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Have you attended the TapRooT® Summit?
Then I’d like to hear what you think. Leave a comment here.
I think the TapRooT® Summit is the best conference for sharing best practices and benchmarking with industry peers and experts.
Of course, I’m biased because I’m the conference chair and I’ve helped organize this meeting since 1996.
I’ll post my comment below WHY I think this is the best conference. So if you are interested, see the comments.
For more Summit info and to register for the Summit, see:
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Have you ever been to a conference or meeting where your return on investment is guaranteed?
See the Summit home page:
http://www.taproot.com/summit.php
You will find this guarantee:
“We know you have only so much time and resources to give to training and conferences in any given year. We are confident that the TapRooT® Summit will be the best conference you attend in 2010 and worth every effort you make to get there.”
“One way you can judge our commitment to you is our SUMMIT GUARANTEE.”
“Attend the Summit and go back to work and use what you’ve learned. If you don’t get at least 10 times the return on your investment, simply return the Summit materials and we’ll refund the entire Summit fee.”
“With a guarantee like this one, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!”
Comment by Mark Paradies — August 12, 2010 @ 9:12 am
Mark,
As you know, I have the reputation of having attended the most TapRooT(r) Summits of all of your clients. Aside from being fortunate to be working for an company that has been so supportive, I have attended the Summits as a result of the high quality of knowledge to be gained as well as the networking opportunities. The venues are great and the food is sumptuous, but the most improtant thing is that I continue to be better equipped to do my part in preventing injuries and environmental incidents.
I have attended other conferences, but none has offered better tools to help me in my job. You can’t go wrong attending one of these Summits!
Regards,
Mike
Comment by Mike Rodriguez — August 17, 2010 @ 3:00 pm
Mike -
I think I’m a couple of Summits ahead of you.
Here’s my starter list (it’s hard to recall all the things I’ve learned at the Summit – It really has become a basis for much of my knowledge on root cause analysis):
a) The best practice session where I learned about “in-process” incident reviews for better incident investigations. A great idea that I often share with others.)
b) The best practice session where I learned about risk ranking incidents and requiring more effective corrective actions (removing the hazard, removing the target, or adding an independent safeguards) for level 1 and 2 risks.(This is something that every good improvement program needs.)
c) All the great people I’ve met. I think I’m up in the hundreds (or could it be a thousand?) of good folks that I’ve met for the first time face-to-face at the Summit.
d) Finally winning the TapRooT® Summit Golf Tournament last year. (And Mike was on my team.)
e) The inspiration that I’ve received from some of the Keynote Speakers and from attendees who told me how they have saved lives using TapRooT®.
f) Fun at the TapRooT® Reception (party) on Wednesday night. This includes dancing till I thought I was going to fall down … Chris doing the funky chicken … Ken leading a disco tribute … loosing to Michele in the fast draw competition … And, over a decade ago, finding my bathtub full of beer and ice. (Lesson learned – don’t give someone your room key to get supplies from your room!)
My guess is that this Summit will be the best one ever.
Hope to see everybody there…
Mark
Comment by Mark Paradies — August 17, 2010 @ 4:51 pm
I’ve attended a number of Summits (certainly not all) — while I’m always gathering new information on how to make a safer workplace, the greatest benefit is all the people I meet. The Summit is an ideal place to network (we all at least have a common interest in continuous improvement).
Comment by Dennis Osmer — August 17, 2010 @ 5:00 pm
Nothing beats the two summits where my son Kenneth presented highly detailed case histories from his experience as Process Reliability Lead for a major refinery. It is now close to a decade since he has first applied and then fine-tuned TapRooT teachings to solve multi-million dollar problems. He has clearly isolated and identified the precursor events that all disasters have in common. Deep and responsible involvement now enables him to explain, with much knowledge and personal conviction, the value of structure in failure definition and failure avoidance. I considered it a learning experience and privilege to attend these sessions.
Comment by Heinz P. Bloch — August 17, 2010 @ 5:22 pm
Mark,
I am no longer the TapRooT / RCA coordinator, so I have not attended a conference for several years, (although I would like to,) but I have to say that the best thing I have ever taken home from any conference I have ever attended was the knowlwege I gained in a session on “Risk Management” presented by Jim Whiting at one of your conferences several years ago. He made the rather nebulis concept of “Risk” concrete, along with the ways to Manage Risk. I have found it very useful im managing financial and plant / equipment risks as well as in handling Safety and personal Risk. I think Jim’s course should be a pre-requisit for all Executives and Managers as well as supervisors and labor.
