Event report

Health, Safety and the Environment:
Covering the Global HSE Bases
11-12 February 2009, Minute Maid Park, Houston, USA

Over 140 delegates gathered at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas, USA, home of the Houston Astros baseball team, on 11-12 March 2009 for the seventh IMCA safety seminar, on the theme Health, safety and the environment: Covering the global HSE bases.

The two-day programme featured the usual mix of presentations on a variety of safety-related topics, including safety in harsh environments, electronic permit-to-work systems, corporate social responsibility and the complexities of dealing with multinational crews.

On both days there were round-table discussions covering safety in the client/contractor relationships, what makes a toolbox talk, occupational health offshore and changing behaviours towards an injury-free workplace.

The event was considered by delegates to have been a successful further step on their ongoing global journey towards an incident- and injury-free workplace. The participation and enthusiasm shown by delegates was outstanding and feedback will be taken forward to make the 2010 event better still.

A CD bringing together the full set of presentations and reports on the discussions has been circulated to delegates and other members, with additional copies available on request.

Programme

• Presentations:
  • Introduction and welcome
  • Keynote address
  • Clients and contractors working together for safety
  • Safety in a harsh environment
  • How to hit an HSE home run - global challenges faced by HSE safety professionals
  • NORM/LSA - deck/diving operations and disposal requirements
  • Taut wire weights - are we learning the lessons?
  • Toolbox talks - what constitutes a toolbox talk and how to get the most out of them
  • Social responsibility
  • Medical travel issues and travel medicine update
  • Learning from incidents
  • Incident investigation - the process, methodologies and tools
  • Incident & Injury Free?
  • Hear all, see all ... tell all! Providing feedback on serious incidents to international crews
  • Rodeo safety
  • Update on IMCA SEL activities and way forward
• Small group discussion sessions:
  • Client/contractor relationship - working together for safety
  • Toolbox talks - what constitutes a toolbox talk and how to get the most out of them
  • Occupational health onboard vessels
  • How to change people's behaviour so that activities are injury and incident free