Forest Firefighting Expert - International Safety Conference

5th December 2014

Forest Firefighting Expert for International Safety Conference

The Forest Industry Engineering Association (FIEA) is pleased to announce US Forest Service forest firefighting expert Ivan Pupulidy has been confirmed as a keynote speaker for its flagship forest safety conference series in March 2015. The summit will be at Rotorua’s Distinction Hotel on 3-4th March and the Bayview Eden Hotel in Melbourne on 10-11th March.

“Ivan’s expertise in fire-fighting behaviours and root cause analysis is well-respected internationally. So we’re sure he will be well-received at our 2015 Safety Summit conferences,” says FIEA’s forestry spokesman John Stulen. “Like all of our keynote speakers Ivan brings a unique set of specialist skills. People like Ivan are instrumental in helping our industry people understand safety better for our forest industries across Australia and New Zealand.”

Ivan Pupulidy, Director of the Office of Learning, US Forest Service, USA
In 1995, Ivan became a US Forest Service Lead Plane Pilot for wild land fire operations and later became a Regional Aviation Safety Manager. Ivan completed several internationally recognized courses in safety program management and accident investigation and completed a Master’s of Science Degree in Human Factors and Systems Safety at Lund University, Sweden. He will deliver a unique presentation from his focus on safety in forest fire-fighting in USA.

As the head of the US Forest Service Office of Learning, Pupulidy is tasked with explaining how risks play out in the workplace – especially in forestry and forest firefighting work. His risk concepts and models are well-respected internationally in the forestry sector.

Risk in uncontrolled environments – by Ivan Pupulidy
“Risk is defined in many ways. Each individual has his or her own sense of risk, and each may be substantively different than the one held by the organisation they work for. Rightly so, the risks that worry leaders are rarely those that kill workers. Risks and hazards are a naturally occurring phenomenon in the workplace.

“Individuals consciously and unconsciously assess hazards and make adjustments based on their experience, perceived risk, accident potential, rewards and the individual's propensity to take risk. This seems rather obvious, however, the concept is very important as these factors affect the balancing behaviour of the worker in complex ways. The worker is nearly constantly in the mode of optimising to achieve personal and organisational goals in the face of external and internal pressures. Optimisation efforts are bounded by too much risk on one side and too little risk on the other.”

Ivan will join three other international keynote speakers and will be complemented by a series of local industry speakers and safety specialists to keep a focus on the real needs of local forest companies and contractors. The conference content is deliberately directed at offering real value to logging contractor owners and their crew leaders. Senior forest managers and supervisors are also a key part of the target audience.

Full details of our upcoming Forest Industry Safety Summit conference programmes and registration details can be found here: http://forestsafety2015.com

About Forest Industry Engineering Association (FIEA)
Our group is completely focused on hosting technical conference programmes for people from all shapes and sizes of forest and wood products companies. We provide conference attendance and participation for people working in both New Zealand and Australian operations. We offer an independent forum to allow people across companies to evaluate new tools, techniques and technologies for business improvement.

With extensive industry support we offer networking and learning conferences with leading local and international technical specialists. These well-attended events benefit leaders, managers supervisors and workers alike. FIEA events are well recognised as the most effective vehicles for technology transfer for forestry and wood products companies.

ENDS

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