The next instalment of The SHE Show series of events will be The SHE Show South, 11th July 2023, DoubleTree by Hilton, MK Dons Stadium.

The SHE Show South marks the start of another amazing, dynamic line-up of speakers and presentations designed to inspire, motivate, and provide new and innovative thought patterns.

We are delighted to announce our Headline Sponsors for the show will be:

  • Willmott Dixon, a privately-owned contracting and interior fit-out group. Founded in 1852
  • Fortem, who provide specialist property solutions for the social housing sector. Tailored to keep homes running smoothly, they pride themselves on working with housing providers to ensure there is a safe and warm place for people to call home.

Our event partners will be:

  • Shirley Parsons Ltd, a Professional Talent Practice specialising in the Health, Safety, Environmental, and Quality profession
  • Inspirational Development Group (IDG), a specialist leadership development & coaching consultancy.
  • Anker & Marsh in association with Proud2bSafe, who’s passion is to help as many employees thrive as possible and to pro-actively maximise their human factor potential for themselves and for their organisations.
  • Delta-Simons, a multi-disciplinary environmental and health and safety consultancy providing trusted advice and solutions to ‘Protect People and Planet’ through facilitating sustainable development.
  • Combat Stress, for over a century Combat Stress has been helping former servicemen and women deal with issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression.

As Washingtondowling Associates Ltd, (owner’s and organisers of The SHE Show) are committed to reducing our carbon footprint, we will be working closely with our sustainability partner Delta-Simons, to identify how we can reduce our carbon footprint over the next 5 years.

The Delegate Goodie Bags will once again be sponsored by The Safety Knife Company. For nearly 30 years, The Safety Knife Company has been helping businesses to reduce workplace knife accidents.

Our Table Gift Sponsors will be Metal & Modular, Radiodetection, The Safety Knife Company and Tower Supplies.

Established in 2009 in the North West, The SHE (Safety, Health and Environment) Show conference and exhibition is a national event held at three locations across the UK:

  • The SHE Show South, 11th July 2023, DoubleTree by Hilton, MK Dons Stadium
  • The SHE Show North West, 21st November 2023, Old Trafford, The Home of Manchester United
  • The SHE Show North East, 19th March 2024, Hilton Newcastle Gateshead

The annual series of events offers a dynamic line-up of speakers designed to inspire, motivate and provide new and innovative thought patterns to over 200 delegates.

Initially targeting senior SHE professionals from cross sectoral industries – who form the vast majority of the audience. The forward thinking and out of the box nature of the event also attracts Senior Managers/Directors outside of the SHE arena.

Created with the ambition to change thought patterns and help make a difference to how people, feel, think and importantly behave to encourage safe working environments, emphasising the importance of creating a successful SHE culture within any organisation and encourages all departments to resonate with the view that Safety, Health and Environment should be seen as a value and not just a priority.

This year’s prestigious conference is all about people, behaviour and culture change and focuses on six key elements:

  • Overcoming Adversity and Resilience
  • Mental Health and Wellbeing
  • Behaviour and Culture Change
  • Climate Change and Sustainability
  • Inspirational Leadership
  • Legal Advice and Updates

Duncan Aspin, HSEQS Director, VolkerStevin will facilitate the event and will be joined by:

– Lisa Avery (After Dinner Key Note Speaker)
– Liz McConaghy (Overcoming Adversity & Resilience Key Note Speaker)
– Dr Tim Marsh & Jason Anker MBE (Mental Health & Wellbeing Key Note Speakers)
– Bob Cummins (Behaviour & Culture Change Key Note Speaker)
– Ed Gillespie (Climate Change and Sustainability Key Note Speaker)
– Major Scotty Mills (Inspirational Leadership Key Note Speaker)
– Dr Rona Mackenzie (Inspirational Leadership Key Note Speaker)
– Mark Scoggins (Legal Advice & Updates Key Note Speaker)

Our first speaker of the day, Liz McConaghy will cover our Overcoming Adversity and Resilience element.

Liz McConaghy was the longest serving female crewman on the Royal Air Force Chinook Fleet spanning a 17 year career flying on the aircraft. She was the youngest aircrew to deploy to Iraq aged just 21 and also the only female crewman on the Chinook wing for 4 years.

Her career saw her amass 2 deployments to Iraq and 10 deployments to Helmand, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Herrick. Liz spent the majority of this time crewing the flying ambulance or MERT as it was known, witnessing trauma on a daily basis. Liz left the RAF in 2019 following a neck injury that no longer allowed her to fly on her beloved Chinook.

