The Keil Centre Client Conference 2023
March 6, 2024
Director Richard Scaife reflects on a successful client conference.
Those readers who know The Keil Centre well will know that every two years we run a conference with a particular focus on behavioural safety. We ask our clients working on this topic if they have some new practices, tools or lessons they would like to share with others working on the same challenges, and we facilitate bringing these organisations together for a bit of “show and tell”.
As 2023 was our 40th anniversary year, we decided to go one better. We identified a number of topics being worked on by multiple clients and brought them together to share their experience. Our speakers travelled from all over the UK and from as far afield as USA, Europe, and Australia.
Topics discussed included :
- human factors strategy,
- safety critical task analysis,
- behavioural safety,
- safety culture,
- psychological wellbeing and
- human factors training.
I’m happy to report that with the support of all those willing to give up their time to come and speak, our fantastic support team and dedicated consultants, we were able to deliver a very useful and enjoyable event. The conference also left our clients with a lot of food for thought, and valuable, like-minded contacts from other companies that they will stay in touch with for years to come.
A mention of our Speakers:
Allan Dillien from National Grid (energy sector) – who talked about the multi-year journey to integrate human factors considerations across their health and safety approach.
Emily Kitson from BAE Systems (defence sector) who discussed human factors in the defence industry, including improving reports & incident investigation and HF training.
Charlotte McClelland from A. G. Barr (food and drink sector) talked about how they have developed a more mature safety culture,
Joanne Sorley from Anglo American (mining sector) who talked about their suite of safety leadership tools.
Innis Scott and Graham Pascoe from The Weir Group (mining sector) discussed embedding a zero harm approach across their operations.
Chris Goeloe from Anderson Development (chemical production & R&D sectors) talked about implementing their behavioural safety framework.
Hans Vanhorebeek from Aperam (steel sector) talked of their developing work integrating wellbeing initiatives into their H&S management.
In addition, we heard from our Keil Centre consultants Nicole Gray, Ken Gray, James Hayton, Chiara Amati and Richard Scaife giving updates on some of our most popular topics, including Psychological Safety, Just & Fair Culture and Safety Communication tools.
Here are some of the kind words from those who attended highlighting what they enjoyed the most:
“I think it was the atmosphere; relaxed, amiable, helpful… everyone was there to both learn and, where possible, help others learn too by sharing experiences…. Having 5 people on each table was a good way to get a good amount of opinion and discussion….. Overall, it was just a relaxed, informative and thought-provoking conference. I look forward to the next one!”
“The ability to network. I plan to follow up with people after the conference.”
“The content I believe struck the correct balance between giving enough information to the delegates without it being too technical in nature, and the opportunity to ask questions following a 5 min discussion was also something that I will take away to use in my own presentations.”
What’s Next?
We are already starting to plan for our 2025 Conference, matching delegate content requests to companies we know who are working on these topics. You can expect to hear about topics such as:
- Wellbeing culture
- Psychological health
- Environmental factors
- Ergonomics and the workplace
- Best practice in investigations and investigator skills.
A Final Thank you
Finally, this is my chance to thank again everyone who made the event a success.
From The Keil Centre, Susan Robertson who did an amazing job doing all of the hard work organising every little detail with the hotel, the speakers and the delegates. Also, all of our consultants who attended and spoke at the event.
From our clients, the speakers – Allan Dillien (National Grid), Emily Kitson (BAE Systems), Charlotte McClelland (A. G. Barr), Joanne Sorley (Anglo American Steelmaking Coal), Innis Scott and Graham Pascoe (The Weir Group), Chris Goeloe (Anderson Development), and Hans Vanhorebeek (Aperam).
And a special thanks to our guest speaker Louise Adamson (Michael’s Story) for sharing her brother’s story so powerfully that it made us all think about what we can do to prevent harm to people at work and the ripple-effect that this has on the lives of others beyond work.
If you are interested in attending the next conference, the best way is to subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here. If you would like to be a speaker, or if there are specific topics you would be interested in seeing represented, please contact Richard Scaife (richard@keilcentre.co.uk).