A second, high-level, regional conference has been launched – the LEEA Lifting & Rigging Conference Middle East took place at the Shangri-La Hotel in Dubai, 14-15 December 2015.
The two-day event followed the same format as the earlier conference in Singapore last June and welcomed lifting industry professionals working with cranes, hoists and rigging equipment in the Middle East. They participated in educational, technical presentations punctuated by refreshments and networking amongst tabletop exhibits showing the wares of lifting and rigging equipment suppliers.
LEEA chief executive Geoff Holden opened the conference with a presentation on the role the association plays worldwide in raising awareness of safety and good practice. He said that for many years LEEA had developed training courses and methodologies and now it was working to disseminate that information worldwide.
On the second day, Kevin Crilly, Regional Manager – East and Senior Technical Officer at LEEA, spoke about the new office the association has now opened in Dubai. He also applied the benefits of membership to local end users.
At the time of the conference there were 220 members in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, which has experienced a rapid growth, as has membership as a whole, increasing from 265 companies in 2009 to 1,000 in 2015.
Crilly, who is now based in Dubai, said: “With the current state of the oil and gas sector, one of the first things to suffer is often safety. Thus, the timing of the conference and subsequent opening of our office is very important and we look forward to serving one of our largest groups of members from their own office. With the expanding construction sector and the increase in inspection companies, LEEA takes on extra significance.”