During 2020, Liz’s PTSD finally caught up with her resulting in an attempt to take her own life. She survived and went into the PTSD mental health system to put her demons to bed and re find her purpose in life. She found huge release in writing poems about her time in Helmand and eventually turned her hand to writing an autobiography. Her book ‘Chinook Crew Chick’ was released in Sept 2022 and became a bestseller within three weeks.

There are many parallels that can be drawn across from Liz’s experiences into the corporate world, such as mission creep and normalizing extended working hours until burnout. Liz also wishes to highlight the internal pressures we put on ourselves when we are a ‘minority’ person within a group focused on a common goal- the ‘not wanting to be a burden’ element that can lead to huge mental stress.

From dodging bullets to saving soldiers and witnessing the brutality and loss of war, Liz talks of how she found herself bringing the battlefield home, despite her fighting days being over. Liz’s story offers hope to those who have also found themselves in the darkest of places, who are looking for the tools within themselves to begin to rebuild a pathway to a new life. She is now an ambassador for mental health and specifically PTSD within the Veteran community.

Liz stands as an example that PTSD does not have to be your identity, it can simply be a chapter of your life that can be learned from and most importantly moved on from.

Key take aways include:

  • The dangers of ‘personal mission creep’ and the cumulative effect that can subsequently have on your brain.
  • The importance of monitoring your own mental health and wellbeing and how to build resilience around that.
  • Top Tips going forward for looking after both you and those around you who are suffering with their mental health.

Next to the stage will be Dr Tim Marsh and Jason Anker MBE, covering our Mental Health and Wellbeing element.

Jason Anker was paralysed from the waist down due to an avoidable incident on a construction site in 1993 when he fell off a ladder. He was 24 years old. His story of his life before the incident, the day of the incident, the time spent in hospital and rehab, his initial release from hospital and his struggle with life over the last 30 years is an honest and sometimes graphic account of the devastation the incident has had on Jason and his family & friends.

For 30 years he was unable to talk openly about his experience of a work related major incident. This is reflected in a story that is very raw; the emotion in which he delivers his talk is as strong as if it was the day of the incident.

His unique story has a powerful impact and grabs the attention of those listening, from Directors, Managers, Supervisors and Operatives alike. He is willing to talk openly about all of his experiences, the physical and physiological effects of a major incident.

For many years Jason [Anker] has been told ‘that inspirational safety talk was great …’ but often then asked: ‘what next?’ We are delighted to say that Jason has joined with Tim Marsh and as well as inspirational talks his new company, Anker & Marsh, now provides a full series of training, assessment and consultancy services.

Tim’s first work as a qualified psychologist was looking at soldier suicide in the UK army. His recent work in mental health and wellbeing means that his career has come full circle 30 years later.

Following this he was one of the team leaders of the original UK research into behavioural safety (in construction) in the early 1990s He is considered a world authority on the subject of behavioural safety, safety leadership and organisational culture, was awarded a “President’s Commendation” in 2008 by the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management and was selected to be their first ever ‘Specialist Fellow’ in 2010. He was made visiting Professor at Plymouth University in 2015.

The talk covers a holistic, integrated but above all practical and user-friendly approach to line driven wellbeing and mental health risk management and how the same mind-sets and habits that deliver world class safety can and should be applied to Wellbeing and Mental Health.

Key take aways include:

  • How to spot those who are struggling and how to pro-actively prevent struggling
  • The role of swearing and laughing in mental health
  • Addressing the infamous law of ‘I’m fine thank you, how are you?” – engaging with employees who have decades of ingrained experience of not engaging

Our mid-morning session will start with Bob Cummins, covering our Behaviour and Culture Change element.

Bob helps companies create safer, more secure, healthier and more effective places of work.

“I am an engineer, I used to be a civil engineer, I’m now a behavioural engineer. I specialise in helping leaders create environments that bring out the best in their people through the application of behavioural science.  I run Sodak Limited, a behaviour design agency. My background is construction, in the later part of my career, I specialised in health and safety.

I become increasingly disheartened and frustrated with the way it was all heading. Piles of procedures and paperwork, increasingly patronising initiatives and the incessant preaching that “all harm was preventable”. I mean, come on, how can all harm be preventable when we still rely on people?

Safety just isn’t a priority; if it were, we would be given unlimited budget and time.

No, safety has to be a value. Some harm will befall some people during their lives. We need to recognise this and continually improve, not shut down conversations because we are too scared to admit someone, somewhere might get hurt.”

Bob’s presentation will look at that old adage, it’s not you, it’s me… but really, it’s probably both of us!

We hold people responsible for their health and safety. We might even discipline them, hoping that they will change under their own volition. But our behaviour is constantly being manipulated by the environment we are in, and one of the biggest manipulators of our behaviour is other people’s behaviours.

