As a safety professional, you know that it pays to learn. Learn your colleagues, learn your workplace, learn your management, learn your industry.
But what about learning how to do your job better?
Safety conferences offer you the unique opportunity to directly learn from other safety professionals. Here are three key benefits of attending a safety conference that are too good to ignore.
Learning Something That Changes Lives
How many conferences have you attended where the participants actually want to learn something?
At a safety conference, everyone shows up with writing materials, ready to listen and learn. That’s because safety conferences come with the expectation of learning something valuable enough to save lives.
Unlike safety meetings, where you cover reports and internal processes, safety conferences are designed to teach. They don’t cover cold, impartial numbers – they cover materials designed to make your safety program better and protect employees for the long haul.
Stay Ahead of Regulatory Trends
Of course, there’s something to be said for addressing trends. Especially when those trends have a direct impact on how you’re expected to implement safety. And that means that one useful element of safety conferences for many professionals is the discussion of regulatory trends.
As a safety professional, you know that regulatory compliance is your bread and butter. You’re always striving to do more, but compliance sets the bar. The thing is, regulations are changing all the time, which means that you have to keep your ear to the ground to prepare your program to adapt.
Safety conferences are a boon to professionals because it allows you to learn about potential changes from leaders of the industry.
In some cases, any time federal leadership changes, there are likely to be regulatory changes that follow. So if you’re looking for an annual safety conference, pay extra attention to conferences featuring leaders in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Besides learning what regulations are being discussed on high, listening to federal and state leadership gives you critical insights into how these regulatory organizations operate, which gives you a better-rounded understanding of how regulatory changes come about.
Learning from and Networking With Your Peers
Finally, if you’re at an organization that relies on a wide range of partners (hint: most businesses do) it pays to strike up relationships with other safety professionals across the state and across the country.
State and federal leadership can offer insights into changes, but your peers give you insight into how others run their workplaces in real-time. You never know when you may be able to solve a longstanding issue by consultation with someone at a networking event.
Here’s the thing: everyone attends conferences to start networking. If you show up willing to talk to new people, you’ll meet others eager to do the same.
Learning Outside of a Safety Conference
Why would you let the learning opportunities end with a safety conference? After all, safety is about 24/7 awareness, and there’s always room to be better than yesterday.
If you’re looking to keep learning and improving your team, make sure to check out our blog for more great tips.
