Safety Summit Coming to Central Oregon in January 2023, Offering Training Opportunities to Strengthen Protections for Workers In The Construction Industry

Salem,OR (WorkersCompensation.com) — A two-day training conference in central Oregon will put a spotlight on the safety and health of workers in residential, commercial, and industrial construction. The Jan. 30-31 Mid-Oregon Construction Safety Summit will address a variety of topics, including fall protection, silica dust hazards, electrical safety, and emerging safety technologies. 

Attendees will have access to a range of training sessions, including the OSHA 10-hour training for construction, work zone safety and flagging, fire protection, and first aid. Certifications and recertifications will be available. Also, the conference will offer opportunities to earn continuing education credits through Oregon’s Construction Contractors Board and Landscape Contractors Board.

Oregon Occupational Safety and Health (Oregon OSHA), a division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, encourages employers and workers to attend the 20th annual Mid-Oregon Construction Safety Summit at the Riverhouse on the Deschutes Conference Center in Bend. Oregon OSHA is one of several partners presenting the summit. Those partners include the nonprofit Central Oregon Safety and Health Association. 

The event’s keynote presentation, “Influencing Safety,” will be delivered by Garrison Wynn, CSP, bestselling author and consultant, who has been featured in Forbes and Inc. magazines and spoken at safety events on five continents. Wynn is known for blending comic timing and deep-dive research to engage and energize a variety of audiences. For 27 years, he has given keynote presentations to such clients as Amazon, Caterpillar, Kiewit, Turner, Berkshire Hathaway, Bank of America, the National Football League, and NASA.

At the safety event in Bend, Wynn’s keynote presentation will address how to develop personal influence to make positive changes happen and how to build trust and relationships that make safety a consistent reality.

“The worst leadership or influence strategy is wishing people were like you,” Wynn said. “Based on age and experience, people can view safety and their role in it very differently. We have to deal with people for who they are, not who we wish they were.”

Wynn said it’s important for him to deliver his messages at the conference in Bend because such conferences “are where I feel people are more open to change.” He added, “It’s not news that almost one-quarter of all work-related fatalities involve construction. My experience is that Oregon leaders know – as the research shows – that workers who feel valuable are more likely to follow procedures and look out for each other.” 

The Mid-Oregon Construction Safety Summit’s other sessions include:

Registration for the event’s pre-conference workshops (Monday, Jan. 30) is $60. Conference registration (Tuesday, Jan. 31) is $90. Registration for the OSHA 10-hour training for construction is $140 for both days. The cost of attending the Firestop workshop (Monday, Jan. 30) – an overview of passive fire protection construction in commercial buildings – is $30. To register, go to safetyseries.cventevents.com/summit23.

For more information, contact the Oregon OSHA Conference Section, 503-947-7411 or oregon.conferences@dcbs.oregon.gov. More information about the safety summit in Bend, including a save-the-date flyer, is available online. For information about other upcoming safety conferences, visit Oregon OSHA’s online conferences page.