What I say and do, affects what you say and do and vice versa. In fact, what I say and do affects you more than it affects me…We are collectively responsible for the behaviours we as a group get. Collective responsibility is far more powerful than personal responsibility.

Key take aways include:

  • Behaviour never happens in isolation the context is always driving the behaviour.
  • Holding individuals responsible for their behaviour, without examining the causal elements from the environment will lead you to the wrong conclusion and ineffective plans for improvement.
  • Use collective responsibility to help create teams that look out for each other and self-improve.

Next to the stage will be Ed Gillespie to cover our Climate Change and Sustainability element.

Ed Gillespie is a writer, communications specialist, serial entrepreneur and futurist. He is the author of ‘Only Planet – a flight-free adventure around the world’ a book about his circumnavigation of the globe without getting on a plane.

Ed co-presents two leading podcasts, ‘The Great Humbling’ with Dougald Hine, and ‘Jon Richardson and the Futurenauts – Book of Revelations’ with comedian Jon Richardson and fellow reluctant futurist Mark Stevenson.

Ed is a lead facilitator with the Forward Institute where he works on responsible leadership with 40 of the UK’s biggest institutions, a Director of Greenpeace UK, a Trustee of Ecolibrium and Chief Futurist at the Global Destination Sustainability Movement.

Ed’s presentation will take us through the omnishambles/polycrisis of today with raw honest truth and humour, explain how we got into such a ‘hot mess’ and how we might best begin to wriggle our way out if it – together.

Key take aways include:

  • A broad understanding of the urgent interconnected challenges and mega-trends that are aligning to create today’s ‘polycrisis’ of climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality etc.
  • Key insights into the errors, mindsets and mistakes that have got us into this ‘hot mess’, often with good intentions.
  • Creative ideas, attitudes and approaches that might unlock the enormous transformative potential of change.

Our afternoon session begins with Major Scotty Mills covering our Inspirational Leadership element.

Scotty Mills has led a life that he could never have dreamt of. From the backstreets of South London, he went onto serve his country and lead Britain’s Commandos around the globe as a Commando ‘Green Beret’ Officer.

In 2003, operating alongside the US Navy Seals, he led a team of Marines into Iraq as ‘first on the ground’ theatre entry troops and has deployed on missions all around the world.

As Commanding Officer, he led a team of recovery specialists who were responsible for rebuilding the lives of hundreds of battle-scarred physically and mentally broken injured service people across all 4-Armed Forces.

A World Record breaker, he was selected as an Olympic Flag Bearer at the London 2012 Olympic Games. As Head of Performance for all 6500 Commandos, he has worked closely alongside multiple elite teams who went on to win gold medals at Olympic, World & European championships.

More recently, as an advisor to the FA, he inspired Gareth Southgate, Harry Kane and the England Football Team to develop their culture through innovative leadership and team cohesion training that saw them come together and perform when the pressure was on.

Known as “Gareth’s Secret Weapon”, a term coined by the renowned TV Presenter Lorraine Kelly, Scotty has built up a very strong reputation internationally for being able to inspire others to reach their full potential. In 2018 he was voted the most inspirational serviceman across the entire Armed Forces community receiving a National Award.

Scotty’s incredibly compelling journey is filled with exceptional stories of the power of human inspiration … how effective teamwork is more important than individual ability, how to really understand people and feel how they feel and so many more golden nuggets to help change hearts and minds!

Key take aways include:

  • Attitude trumps talent every single day.
  • Grow your 100% by raising the bar.
  • Live your life through strong values.

Our penultimate speaker of the day will be Dr Rona Mackenzie, once again covering Inspirational Leadership.

Rona spent the first twenty years of her career in education, working across seven schools in all facets of leadership and management. Whilst working full time, she completed a Masters and Doctorate, focusing on Leaders and Leadership, and conducted Ofsted inspections in the secondary sector – but please don’t hold that against her!

In 2013, she was appointed as the Founding Principal of Lincoln UTC, a 14-19 college specialising in Science and Engineering. She worked closely with industry partners and as a team they enabled students to develop personally, technically, and academically. LUTC graduates launched successful careers and were the kind of people you’d want as a colleague – that’s the gold standard!

Rona became frustrated with the education systems focus on exam results as the primary measure of success, so she hung up her headship boots in 2017 and returned to university. In her transition to industry, she completed an MBA and was headhunted to the role of Chief Operating Officer of a luxury jewellery company – amazing for a woman who didn’t wear jewellery herself. After three years she moved to a business development role in the cyber security sector and joined the Inspirational Development Group in 2021.

