Catamount at VPPPA Safety+ in Nashville
Scott, Stacy, Jason, and Alicia recently traveled to Nashville for VPPPA’s Safety+ Conference, bringing Catamount’s perspective on safety, leadership, ergonomics, and workplace culture to one of the industry’s most respected events.
Held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort, Safety+ brought together safety professionals, business leaders, and industry experts from across the country for several days of learning and connection.
One of the things we value most about VPPPA is the caliber of conversation that happens there. The organization continues to push safety professionals to think beyond traditional approaches and consider how leadership, technology, human performance, and workplace culture are changing the way we understand risk.
The Catamount team participated in the VPPPA Construction Committee meeting, where industry leaders discussed current challenges and opportunities across the construction sector. Those conversations carried into the rest of the conference as our team connected with safety professionals from a wide range of industries.
And because the conference was in Nashville, there was a little live music mixed in too.
Seeing Risk Before an Injury Happens
Alicia presented “Risk Before the Recordable: How Ergonomics, Technology, and Data Help Safety Leaders Act Sooner.”
The session focused on a question we hear often:
What can safety teams learn before an injury becomes a recordable?
Ergonomic risk rarely appears overnight. Workers compensate, fatigue builds, first-aid cases show up, and near misses occur. Workarounds become normal.
When organizations begin connecting those signals, they gain a much clearer picture of where risk is developing.
The conversation explored how ergonomic assessments, workplace technology, and existing safety data can help leaders identify patterns earlier and make practical changes before someone gets hurt.
Leadership, Mindset, and Safety Culture
Scott, Stacy, and Jason presented “Mindset is Everything: A New Perspective on Safety.”
Safety programs live inside organizations made up of people. How leaders communicate, respond under pressure, handle mistakes, and build trust shapes how comfortable employees feel speaking up.
A healthy safety culture grows when leaders become more intentional about the environment they create.
Bringing Feel Good Fridays to Life
Over the past several months, Alicia has also been working with VPPPA through its Feel Good Fridays campaign, sharing practical ergonomic education with the VPPPA community.
The most recent series, Keep Work Moving, explored movement, mobility, balance, and physical readiness for work.
At Safety+, that content moved from the screen to the conference floor.
For the first time, VPPPA included live demonstration sessions as part of the conference experience. Jason and Alicia led Catamount’s Stretch & Flex sessions, guiding attendees through movement designed to prepare both the body and brain for the work ahead.
The session included mobility, muscle activation, balance work, and movement patterns that translate directly into the physical demands employees encounter on the job.
The goal of a strong Stretch & Flex program goes beyond stretching a few muscles before a shift. Done well, it can help employees become more aware of how they move, how they balance, and how prepared they feel for the demands of their work.
Connecting Safety and Technology
We were also glad to partner with HammerTech during Safety+, bringing their technology and expertise into the conversation.
Technology continues to give safety leaders more information about what is happening in their organizations. The opportunity now is learning how to use that information well.
Data can help identify patterns. Ergonomics can help explain what is happening at the task level. Leadership and culture influence whether employees feel comfortable sharing what they are experiencing.
When those pieces begin working together, safety teams gain a much fuller picture of risk.
Taking the Conversation Home
Conferences like Safety+ give us a chance to teach, but they also give us a chance to listen.
We came home with new ideas, new relationships, and a deeper appreciation for the safety professionals doing the daily work of protecting people while navigating production demands and an evolving workforce.
We’re grateful to VPPPA for creating a space where those conversations can happen.
And Nashville? You were pretty good to us.
