COSH 2010 @ KL Convention Centre

COSH is an acronym for Conference and Exhibition On Occupational Safety & Health. This year, it was the 13th time NIOSH organized such an event on a national level from 1st-3rd August 2010.

This year venue was at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre and I have to admit it was a wise choice as the venue is strategically located and can be reached easily by public transport.

COSH is like a platform for all the safety practitioners and safety & health officers nationwide to gather around annually to discuss and share their knowledge and etc.

This year, 1, 261 participants joined the annual conference. Back during the first edition about 13 years ago, only 200 participants took part.

It was never easy to handle such a large crowd and congratulation to NIOSH for the concentrated effort and team work to make the event a success. They really deserve a pat on their back

I was fortunate and privileged to able to join this conference for free based on the invitation from NIOSH to Occupational Safety and Health enforcement officers like myself. I personally like the conference kit. They distributed a high quality backpack, 2GB pen drive and ID card strap.

The highlight of the event was probably the extensive exhibition by the safety equipment suppliers as well as training providers.

The organizer also held an exercise programme on the first day such as chairobic, Tai Chi, Poco-poco and relaxation theraphy.

The KL Convention Centre staffs definitely did a fine job in ensuring the event run smoothly. They are courteous, friendly and efficient. Food is decently nice here and I hope this venue is picked once more for next year event.

What I like about the venue is its clear view of the KL Twin Tower and its park.

The opening ceremony of the event was officiated by the Minister of Human Resources, Datuk S. Subramaniam and accompanied by the Chairman of NIOSH, Tan Sri Datuk Lee Lam Thye & Secretary General to the Human Resources Ministry, Dato' R. Segarajah

I personally enjoyed the presentation of the papers by some distinguished speakers. It was here I get to learn more new technology and findings based on the vast experience by the speakers. These papers also offered 15 credit points for the safety practitioners as part of their Continuous Education Programme (CEP)

One of my favourite speaker is Mr. Julian Leicester who earned a nickname "The Cigarette Slayer" . Do anyone realize for the smoking break we gave to the smoking employees each day, the employers are actually giving them 15 days leave in a year?

All good things must come to an end. The closing ceremony was eventful and controversial too towards the end as there was a participant who won the lucky prize draw twice (and the last one is the main prize, a laptop). He was just lucky in my opinion as each participant was given 2 sets of numbers for the lucky draw event for the duration of the conference.

I definitely enjoying myself here and already looking forward for next year event. It was useful for me to mingle with the people in the industry so I can understand the plight of the people within the industry as a result of amendment to the existing regulations and etc.