Podcast: Learn how to develop and sustain a safety culture at your plant with advice from the experts

Aug. 6, 2024

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, the EHS Today team shares a sneak peek of this year’s Safety Leadership Conference.

Dave Blanchard

Dave Blanchard, editor in chief of EHS Today, recently spoke with managing editor Nicole Stempak and senior editor Adrienne Selko about the 13th annual Safety Leadership Conference, which will be held August 26-28 in Denver, Colorado, at the Gaylord Rockies Resort. The show is focused entirely on helping good safety professionals become great ones with the goal of keeping their workers safe and safer. This year’s event, “Safety First, Leadership Always: Bridging the Gap,” will feature an impressive roster of speakers and solution providers who are knowledgeable and experienced in providing safety leadership within their companies and their organizations.

Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

One of the biggest highlights people enjoy is the opportunity to hear best practices directly from the companies who won America's Safest Companies. This year's class of 2024 includes Arcadis U.S., AtkinsRéalis US Nuclear, Brieser Construction, Burns & McDonnell, The Clorox Co., D. C. Taylor Co., United Engineers and Constructors, and Victaulic. Also at the conference, you're going to hear from Kirk Dighton from the D.C. Taylor Company, who will be speaking on chasing the TRIR. Some of his key takeaways are learning how to identify leadership traits that enhance incident prevention atmosphere on the work site and learning about the transformational and servant leadership styles that will enhance buy-in of the safety culture.

There will also be a lively panel discussion from three of the winners, and that panel will include Kevin Colwell from Brieser Construction Company, Guy Mills from the Clorox Company, and Nicole Seabaugh from Atkins Realis. Their presentation is titled “How to Create and Sustain a World-Class Safety Culture.” They will talk about how they are able to involve their employees in the EHS process and the innovative technologies they use to train, motivate, and protect their workforce.

We are very lucky to have past winners who will be speaking. Some of those include Lance Murray from Mark Young Construction, and he will be speaking on how to be a better safety leader. David Thurwanger from Yaskawa will be talking on demystifying safety, and David Stauffer from SBM will talk about keys to a safety culture. And at the conference, you'll have a chance to meet these safety leaders and ask any questions you might have.

About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.

Listen to another episode and subscribe on your favorite podcast app

About the Author

Dave Blanchard

During his career, Dave Blanchard has led the editorial management of many of Endeavor Business Media's best-known brands, including IndustryWeek, EHS Today, Material Handling & Logistics, Logistics Today, Supply Chain Technology News, and Business Finance. In addition, he serves as senior content director of the annual Safety Leadership Conference. With over 30 years of B2B media experience, Dave literally wrote the book on supply chain management, Supply Chain Management Best Practices (John Wiley & Sons, 2021), which has been translated into several languages and is currently in its third edition. He is a frequent speaker and moderator at major trade shows and conferences, and has won numerous awards for writing and editing. He is a voting member of the jury of the Logistics Hall of Fame, and is a graduate of Northern Illinois University.