A great success after a two-year hiatus

The excitement was palpable as you entered the Gallagher Convention Centre’s gates. People were clearly keen for face-to-face interactions, after the pandemic that shook the world. And Specialised Exhibitions, the largest trade show organiser in Southern Africa, delivered a stellar platform through this year’s A-OSH Expo and co-located shows.

Specialised Exhibitions’ long-awaited “four-industries-one-roof” offering at the 10^th instalment of A-OSH Expo got off to a flying start after a lockdown-enforced two-year hiatus. The free-to-attend co-located shows – Securex South Africa, A-OSH Expo, Facilities Management Expo, and Firexpo – took place from May 31 to June 2 at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

“All aspects of safety, security, and health at work, as well as environmental issues are brought together at A-OSH Expo,” explains Mark Anderson, portfolio director at Specialised Exhibitions. “A clear drawcard for our visitors was the access to four shows under one roof, with the addition this year of the new Firexpo show, focusing on fire-related products and services.”

Securex celebrated 29 years of existence, with its continued focus on all elements of the security sector, from physical and retail security to access control, vehicle and personnel tracking, and cybersecurity. Facilities Management Expo, which curated for the facilities and properties management community, was in its second year of co-location and grew significantly since its inaugural year in 2019.

“By lunchtime on the first day, we had already seen thousands of visitors coming through the doors across all four shows, with high interest in our exhibitors’ offerings,” adds Anderson. “After the continuity break in 2020 and 2021 due to the global pandemic, we have seen a real interest this year – from exhibitors and visitors alike – in returning to the exciting face-to-face marketing and promotional opportunities offered by live events. We are so pleased to see the public being able to re-embrace the thrills and excitement of the live trade show experience.”

The exhibitors hosted a wide variety of interesting products and services for visitors to see and experience. “Not only did we have hundreds of security, occupational health and safety, fire safety, and facilities management-related exhibitors, but attendees could also attend informative sessions at the A-OSH, Facilities Management, and Securex seminar theatres, as well as the A-OSH Working at Height theatre,” Anderson points out.

Additional key show features included the South African Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (Saiosh) 10^th Annual International Health and Safety Conference (a paid-for event that ran from May 31 to June 1), the Securex drone demo area, an Electronic Security Distributors’ Association breakfast event, and the South African Intruder Detection Services Association TechMan competition.

A-OSH visitors were in for a treat with BBF Safety Group, an integrated workplace safety solutions provider. The organisation offered competitions and giveaways and had a number of new products on-stand, including the new and improved BOVA Rigger Boot. The mould for the boot was developed in consultation with a podiatrist to improve fit and comfort, while the sole now boasts better slip resistance. This range has also achieved electrical resistance to 20 kVA and improved water resistance with S2-rated leather.

Another new BOVA product that was introduced at A-OSH Expo was the Obsidian work boot, custom-engineered to meet the specific requirements of the bottling industry. With SeamSecure water proofing treatment, a dual compound rubber sole, and SRC slip resistance rating, Obsidian provides the ultimate protection in damp environments. The boot also features a DualGuard system with a steel midsole to defend against vertical penetration by sharp objects, and a steel mesh layer on the upper surface to protect against horizontal penetration. As an additional protection feature, the boot features an anti-scuff wrap to protect the leather upper from general nicks and cuts.

With BOVA moving into the work at heights category, the BBF Safety Group sponsored the Work at Heights Theatre at A-OSH Expo this year. The company showcased various products, such as ropes, rescue kits, and lifelines, and gave a sneak peek of its Premium Range – due to be launched later this year.

BBF Safety Group also featured its new BOVA TRAX range, TRAX 2.0, which boasts fantastic improvements in terms of weight, flexibility, styling, and slip resistance, as well as a number of new safety footwear styles recently launched by Lemaitre.

In addition, with a growing offering in thermal protection, BOVA showcased its new arc flash range, which provides innovative protection from the hazards of an arc flash, with inherent flame resistance in a lightweight and breathable solution. BBF also displayed some of its offerings for protection in oil and gas environments and molten metal splash protection.

Finally, the group was proud to host Dr Anette Thompson, a noted research podiatrist focusing on foot anthropometry and haemodynamics applied to footwear design. Thompson gave a presentation on the importance of foot health and the role played by safety footwear.

Amber, a health and safety communication platform, showed how workplaces can be made safer in creative ways. Its tech solution assists OSH professionals trying to entrench safety practices as part of their company’s business culture by looking at health and safety through a creative lens.

“It was Amber’s first A-OSH show. It definitely lived up to our expectations,” says Lindy Scott, founder and creative director at Amber. “We will definitely be back next year. It was a good crowd and people really seemed to be responding well to the Amber software.”

A-OSH Expo also enabled the company to interact with existing clients and win over a few new ones. “Because we’re quite a new software that only launched on May 1 last year, a few of our customers did come to visit, but a lot of people haven’t heard about us before,” Scott explains. “So, it was really a great branding opportunity for us. Some of the visitors said that Amber is the thing that has been missing from their business. One even said that they could go home right that moment because, in Amber, they had found what they were looking for at the show.”

The platform is not focused on training safety professionals, but instead allows users to access a range of tools that can be used to create holistic campaigns and motivate employees to work together to ensure safer work environments, using a human-centric approach.

The creators of the platform have adapted global learnings to the local environment to ensure a custom-made offering for the African continent. Phase One of the rollout focuses on the mining and construction space, with the aim of expanding into other industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, and hospitality.

3Sixty Biopharmaceuticals, a South African Health Products Regulatory Authority-licensed pharmaceutical company with a number of local and international partners, also exhibited for the first time this year. It showcased its Airocide air purification technology, which was developed for NASA in the United States.

The company has the exclusive distribution rights in Africa for Airocide by SteriLumen, a US-based air purification and infection control technology company, which provides risk reduction strategies for pandemics like Covid-19, as well as better overall air quality solutions to problematic airborne pathogens.

“For the Airocide brand, the expo gave us the opportunity to interact with SHEQ personnel from different industries to demonstrate the value of Airocide units for their facilities for the management of airborne diseases/infections like Covid-19, flu, and allergies,” explains Relebogile Modiga, head of marketing at 3Sixty Biopharmaceuticals.

“It is usually difficult to reach these professionals because they are all from different industries, such as mining, health, and manufacturing. The A-OSH Expo offered the opportunity to interact with all these industries in the three days we participated as an exhibitor. For the attendees, I think the expo gave them insights into new technologies like our air purifiers and to find out more about how these technologies can benefit them in their workplaces.”

This year’s show was, however, not as busy as the previous installment. “This year was a bit quieter than the previous show in 2019. That was a very busy year,” says Rhys Evans, MD of Alco-Safe, which has been exhibiting at the A-OSH Expo since its inception. Despite the lower turnout, though, this year’s instalment still added great value. “We have seen a lot of our existing clients, who we haven’t seen since prior to Covid, but also a few new ones. Overall, it has been great to get to see people face to face,” Evans continues.

“We will definitely be at next year’s show again,” he says. “It is the only expo that we do and it is beneficial to us because we feel it is targeted at our specific audience. It gives us a chance to see a lot of customers in a very short period of time.”

Alco-Safe will soon be launching a new unmanned breathalyser – the Lion Alcontrol Rapid Connect. “It is faster than the device that it is based on, the Lion Alcontrol. Queues are a major problem when organisations have to test many employees. The new device will also feature a lot of connectivity, such as Bluetooth, Wi-fi, and more,” Evans explains.

“We basically want to make it as easy as possible to implement the breathalyser with any other devices’ existing systems that an organisation already has in place. Because we design the instrument ourselves, we can program it to interface with any type of custom software as well. This is unique in the market, as the other breathalysers don’t offer this customisation option: what you see is what you get. If it can’t fit with an existing system, that system would have to be changed.”

Dräger South Africa had a mobile showroom on its stand, which it normally uses to showcase its national and international products. “We presented our entire detection and protection portfolio,” says Sagaran Chetty, marketing manager of gas detection at the company. “We have seen an increase in demand for wireless gas detection solutions and took this opportunity to have our expert from the UK present on this topic.

“Like all the previous shows that we have attended, the event was organised very professionally,” he adds. Dräger has also been exhibiting at the A-OSH Expo since the show’s inception. “It’s the ideal platform for us to interact with key stakeholders and decision makers,” Chetty continues. “We will most definitely attend next year’s show and have already secured a prime position for the event.”

Anderson summarises things eloquently: “Trade show exhibitions offer significant advantages for organisations looking to network directly with potential clients and boost awareness of their brands. At the same time, visitors benefit from exposure to the latest industry products and services, together with exceptional networking opportunities and the opportunity to listen to quality content from industry experts across our three seminar theatres.

“With South Africans having collectively endured two years of lockdown conditions, Specialised Exhibitions is proud to be able, once again, to play our role in bringing the joys and benefits of face-to-face networking back to the local exhibition landscape.”