IOSH Middle East Branch Conference and AGM

Our first IOSH Middle East Annual Conference was a huge success, attracting over 130 delegates from across the UAE and from further afield, including Nigeria, Canada and the UK. The event, held on 28 April at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Abu Dhabi Yas Island, was buzzing with enthusiasm, as delegates made the most of the knowledge sharing and networking opportunities on offer.

The conference was followed by the Middle East Branch AGM, where members cast their votes for the new branch committee and received key updates on recent developments at IOSH, branch activity, CPD and mentoring. The meeting closed with the committee election results – Peter Barnett-Schuster remained chair of the branch for another year and Dave Bass was elected the new vice-chair.

The conference and AGM closed with the signing of an important Memorandum of Understanding between IOSH and BuildSafe UAE. The memorandum recognises our shared commitment in creating a safer, healthier world of work, and marks an agreement to work closely together in the future.

The memorandum was signed by IOSH president John Holden and BuildSafe UAE chairman Grahame McCaig. Both organisations see the agreement as building an important, influential and constructive relationship which will have a positive influence in the region.

The day closed with a black-tie gala dinner, where John Holden presented the President’s Distinguished Service Award (PDSA) to Ahmed Al Menhali, who chaired the IOSH Middle East branch from 2007 to 2009. With 32 years’ experience in health and safety, Ahmed has worked on many industrial and governmental committees and task forces, including the Abu Dhabi Government Environmental Protection Committee, the taskforce for developing the UAE Environmental Strategy, the UAE Traffic Safety Strategy, and the UAE Occupational Health Strategy. It was felt that his contribution as chair of the Middle East branch, his tireless commitment to raising standards across the region and his hard work in getting IOSH known with regulators and stakeholders, made him the perfect candidate for the Middle East’s first PDSA.

Ahmed dedicated his award – presented on the evening of International Workers’ Memorial Day – to the people who have died at work. He told guests they should be proud of the work they do, putting basic systems in place, to help save lives, adding that we know our failures but we don’t know our successes.