Used to be safety trade shows were a circus of magicians, carny barkers and buxom models in bikinis waving from swings. That’s before political correctness caught up with the booth business. Still, it seemed every booth handed out swag: pens, nerf balls, ball caps, key chains, lighters, pins, etc., etc. Attendees were loaded down with plastic bags full of goodies for the kids back home.
Sorry kids, but that was then, this is now. At the American Society of Safety Engineers’ Safety 2013 Professional Development Conference and Expo held in sweltering Las Vegas in late June, the future was on display, not models in high heels. And one got the sense the more you walked the aisles that technology was slamming into safety like a tsunami. So much for safety being a compliance-only commodity business. “Let’s spend as little on safety as we have to.” Good riddance to that idea.