Tx Lee Dobry
Comment by Lee Dobry — August 18, 2010 @ 5:15 am
Mark,
I have attended at least five TapRooT Summits over the past eight years. Being in healthcare and working within quality and patient safety, our industry desperately needs to learn from other inductries how to improve the safety of care to our patients, employees and medical staff. By attending the Summit, I have always taken away several new concepts and ideas from my colleagues at the conference! Whether it be aviation, power and light, nuclear, oil and gas or otherwise, the expertise and knowledge represented at the TapRooT Summits is absolutely outstanding, and my colleagues in healthcare can learn much from how others have improved and sustained safety in their respective industries. The Summit is invaluable in this regard, not to mentiion it is relaxing and fun at the same time!!
Comment by Harry F. Wetz, Jr. — August 18, 2010 @ 7:44 am
Mark, I’ve attended every TapRooT® Summit and I am always impressed with the kind of people who attend. It is such a joy and privilege to spend time with these folks.
Our typical attendee is very intelligent, has a particular area of expertise, and most importantly, has a real heart for making their world a better place.
Each person there has an attitude of sharing. They don’t give away company secrets or proprietary info, of course, but they share their good ideas for using TapRooT® in a way to successfully solve real problems they had. I also see people sharing fantastic ideas not related to TapRooT®.
The ideas of our attendees are so creative that I always leave each Summit knowing I just shared 3 days in a think tank with a group of brilliant people.
Where else can you get that kind of experience? I sometimes get a little of that at other conferences I attend, but at the TapRooT® Summit, every breakout session is another think tank. In all the years I have attended, I have never sat at a table with people that I didn’t think, “Wow, look at the experience and brain power at this table!” I always leave the Summit with pages of good ideas that work.
I am so thankful to the people who come to the Summit and share a piece of their selves with me so that I can use what I learn from them to make my world a better place.
Comment by Linda Unger — August 18, 2010 @ 10:54 am
I attended only one Taproot, though our organization has sent several people over the years. I took the 1-day risk training session and for me this was the highlight of the event. During the actual conference, the semiars of how others have applied the TapRoot methodology were the most interesting to me, its always great to hear success stories.
Comment by Susan Uzupis — August 18, 2010 @ 11:06 am
Hi Mark
My first summit as one of the new UK based instructors was at Nashville last year and I want to congratulate you and your team on the choice of venue and key speakers.
The event was extremely well organised and unlike many conferences in the UK where the delegate is `just a number` I was made to feel very welcome and part of the group from the off. The arrangements of the summit are geared towards maximising networking with like minded professionals and sharing good practice.
The best practice sessions are available to everyone and I would recommend that you try and get along to as many as possible. At the main sessions the key speakers are highly inspirational and again this years line up looks great.
Above all the summit has a serious theme in keeping people safe but there are loads of laughs along the way. My first drive at the golf in itself generated a few chuckles!!
This year my colleague Mhorvan Sherret and I will be running a pre summit course drawing on our experience of the impact on an organisation of a workplace fatality. We will share with you what you can expect from the regulatory authorities/investigative bodies/grieving relatives/media.
If you are responsible for people who work in a high risk environment why not sign up for our session and hopefully help you prepare for the unthinkable.
Comment by Alan Smith — August 19, 2010 @ 3:47 am
I have attended 3 summits and here are just a few of the things I have gained.
1. Networking – I have met so many wonderful people that have shared their experiences using TapRoot. It is always helpful at conferences when you have a common interest with others attending.
2. Key Speakers – The best I have heard comparing to other non TapRoot conferences I have attended. They are very inspirational and always deliver interesting topics.
3. Safety – This is the main focus in my industry and your conference always makes sure it is addressed.
4. Reception – Of course you always have a great reception with good food and a fun activity.
I look forward to seeing everyone in October.
Comment by Susan Nelms — August 23, 2010 @ 11:07 am
(The Susan Summit?)
I attended my first TapRooT Summit last year in Nashville. I am a Patient Safety Nurse Consultant for the Department of Defense and as a part of my job description pour over RCAs submitted from all of the military treatment facilities (MTF) in the DoD. The RCA process (and thus the end product) is fraught with difficulties based on the fact that no two RCA teams have ever worked together in the attempt to understand why an event occurred. Being able to network and share best practices/ideas at the Summit was very rewarding.
One of the most difficult pieces that any medical system has with RCA and event reporting is critical “feedback” to the reporters that the actions they chose to remedy patient safety errors meaningful, as well as, based on best practices. Best work environments are created by leadership that is involved. This is a theme that seemed to strike at me time and again at the Summit.
I also liked all of the guest speakers who had some pretty great success stories to share and apply to almost any industry that deals with safety.
* Processes don’t fail: Individuals using workarounds cause failures
* Process x Culture = Super Performance
* Changing the paradigm of safety: Becoming proactive instead of reactive
* Putting safety on leadership’s (C-Suite) “FIRST page”
* Action/remediation groups MUST have authority for change (budgetary, sign contracts)
* AND MOST IMPORTANT: People do not come to work to fail! If they have an environment that allows them safe practices, generally they will be motivated to be safe!!
If travel budget allows, I will return in October!
Comment by Susan Freeburn — August 25, 2010 @ 9:10 am