WOS2019 Conference on "The Future of Safety in a Digitalised World" Organized by AUVA in Vienna

VIENNA, Sept. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "10th International Conference on the Prevention of Accidents at Work" will take place in Vienna, Austria, from 23 to 26 September 2019. It is organised by the Austrian Workers' Compensation Board (AUVA).

To give international journalists an insight view of "the Future of Safety in a Digitalised World", we would like to invite you to join our international press conference on the Internet on 23 September 2019 at 14:00 (UTC/GMT +2) under the following link: www.auva.at/wos2019-press.

The following experts will be present at the press conference (in alphabetical order):

• Walter Eichendorf – member of the international organising committee, former vice Director General of German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV), President of DVR – German Road Safety Council (Deutscher Verkehrssicherheitsrat) , Germany
• Ehi Iden,– Keynote speaker, Occupational Health and Safety Managers (OHSM), Nigeria
• Kirsten Jørgensen – member of the international organising committee, associate professor at Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
• Kathy Seabrook – Keynote speaker, Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems, Technical Committee TC 283/ISO 45001, USA

Welcome and moderation:

• Georg Effenberger – scientific president of WOS2019, head of AUVA prevention department, Austria

If you cannot make it to join the press conference via live stream, a video file of the event will be provided at www.auva.at/wos2019-press

Background information

Safety and Security in a Digitalised World

The "Future of Safety in a Digitalised World" – this is the title of the "10th International Conference on the Prevention of Accidents at Work", which takes place in Vienna from 23 to 26 September 2019.

The conference of the network WOS.net, which is hold in English, is organised already for the tenth time. This year, Vienna is the host city. The AUVA takes over the scientific and organisational lead.

Workingonsafety.net (WOS.net) is an international network of decision-makers, researchers and persons responsible for the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases in companies and institutions. The aim is to promote an exchange of ideas and experiences to disseminate new findings in the field of prevention. WOS.net is supported by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).

This year's 10th Conference of WOS.net is dedicated to the general theme "the Future of Safety in a Digitalised World", picking up one of the great future trends – digitalisation, often referred to as Industry 4.0 – and its consequences for occupational safety. The six main themes include digitalisation, risk assessment, safety management systems, Vision Zero, knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) and education and training, with a focus on the European Erasmus Programme RiskMan, in which AUVA takes part as well.

For each of these six main topics, the programme committee consisting of national and international experts headed by DI Georg Effenberger (Head of the prevention department of the AUVA) and Ing. Mag. Christian Schenk (Head of vocational training in the field of prevention at the AUVA main office) were able to secure well-known international experts as keynote speakers: Phoebe Moore from the University of Leicester (UK) and Tuomo Alasoini from the Finnish Institute of Occuppational Health (SF) will speak about digitisation. Erik Hollnagel, University of Jönköping (DK), and Manfred Müller, Flight Safety Research Lufthansa (D), who has already cast a spell over the participants at the Forum Prevention of AUVA, will address the topic of risk assessment. Kathy A. Seabrook, Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems, Technical Committee TC 283/ISO 45001 (USA), puts ISO 45001 at the centre of her keynote on Safety Management Systems.

These two keynote speakers will show different perspectives of Vision Zero: Ehi Iden, Occupational Health and Safety Managers (OHSM), who comes from Nigeria, and Joachim Breuer from Germany, representing the International Social Security Association (ISSA) based in Switzerland. Johnny Dyreborg, National Research Center, Denmark and Tim Tregenza, from EU-OSHA, based in Bilbao, Spain, will focus in their keynote on knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE).

The sixth major theme, "education and training", will be initiated by keynote speaker Darren Sutton, European Centre for Executive Development (CEDEP), Switzerland.

In addition to the keynote plenary sessions, the WOS2019 consists of a series of parallel technical sessions, workshops and a "Master Class". The detailed programme and all information about this event can be found at www.wos2019.net

About AUVA

AUVA (Allgemeine Unfallversicherungsanstalt – the Austrian Workers' Compensation Board) is the social insurance for occupational risks for more than 3.5 million employees and about 1.5 million pupils and students. It is financed mainly by contributions paid by employers. Its legal duties are: prevention of occupational accidents and diseases, occupational medical care, first aid for occupational accidents, post traumatic treatment, rehabilitation, financial compensation and research.

AUVA cares for about 170 000 victims of occupational accidents and diseases annually. About 350 000 persons involved in accidents of all kinds are treated in AUVA-owned trauma centres and rehabilitation centres every year. About 73 000 compensations per year are paid to victims of occupational accidents and diseases or their families.

Wolfgang Hawlik
Austrian Workers´ Compensation Board
Phone: +43-593-932-2907
E-Mail: wolfgang.hawlik@auva.at