Southern (California) Charm

One of OSHA's top concerns this year, the safety of temporary workers, is the focus of the Sept. 16 Occupational Keynote.

• By Jerry Laws
• Aug 01, 2014

The 2014 NSC Congress & Expo is just a month away. This year's event is expected to feature more than 14,000 attendees and 700-plus exhibitors' booths filling several of the waterfront San Diego Convention Center's halls during the Sept. 15-17 expo. The conference website is www.congress.nsc.org.

Everything about this year's Congress is big and attractive--the exhibit halls, the educational program, the host city, the networking opportunities, and even the keynote presentations this time around. Popular presenters E. Scott Geller, Ph.D., and Charlie Morecraft are teaming up again to deliver the Motivational Keynote, "The Human Side of Injury Prevention," starting at 8 a.m. Sept. 16. One of OSHA's chief concerns this year, the safety of temporary workers, is the focus of the Sept. 16 Occupational Keynote, beginning at 12:15 p.m. The invited speakers for that one are OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels, NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard, and two leaders of search firm Yoh Services LLC–Chairman William Yoh and President Lori Schultz. Dale Lesinski, QSSP, vice president of DiVal Safety Equipment, is scheduled to present the Sept. 17 keynote, "Safe 4 the Right Reasons," starting at 8 a.m.

Educational Highlights
Professional development seminars ranging in length from one day to four days are set for Sept. 13-14 and Sept. 17-19 on topics that include fundamentals of industrial hygiene, ergonomics, safe electrical work practices, fleet safety, and behavior-based safety.

The Sept. 15-17 educational program features more than 100 technical sessions and workshops organized in a dozen tracks. These cover practically every safety topic under the sun–from hearing protector fit testing to young worker fatality case studies, sudden cardiac arrest response, combustible dust, incentives, construction safety, best practices for employer cellphone policies, disciplinary programs, fall protection, electrical safety, drug testing, GHS/HazCom, OSHA’s proposed silica standard, hearing conservation, training, and many more.

A few other educational offerings will be offered in the expo: a Sept. 16 10 a.m. presentation of OSHA's 10 most-cited violations for fiscal year 2014, immediately followed by a Solutions from ISEA Experts presentation about avoiding those very violations; and a new product showcase along the main thoroughfare aisle of the exhibits.

Expo Hours
Monday, Sept. 15: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 16: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 17: 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

San Diego & Convention Center Highlights
A new attraction opened May 24 at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park: the Tull Family Tiger Trail, a 5.2-acre habitat for the park's six Sumatran tigers (for those blessed with patience in abundance, the tigers occasionally make an appearance on the trail's tiger cam, http://sdzsafaripark.org/tigertrail/tigercam.html).

Truth be told, this city has something for everyone, from water parks and beaches to Balboa Park’s museums and other attractions—it ranks as San Diego's 13th best activity on TripAdvisor--cruises and sailing, Coronado and the historic Hotel del Coronado, thoroughbred racing, the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Gaslamp Quarter's restaurants and shopping, and the spectacular beauty of La Jolla and Torrey Pines.

The San Diego Convention Center has won numerous recycling and waste reduction awards, and the San Diego Convention Center Corporation predicted last December that its economic impact this year would reach $1.4 billion. The center is about to undergo a $520 million expansion that will add 225,000 square feet of exhibit space, 101,000 square feet of meeting rooms, an 80,000-square-foot ballroom, and a five-acre rooftop park.

Future NSC Congress & Expo Dates
The annual conference returns to Atlanta next year and will take place Sept. 26-Oct. 2 (Sept. 28-30 expo). It moves to Anaheim in 2016 (Oct. 15-21, expo Oct. 17-19) and to Indianapolis in 2017 (Sept. 23-29, expo Sept. 25-27).

This article originally appeared in the August 2014 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.