Rona is always seeking ways to support young people to be ready for the challenges of life. At IDG she champions the development of leadership capacity in young people and is working globally to change the face of compulsory education as we know it. She also works with ‘big kids’ and delivers leadership development programmes to an array of global corporate clients operating in the public, private and third sectors.

Rona’s presentation will cover, when people get a new leadership or management role, they are rarely ready for it. Why?

Because they haven’t had the opportunity, or support, to prepare appropriately. When we think about leadership and management, we focus on the wrong things, and we start too late. It’s time to start doing things differently around here. And it starts with you.

Key take aways include:

  • Leadership is one part of a dynamic trio. Do you know who the other two are?
  • We start developing the leadership trio too late; you’re never too young to begin.
  • Having a well-developed, balanced, and agile leadership trio is a superpower – especially now.

Our final speaker of the day will be Mark Scoggins, Solicitor Advocate, Fisher Scoggins Waters LLP covering our Legal Advice and Updates element.

Graduate of Cambridge University. Solicitor Advocate (formerly barrister), based in the City of London since 1983. Principal practice is the defence of organizations and individuals in the construction, chemical, transport, waste, water and emergency services sectors in regulatory claims: particularly those involving health and safety, environmental damage and catastrophic personal injury or death.

Represented Balfour Beatty’s civil engineering division in the Health & Safety Executive prosecution over the Heathrow Express tunnel collapse of 1994, and Thames Trains at the public inquiry into the October 1999 collision near Ladbroke Grove in which 31 people died; numerous health and safety, regulatory and environmental cases arising from a variety of operations including construction, pipelines, oil storage, highway maintenance, waste, firearms, fish farming, fire and explosion, flooding, pollution, drinking water supply, asbestos management, legionella, electrocution, confined spaces, intellectual property and EU public procurement.

In 2003 handled the successful Old Bailey defence of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens and his predecessor Lord Condon, in a five-week trial at the Old Bailey, on all ten charges brought against them by the HSE arising out of roof falls suffered by patrolling police officers.

Appointed by Balfour Beatty to advise on the October 2000 train derailment at Hatfield which claimed the lives of four passengers, in July 2005 during a six-month trial helped win the acquittal of its rail division on all corporate manslaughter charges it faced over the incident, and in July 2006 succeed in its appeal against sentence for admitted health and safety failings. Represented the Metropolitan Police Service in the health and safety prosecution brought to trial at the Old Bailey in October 2007 over the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell station in the aftermath of the failed London suicide bombings of 21 July 2005.

Mark’s presentation will cover After the Event – Investigation and Inquiry…

Accidents and incidents in the workplace give cause for concern, and rightly so. How best should employers go about investigating the causes and finding fixes to prevent recurrence without prejudicing their prospects of successful defence of a subsequent prosecution for breaching health and safety laws? Is there a duty in law to carry out an investigation? Who should lead it and can its findings be withheld from the HSE or other enforcing authority? What comments should be avoided and how are its conclusions best expressed? Mark Scoggins will give practical tips on how to set up an internal investigation into an untoward event and limit the damage it may cause if criminal charges loom or a compensation claim is in the pipeline.

Key take aways include:

  • Review and revisit your risk assessment
  • Record and document that review
  • Offer it willingly when asked to the HSE or other enforcing authority

The evening prior, The SHE Show Team have a brilliant night lined up. There’s the opportunity to network and meet with old and new friends. It kicks off with a Networking Drinks Reception followed by Networking Evening Dinner.

The after-dinner speaker presentation is also one not to be missed…

Lisa Avery, The Positive Psychologist

Lisa is a positive psychologist, coach and speaker, who uses the science of optimal human functioning in a vast array of settings. Her past projects have involved the design and/ or delivery of interventions to clients in Education, Government, the NHS, Charities, and the Corporate World. She holds a master’s degree in Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology and prides herself on captivating her audience through candid self-expression, exuberant passion, and buoyant energy. Her ultimate mission is to enlighten, enliven and empower humans to exponential levels of happiness, meaning and success. She does this by breaking down the research, catalysing conversations and helping individuals come up with creative ways to positive change.

Lisa will provide our dinner guests with a fun, light-hearted, however, meaningful talk which no doubt will help change thought patterns…

“To survive, we have a negativity bias to the brain. When we think something, it makes us feel something. To free ourselves from this negativity bias, we need to intercept the thought, emotion and behaviour cycle”

Her ultimate mission is to enlighten, enliven and empower people to exponential levels of happiness, meaning and success. She does this by breaking down the research, catalysing conversations and helping individuals come up with creative ways to positive change.

For more information, please contact [email protected] / 01257 450 060

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