It has become a 50-year-plus tradition for Oregon and Southwest Washington's workplace safety and health professionals – and it returns next March:

The 2003 Oregon Governor's Occupational Safety and Health (GOSH) Conference, March 3-6, 2003, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. The theme for the biennial event is "Solutions for New Challenges in Safety & Health."
"This conference is the best-known event for safety and health on the West Coast," says Laveryne Gray of Oregon OSHA's Conferences Section.

The 2003 GOSH Conference will feature timely topics to benefit business, labor and government, including workplace safety and bioterrorism. "We will have a special workshop called ‘Responding to Terrorism in Oregon' that the FBI, Oregon Emergency Management and the U.S. Postal Service will be presenting," says Gray, "and a full-day workshop on crisis preparedness at work. Experts will explain how homeland security will affect your business."

Some workshops will spotlight emerging issues such as the needs of an aging workforce, environmental health, cultural diversity in the workplace and an update on managing workers' compensation costs. Other workshops will focus on specific safety needs such as ergonomics, construction safety, electrical safety and updated Oregon OSHA record keeping requirements. Thirty-two full day workshops are scheduled during the event, and 78 single-topic classes will take place during the four-day conference.

Exhibitors will offer innovative information and products (more than 150 companies and groups participated in 2001) and there will be an awards luncheon on Wednesday March 5th to honor outstanding achievements in workplace safety and health.

Registration for the GOSH Conference will begin in January 2003. The GOSH Conference is a co-production of Oregon OSHA and the American Society of Safety Engineers, Columbia-Willamette Chapter. For additional information about the 2003 GOSH Conference, go to the Oregon OSHA Web site, www.orosha.org, or contact the Conferences Section of Oregon OSHA, (503) 378-3272, or toll-free (888) 292-5247, option one.