Safety & Health Expo

IRATA's attendance at this show at the NEC in Birminghan was stronger than ever this year, with three member companies exhibiting and, once the organisers and NEC contractors understood we were not trapeze artistes, a rope access team from Spanset giving rope access demos in the hall each day. Indeed the latter always drew good numbers to watch but then the alternatives were scaffolders, powered access scissor lifts going up and down, and an acrobat showing you what not to do on a step ladder! (The coup of the show was that the latter fellow then enquired about taking a rope access course!). These demonstrations were part of 'Access Live' which was organised by the Access Industry Forum of which IRATA is part. The AIF Conference held on the middle day of the show was a sell-out and the IRATA speaker, Jonathan Capper of Lyon Equipment, proved the most entertaining and informative contributor providing, as he did, a clear explanation of the diverse tasks rope access can undertake, using offshore and onshore examples.

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