Working at Height Conference and Awards highlights safety for access and rental professionals

Grab your harness and attach your lanyard - a brand-new access equipment and rental business event from ALH and IPAF is set for this November – and it’s one you won’t want to miss.

The Working at Height Conference and Awards will land in Nashville on November 19-20, kicking off with a networking reception on the evening of Nov. 19, followed by a day-long conference and awards event Nov. 20.

Co-organized by Access, Lift & Handlers (ALH) magazine and the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF), the Working at Height Conference & Awards combines the ALH Conference & Awards with IPAF’s Innovate Workshop, creating a world-class conference followed by an evening awards dinner celebrating the industry’s best.

From economic and market updates to how technology is helping safeguard the industry, this year’s Working at Height Conference will address best business practices, technology and more that will help to create safe and productive working environments. The first round of speakers include:

John W. McClelland, Ph.D. – “Rental industry market update and forecast”

John McClelland has been with the American Rental Association (ARA) for more than 21 years. He is responsible for developing and implementing all ARA national and state political, legislative and regulatory

John McClelland, vice president of government affairs and chief economist, American Rental Association

strategies and programs, including the management of the ARAPAC, the association’s political action committee. McClelland also works with ARA-member state and local associations on issues that are important to

the rental industry within those states.

McClelland, who has presented at previous ALH Conferences, will provide the most-recent market forecast and economic update for the North American equipment rental industry.

Scott Owyen – “How technology is changing the way MEWP training is delivered”

Scott Owyen, director of training, Genie

Scott Owyen is the director of training for Genie. His career at Genie spans nearly four decades, where he has worked in manufacturing, product management, sales, and, for the last 15 years, training.

Scott is responsible for overseeing the development of Genie Lift Pro operator training and Train-the-Trainer courses, to which he applied adult learning theories to make the material engaging and interactive. Since launching Genie’s online training courses, Scott and his team have been directly responsible for training more than 120,000 people around the world.

Always one looking for ways to make the industry safer, several years ago Scott embarked on a project to develop a quality virtual reality training tool. Launched earlier this year, Genie VR training complements classroom and hands-on training and gives operators the chance to learn how to avoid real-world MEWP operational hazards from the safety of a virtual world.

“Technology is expanding our ability to learn and make meaningful connections that can keep operators safer on the jobsite,” he said. “Imagine the ability to make a mistake and learn from mistakes that can cause a MEWP accident, without getting hurt.

“Virtual reality makes this possible. In the past, operators could learn from online and classroom training, but their first opportunity to actually operate a lift required them to get into a lift,” he continued. “Today, VR makes it possible to get realistic-feeling experience, and learn to avoid real-world hazards that can cause jobsite accidents, from the safety of a virtual world.

“And, because our brains don’t recognize the difference between virtual and real worlds, it makes this an incredibly emotional and impressionable way to learn.”

TJ Lyons, CRIS, OHST, CSP – “MEWP incident prevention through machine design”

TJ Lyons is a recognized expert in prevention through design, he is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP)

and Occupational Hygiene and Safety Technician (OHST), accredited by the BCSP, and a Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist (CRIS), certified by IRMI.

TJ Lyons, owner and founder, Lyonetics Consulting

TJ spent most of his safety career with two of the largest construction firms in the US, spending several years working on defense project overseas. He recently retired from the construction industry and continues to push for a safer workplace. TJ is proud to have founded the successful “Ladders Last” efforts here in the U.S. to rid the workplace of those archaic devices.

A focused discussion on the philosophy of Prevention through Design (PtD) and examples of how firms are increasing efficiency and production while removing risk from the work. Prepare for blunt discussion on safety barriers in our industry and why just complying with OSHA is a recipe for failure.

TJ will discuss how to reduce the need to work at heights while increasing the quality and speed of installations. He will speak directly about the efficiency of MEWP’s and the safety consequences those platforms can provide - lessons he has learned from the field. TJ will share a copy of his list of best practices you can take back to your firm; while providing “Well that’s a cool idea!” moments during the presentation you will appreciate. What you learn in this course will save lives.

Bart Krzysztofek – “Selecting the right PFPE”

Bart Krzysztofek, product safety training supervisor, Skyjack

Bart Krzysztofek is the product safety training supervisor at Skyjack, where he has spent the last 10 years. Bart came into the MEWP industry with a diverse background in the automotive manufacturing and supply chain sectors working in several management roles in quality assurance, materials management and operations. His training experience comes from more than a decade spent as a skydiving instructor, teaching both in-class theory and in-air practical skills for the Canadian Sport Parachute Association.

At Skyjack, Bart started out in manufacturing and worked on several new product launch teams before migrating into product safety training. For the last eight years, he has been training equipment operators and updating and developing Skyjack’s training programs. Bart is a member of the ANSI A92.22 and A92.24 sub-committees, the SAIA MEWP Council and IPAF’s North American Regional Council.

Shashank Bhatia – Presentation title TBD

A previous speaker at the ALH Conference, Shashank Bhatia joined Oshkosh Corp. in 2005 and has held various roles in engineering with increasing responsibility at JLG and Commercial Segments. Today, he is

Shashank Bhatia, vice president – global product development – access, JLG Industries Inc.

responsible for global product development for JLG aerial work platforms and telehandlers. This includes developing products and technologies to protect the core business along with expanding into adjacent verticals and into digitally connected products and solutions.

Tony Groat – “Exiting at height – how to be compliant”

Tony Groat, North American regional manager, IPAF

Tony Groat has been in the construction equipment industry for more than four decades, including 30+ years in the equipment rental industry and 15+ years promoting safety with IPAF. He is a recognized industry expert, directly involved in the development of MEWP industry standards with ANSI/SAIA A92 and CSA B354 and is a technical expert for the U.S. on ISO TC214 standards. Groat also develops and delivers presentations and writes industry articles to raise awareness and promote the safe and effective use of powered access equipment.

Further topics are as follows, with speakers to be announced soon:

• Keynote address from one the world’s largest equipment rental companies
• Panel: Cultivating a safety culture
• Panel: Technology’s role in working at height
• MEWP accident statistics: How does the U.S. measure up?