'Safety on the edge' conference

'Safety on the edge' is a two-day conference which is designed for safety leaders and managers. Being held in three cities: 27-28 June in Melbourne, followed by 3-4 July in Perth and 8-9 July in Brisbane, the conference features thought-provoking presentations and individual workshops, including discussion on understanding human error, managing risks - risks vs safety, leadership and safety culture.

The first day of the conference will 'look into the future' of safety and risk management with presentations from leading local and international specialists. A selection of individual concurrent workshops will be available on the second day where the current approaches and technologies in safety and risk management will be reviewed and discussed to challenge their current limitations.

Speakers include: Professor Sidney Dekker who currently leads the Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University in Australia; Professor John Adams, Emeritus Professor of Geography at University College London who is an Honorary Member of the Institute of Risk Management; Dr Todd Conklin a Senior Advisor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US, and a specialist in the field of human safety management systems,organisational development and human reliability; Dr Rob Robson who is a specialist emergency physician and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences of the University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine the Principal Advisor to Healthcare System Safety and Accountability (HSSA) in Canada; and Corrie Pitzer the founder and CEO of SAFEmap, and an international safety consultant.

Key insights that can be gained from this conference include:

• That the same things that make an organisation successful can make it drift into failure.
• That 'safety' does not come from control but from diversity and creativity.
• The characteristics of safety-critical organisations as typical complex adaptive systems (CAS).
• The distinction between managing safety and risk, perceptual biases and the risk thermostat.
• The ‘new view’ of safety and leadership and transitions to the new.
• The key concepts in ‘deep safety’ leadership for the high-risk workplace.
• Getting over the traps and pitfalls of 'near-zero delusions'.

Organised by SAFEmap international, the first of the Australian conferences is being held from 27-28 June at the Hilton on the Park, Melbourne. Visit the website for further details on how to register for the conference.