KANBrief 3/13
"All congress delegates should return home with new ideas for practical approaches and effective measures," says Dr Walter Eichendorf, President of the XX World Congress on Safety and Health at Work 2014: Global Forum for Prevention. The congress, organized by the DGUV, ILO and ISSA, will be held from 24 to 27 August 2014 in Frankfurt. It is to be interactive and communicative, and will make use of new event formats for this purpose.
The DGUV's congress team has been planning the content and design of the event for two years. The congress, to be held on the site of the Frankfurt trade fair and to which around 4,000 delegates are expected, promises to be lively and constructive. Besides its factual aspects, emotions and experiences are also crucial to the congress. If the visitors' enthusiasm can be harnessed, they will more readily be willing to take up and implement new ideas. The organizers have had both aspects in mind during their preparations.
In order for the aims of the congress not to remain merely a vision, the delegates will have the opportunity on four days not only to share their knowledge and experience, but also to develop ideas and strategies together. Interactive and varied event formats actively involve the delegates, demanding and rewarding their participation. The framework of the congress is formed by three main subjects that take up topical developments:
• Prevention Culture – Prevention Strategies – Vision Zero
• Challenges in Occupational Health
• Diversity in the World of Work
The Forum for Prevention is a new concept. It resembles a busy marketplace on which topics are presented to a changing audience and discussed in small groups.
Touching allowed! Agora invites you to get involved
KAN is actively involved in preparing and hosting the World Congress. An accompanying exhibition is to be held in the outdoor area of the trade fair complex, Agora, and will address the subject of safe forestry work. KAN has been able to enlist the responsible sub-committee of the DGUV, the German Social Accident Insurance Institution for the public sector in Hesse, the Social insurance for agriculture, forestry and horticulture (SVLFG), the German Center for Forest Work and Technology (KWF) and Hessen Forst to present examples of safe forestry work. The interactive exhibition format includes harvesting wood with a harvester, felling trees, and the ergonomic stress upon employees during the delimbing of trees with power saws. Visitors will have the opportunity to try out correct accessing of and alighting from mobile machines, sitting on a seat with vibration damping, and testing slip resistance on a ramp with a range of different floors and shoes.
On the subject of road safety, visitors will for example be able to experience parking with the aid of an automatic parking assistant, test the protective action of seat belts in goods vehicles, and experience a roll-over simulator. A fitness programme, co-ordination training and health tests round off the exhibition accompanying the congress.
A richly varied programme
The growing number of OSH videos available on the internet shows that video clips have established a firm place for themselves in the communication of knowledge. Congress delegates can therefore look forward to the International Media Festival for Prevention, at which the latest productions from all over the world will be shown. An international jury will choose the winner of the 2014 media prize, which will be awarded during the World Congress.
Immediately following the World Congress, technical tours will offer delegates an opportunity to experience good-practice examples of prevention first-hand in a number of companies: ergonomics at office workplaces, special requirements for workplaces in theatres, organization of airport procedures, safety and health in the automotive industry, occupational safety and health in the construction sector, in a logistics company and in a waste management company, and accident prevention in the handling of hazardous substances. At a visit to the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the DGUV, delegates will gain an impression of the IFA's range of research activities.
The 2014 "Arbeitsschutz aktuell trade fair" will also take place parallel to the World Congress.
Interested? More information on the World Congress is available. You can also register online for the event and subscribe to a newsletter.
Rita Schlüter