The annual Southern Oregon Occupational Safety & Health Conference, held October 15-16, 2014, recorded the second largest attendance ever in its 24-year history, reflecting a much-improved economy in the region. Three hundred sixty six attendees, not counting exhibitors and sponsors, were treated to a variety of excellent and timely educational sessions.

Keynote speaker Anil Mathur, President and CEO of Alaska Tanker Company (ATC), Portland, set an optimistic mood for the conference. He described how ATC was able to transform a mediocre safety performance in 1999 to become the safest oil tanker company in the world: 12 years and 14 million man-hours with only one time-loss injury, a dislocated finger. His presentation outlined how ATC achieved this transformation and what they are doing to sustain safety performance by avoiding complacency that could occur in the face of such excellent performance.

Much thanks to the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division (Oregon OSHA) and the Southern Oregon Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) for their joint effort in sponsoring this amazing conference.