EAU CLAIRE — At Chippewa Valley Technical College, many people including safety managers, HR professionals and more were all focused on “safety and health” at Safety Day.
As an annual conference for the technical college, Claire Lindstrom, Business Development and Continuing Education Specialist at CVTC, said the event has been going on for at least five years, but potentially more.
“We have area professionals who have safety as part of their role…” she said. “The day is all about learning and getting up to date on skills and changes that might be happening in the safety world. We always have OSHA doing an update on any OSHA standards or things that have changed. It is a day for learning and networking with others in the field.”
The event also serves as an opportunity to highlight some of their safety instructors at the college. Through many discussions throughout the day, presenters and industry professionals talk about topics covering stress, learning how to minimize workplace incidents, mentoring, OSHA standards, hearing loss prevention and more.
For this year’s event, 100 attendees coming from a range of places throughout the 11 counties where CVTC branches are located gathered in the Energy Education Center in Eau Claire on Friday, Oct. 4.
Lindstrom said their hope is to also stay up to date with industries and business on a range of topics. One new discussion session this year targeted artificial intelligence, or AI, and technology’s role in environmental, health and safety fields. In that regard, the discussion is not necessarily how AI or technology poses a risk to safety and health but is more focused on the utility that these industries and businesses, which deal with safety and health, can utilize it.
Cory White, who spoke at Safety Day on behalf of Small Business EHS, said AI in modern technology plays a huge factor in industry because of its potential for usage in an administrative capacity.
“There are programs, policies, training — there are a ton of things that have to happen behind the scenes before you actually present that information to the employees,” he said. “If we can use AI and technology to automate that piece, we can focus on the important pieces about actually getting face to face with our employees versus having to sit in front of a computer. I like to say that we are automating the administrative ‘mumbo jumbo’ so we can do that 25% of work that is really going to save someone’s life, protect the environment, protect the community, continue to make the parts or provide the services we need to do to make the community what it should be.”
While there are certain things to be careful of with this technology, White said he likes to look at the good ones. In his presentation, he highlighted a number of programs which have proved to be beneficial and aided him as a consultant.
“There is so much we can do right now with it, and people don’t know — especially in the safety world,” he said.
While safety is the major focus of the convention, Lindstrom also said it connects safety experts and professionals across the industry to create a network for others and themselves. It helps their college serve the community in that regard, alongside highlighting the importance of safety throughout the day.
“It is just a great way to connect with our local community, help bring other resources into the college, provide information to our local community and it’s a way to continue to spread the word about the importance of safety and giving people those resources…” said Lindstrom. “I really hope that they take away some good tips, tricks and skills and maybe something new they can bring back to their workplace.”
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