IPAF Summit 2022 speakers announced

The speakers for this year’s Summit of the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF), at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel, Kensington, London, on 10 March 2022, have been confirmed, with presentations on the theme of “The Evolution of Safety”.

The IPAF Summit 2022 will mark a return to in-person global events for IPAF and event partners KHL – and will be the first time the event has been held in the UK since 2017. In the evening of the summit, will be a gala dinner to celebrate the category winners in the International Awards for Powered Access (IAPAs). The Summit and IAPAs will both be hosted by Mark Durden-Smith, a TV presenter best known for work covering top-level English rugby. In the morning of the IPAF Summit, will be the IPAF AGM, during which the IPAF Annual Report will be published and new IPAF Presidential Team and Board members confirmed. The event is now almost fully booked.

The theme of the Summit – The Evolution of Safety – will consider how, in the ten years since IPAF started its accident reporting project – our industry has witnessed advances in technology, training and regulation to provide a safer working environment for operators. The project has been central to many changes within the industry including influencing training programmes, guiding standards, and informing good practice guidance. However, accidents still happen. What is the future for safety within our industry and will we ever get to a time when there are no deaths while using powered access? IPAF Summit speakers are as follows:

• Welcome and introduction from Peter Douglas, IPAF CEO & MD, and Norty Turner outgoing IPAF President.
• Mark Keily, SHEQ Director at Sunbelt Rentals and Chair of the IPAF International Safety Committee, and Brian Parker, IPAF Head of Safety & Technical, present on the IPAF accident reporting project.     
• Madeleine Abas, Senior Partner at Osborn Abas Hunt, presents a case study of an accident.           
• Remi Heidelberger, Group Product Marketing Manager at Haulotte Group, and Jonathan Dawson, Managing Director of Power Towers, will discuss safety improvements in the industry.
• Dr Shaun Lundy, Director of Strategy and Innovation at Tetra Consulting, will present on safety and behaviour in “A changing workforce and what it means for safety”.
• Jim Waldron, Product Safety Manager of Skyjack UK and Chair of the IPAF Manufacturer’s Technical Committee, will cover the globalisation of industry safety standards.
• Oana Samoila, Key Accounts Sales Manager of AlmaCrawler, will present “Safety and Storytelling”.
• Paul Roddis, IPAF Training Manager, will cover developments in training.
• Martin Hall, Health & Environment Director at Morgan Sindall-Safety, will give a talk entitled “Safety: A contractor’s view.”
• Pedro Torres, CEO of Riwal; Andy Studdert, ex IPAF President and CEO; Paul Rankin, COO, Loxam PAD & Managing Director, Nationwide Platforms; and Will Temple, Head of Powered Access, Sunbelt Rentals, will participate in a panel discussion about how rental companies can improve safety for customers, chaired by Murray Pollok, KHL.
• Dinolift’s Karin Nars, newly confirmed President of IPAF, will give final comments and close the conference.

Peter Douglas, CEO & MD of IPAF, says: “Last year the IPAF Summit was held as a digital event, owing to the ongoing restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic; it was a successful format, but it is great to get back to in-person events and for the Summit & IAPAs to be back in the UK for the first time in five years.

“Along with event partners KHL, we’ve worked hard to put together what we feel is a strong line-up of speakers, and we think this event – along with the evening event to toast the IAPAs winners – will be a memorable occasion. We really hope you are able to make it and urge you to book now if you want to join us in London in March.”

Murray Pollok, Events Director at KHL, adds: “The confirmed line-up of IPAF Summit speakers is fascinating; it will be good to see everyone back in the room together for what promise to be quality presentations around the theme of the evolution of safety. It was a strong set of submissions to the IAPAs categories, with a record number of entries received this year, so we hope you’re able to join us to enjoy the IPAF Summit and to celebrate all the IAPAs winners, as well as for some long-overdue networking!”

● The IPAF Summit & IAPAs on 10 March, pre-event networking at the Science Museum on 9 March, and the Niftylift production plant site visit on 11 March are now almost completely booked up; please register without delay via www.iapa-summit.info