added: “As a first-time exhibitor at Fire Safety North, our reflections are that the exhibition attracted a wide spectrum of relevant visitors. This show was well organised and we will be happy to support future events.”

Ross Evans, product specialist at Fike, summed up the event: “We had a fantastic time at Fire Safety North 2017. The visitor quality was excellent and we generated lots of leads for our entire product range. The organisation from Western Business Exhibitions was second-to-none and the team really looked after us. We are looking forward to the next Fire Safety event.”

Health & Safety Event, which takes place in Birmingham’s NEC on 10 to 12 April 2018, is the next Western Business Exhibition event. For more information and to register in advance, visit www.healthandsafetyevents.co.uk