A walk through the Safety 2016 expo floor on Sunday afternoon revealed a stronger emphasis than ever on safety data collection and analysis. The age of "going mobile" has come to professional safety. The idea is to make safety inspections, audits, job safety analyses and job observations faster, smarter, and easier to do.

A number of vendors at this year's Safety 2016 expo, which opened Sunday afternoon, are promoting risk management and risk assessment tools.

Here at the Safety 2016 annual meeting of the American Society of Safety Engineers in hot Atlanta, safety pros are expressing concern over OSHA's new electronic recordkeeping rule.

The keynote speaker at Monday's opening general session at 7:30 a.m. is Frans Johansson, author of “The Medici Effect,” whose presentation is called “The Click Moment: Seizing Opportunity in an Unpredictable World.”

A Monday morning session will explore hazards associated with hydrocarbon vapors and gases in the upstream onshore oil & gas industry identifying common tasks with potential for exposure. The focus will be on control measures, safe work practices, air monitoring procedures and PPE requirements. The session will reference NIOSH studies and blog posts.

This year will be the twelfth annual Executive Summit. The Summit, which takes place on Wednesday, brings the perspective of industry and corporate leaders to occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals. Understanding this perspective significantly benefits OSH professionals and improves their effectiveness in directing safety and health programs in their organizations.

A key issues roundtable discussion Monday afternoon will address how to manage OSH risk and business polarities when there are competing priorities. Too often high visibility incidents cause organizations to switch into “fire-fighting” mode rather than executing their strategy.

Of course you’re going to hear this at an EHS conference like the AIHce. But like many professions, the EHS ranks have not recovered completely from the sometimes draconian cuts suffered during the Great Recession of 2007-2008.

One session at the AIHce focused on the increasingly popular topic of fatigue management. It’s a product of the 24/7 economy. It’s estimated today 40-60 percent of workers in North America find themselves in non-traditional shiftwork, and the traditional 9 to 5 worker is now in the minority.

Monday’s keynote speaker was Adam Steltzner, lead landing engineer of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Project. In a Q&A following his talks, Steltzner made these points about leadership and teamwork: