Exhibition stand commended

18 November 2011

IOSH was commended for its innovation at an awards ceremony in London this week.

The Institution was part of a four-strong line-up, shortlisted for the Party Conference Innovation Award, as part of the Public Affairs News Awards 2011 on Wednesday (16 November).

IOSH’s stand at the Conservative Party Conference in October was the creative idea that sparked the nomination. Based around the popular television quiz show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ the stand played on the theme ‘Who wants to save a million?’ – promoting the key messages of the IOSH Li£e Savings campaign.

Caroline Patel, head of campaigns at IOSH, said: “For some audiences, health and safety can be a hard sell. That’s why we designed a studio-style quiz for our Conservative Party Conference stand.

“First and foremost, we wanted to highlight the huge financial bill resulting from health and safety failures. The UK spends up to £22 billion a year on looking after people in surgeries and hospitals, paying benefits to those no longer fit enough to work, and making up for the loss of sales of products and services. We wanted to bring this message to politicians, but in an engaging way.”

The stand was a huge success and attracted over two hundred visitors including senior figures such as Chris Grayling MP, Eric Pickles MP and Dominic Grieve MP – who all battled it out on IOSH’s interactive 'Save a Million quiz'.

Caroline added: “We were delighted our stand was shortlisted for a Public Affairs News award, but at the end of the day, the main thing is that the stand did the trick, and got a tough audience listening to what we had to say.”

Andrew Baldwin, IOSH public affairs adviser who attended the Public Affairs award ceremony said: “While IOSH did not scoop the award it was a great opportunity for us to be nominated.

 “IOSH was the only conference stand in the final four – out of a total of 22 that were nominated. That speaks volumes about the skills of our in-house design team in ensuring health and safety remains on the political agenda.

“Winning or losing did not matter – we convinced many Conservative MPs, Councillors and party activists that health and safety is not to be scoffed at, and that is worth a thousand awards.”