Salem, OR — A two-day event in Bend will offer employers and workers a variety of opportunities to learn new skills to improve on-the-job safety and health, network with workplace safety and health professionals, and share best practices.
Topics at the Central Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Conference include providing fall protection, identifying hazards and investigating accidents, implementing safety and health in various welding and cutting tasks, addressing the risks of bloodborne pathogens, and properly recording an injury or illness.
In addition to all of those topics and more, the conference – to be held Sept. 19-20 at the Riverhouse on the Deschutes – offers sessions that focus on safety and health challenges in fire and emergency services.
On Monday, Sept. 19, the conference will feature a keynote address by a nationally recognized speaker. Marie Knight of Knight Leadership Solutions will present “Life and Leadership Lessons from the Popcorn Bucket,” which will draw on well-known lines from the big and small screens to reveal life and leadership lessons for success.
“In a nutshell, if you are not leading your life, something or someone else is,” Knight said. “We have to take control and be intentional about how we lead our lives, and, in the words of Doc to Marty in ‘Back to the Future III,’ ‘Your future hasn’t been written yet. No one’s has. Your future is whatever you make it. So, make it a good one.’”
Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Division (Oregon OSHA), part of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, encourages employers, managers, and workers to attend the conference in Bend. The event is a joint effort of Oregon OSHA and the Central Oregon Safety & Health Association.
The Oregon Fire Chiefs Association Safety and Health Section helped create the conference’s fire service track. The track’s topics include reducing the negative impacts of stress, improving the psychological resilience of employees, and addressing natural gas emergencies.
The American Society of Safety Professionals Broken Top Chapter provided support in creating the worker safety and health topics for safety professionals.
Other conference topics include:
- Tips for more effective safety training
- Lockout/tagout and machine safeguarding
- Improving your safety culture through safety and health management
- Confined spaces. Do you have them? If so, now what?
- Safety committee: Time to level up!
- Respiratory protection program management and requirements
Registration for the two-day event is $210. Monday-only attendance is $90. Tuesday-only attendance is $120. For more information or to register, go to
safetyseries.cventevents.com/central22.