First-time attendee, Mario Hidalgo, shares his experience at ASSP's SeminarFest 2017
Overall Experience
SeminarFest overall was a great experience! With this being my first time attending, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s a well-organized event and this reflects the hard work from the ASSP Staff.
There were several things that stood out to me and ultimately will be the reason why I’ll attend again next year. I was pleased with the number of courses offered at SeminarFest, which allowed me to pick and choose training that are relevant to my current position. I felt my instructor, Skipper Kendrick, was engaging as he guided us through the material and gave real world experiences. In addition, I found great value in networking with other likeminded safety professionals.
Industry Leaders
As the SeminarFest Ambassador, I had the opportunity to sit down with quite a few of the industry leaders present at the event, including President Tom Cecich, Skipper Kendrick, Bob Edwards, Jim Howe, and Dr. Tom Krause. I really enjoyed meeting them and discussing topics like Human Error, moving beyond Root Cause, Behavior Based Safety, implementing the ANSI Z10, and skills OSH professionals can attain to better interact with senior leadership. You can see all my thought leader interviews on the right side of the page.
Advanced Safety Management seminar
Skipper was a great instructor because he obviously has a wealth of knowledge and years of experience within the safety profession. He went into detail regarding our course material and facilitated dialogue amongst the class. The class attendees ranged from various backgrounds and it was interesting to learn how others are implementing safety within their own companies. I felt the class discussions were extremely valuable.
The course offers safety professionals the opportunity to learn a variety of topics about working with senior management. Several items which really stood out to me included: Human Performance Fundamentals, Individual Accidents vs Organization Accidents and Human Performance Tools. In fact, after returning home I presented this information to our company.
I learned that this course is part of ASSP’s Executive Program in Safety Management, and I plan on continuing to pursue the Certificate by taking the second seminar, Influential Leadership Skills.
Conclusion
I would absolutely recommend SeminarFest to other safety professionals. I certainly plan on attending next year as well. This conference allows attendees the opportunity to choose from a variety of courses and really dive into the material. The emphasis is more about learning and networking with other safety professionals. Our luncheon presentations were great and paralleled the material being covered within the Advanced Safety Management course. Overall, I had a great experience and hope to see you there next year!
