Here, Alan gives his very personal take on health and safety changes in the events industry.“ We need this like a hole in the head,” was my initial reaction to learning that the Construction, Design and Management( CDM) regulations- despite industry-wide reservations- had finally been applied to the exhibition and events sector. So what are these‘ CDM regulations’ and why did it elicit my hostile reaction? Simply put, CDM regulations are health and safety law applicable to the building of permanent structures, like offices, factories, houses and skyscrapers. The Health and Safety Executive had decided to apply the same set of regulations to the building of temporary structures, like exhibition stands and experiential events. So in theory, an exhibition stand built in say, eight hours, now had to meet the same level of health and safety legislation as the multi-billion pound HS2 rail project or Donald Trump’ s latest skyscraper. Luckily, common sense prevailed, and after a rear-guard action from the industry, the proposals were modified to suit the special needs of our sector. Nevertheless, these new CDM regulations are stringent, and impose a new regulatory burden and implied legal threat to exhibition design and build contractors.

And for the first time, CDM now places an obligation on the client to ensure their chosen contractor is CDM compliant. A client’ s failure in this regard could lead to heavy fines or worse. Despite my initial reaction, I knew that this new reality could

not be ignored. We would have to comply, to protect our company, our clients and our staff from the very real legal threat that CDM represented. But as I calmed down and started to think things through, I realised that rather than being a threat, CDM was actually an

opportunity for my company Quadrant2Design. Our solution, the Prestige Events System, had always enjoyed many health and safety benefits. It’ s lightweight and easy to build( without tools), requires no fork-lifts or heavy vehicles and is‘ clean-process’ with no paint, solvents, glues or sawdust involved. In fact, when our guys are onsite building a Prestige exhibition stand, they are probably working

in one of the safest environments within the exhibition hall, with no power tools present, no chemicals, paints or solvents, and no choking sawdust in the air. And now we were faced with the reality of CDM, could we use this as a catalyst, to not only comply with the law, but to go even further, modernising our attitude to health and safety and promoting ourselves as the most safety responsible exhibition stand contractor out there? I found myself feeling excited by the prospect of establishing Quadrant2Design as a health and safety‘ leader’ in the exhibition and event industry.

But given the complexity of the CDM legislation, I knew that I was out of my depth and needed professional help. So we turned to an old friend Lee Holloway, a chartered Health and Safety Practitioner, with huge experience in the exhibition industry. Lee and his company First Procedural Limited had done extensive analysis of the CDM regulations and so was in a great position to coach us on the way forward.

‘ we have completely revolutionised our attitude and approach to Health and Safety, with a new structure, policies and procedures built around and integrated into the CDM regulations’

Now some nine months later, we have completely revolutionised our attitude and approach to Health and Safety, with a new structure, policies and procedures built around and integrated into the CDM regulations. What’ s more, this process has led to us realising and articulating the inherent health and safety benefits of our Prestige Events System. And so despite initially seeing the CDM regulations as a threat, we now welcome them and realise the opportunity they represent.

www. prestige-system. com

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