On Tuesday, October 26, and Wednesday, October 27, Appalachian State University's Safety Summit welcomed over 60 in-person guests and over 50 virtual guests. The Seventh Annual Summit, spearheaded and organized by our own Dr. Tim Ludwig as it was over the past seven years, marked a return to the High Country for many stimulating discussions and networking opportunities.
Distinguished industry members, advocates, and pioneers gathered in the Plemmons Student Union to discuss the research and current state of workplace safety, and where safety can go in the future. Our esteemed presenters spoke on many vital issues affecting the world of safety. From correcting misunderstandings and misinformation to building, measuring, and maintaining a safety culture, our speakers walked attendees through a number of hidden phenomena shaping the environments modern employees work in. Our own Dr. Tim Ludwig and Dr. Shawn Bergman presented on the negative neurological effects of poor working environments and techniques to critically evaluate information, respectively.
Among the ranks of the grizzled industry professionals stood several of our own IOHRM students. Members of the HR Science's Safety Team, three of our students presented an analytics report on how potential risk reporting predicts realized risk using data from one of the Safety Team's corporate contracts, while a fourth student presented with corporate stakeholders on the development and implications of a new leading indicator safety measurement system. When participants were asked to share the most interesting or impressive thing they had learned over the course of the conference, one responded that it was the caliber of AppState's graduate students that impressed them most.
To say the Safety Summit was a success would be an understatement, not only for the experiences and opportunities afforded our students but for the safety industry as a whole. In addition, the Summit will continue to support the IOHRM program financially. Over the past seven years, the conference provided over $40,000 to the IOHRM program. We would like to thank Dr. Tim Ludwig for spearheading this prestigious event.
Safety Summit
Safety Summit