Hendrik Sarens will use his keynote address at the World Crane and Transport Summit (WCTS) to confront the 鈥渃ommon secret鈥� of the machismo culture often found in the crane and specialized transport industry and its influence on safety.

鈥淲e have to face the fact that machismo is a common industry secret鈥�, said Sarens, a long-time director of the family-run business, 鈥淲e need to combat that kind of behaviour and eliminate it from the equation to avoid near misses.鈥�

The Summit takes place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on 7 and 8 November 2017. The full one and a half day conference programme is almost complete. See:

In his speech Sarens will address two other issues. He will ask how the crane and transport industry can keep up with technological innovation to avoid 鈥渂ecoming irrelevant鈥�, and will consider the impact of changing oil and gas prices and 鈥渉ow we have to adjust strategies around them.鈥�

Sarens鈥� focus on safety will help set the scene for a strong safety programme at the conference, with other speakers on safety-related topics, including Mike Appling (CEO, TNT Crane), Keith Anderson (chief rigging engineer, Bechtel), Richard Krabbendam (heavy lift consultant) and Marco van Daal (owner, The Works International).

For more information on the Summit see:

The conference is supported by ESTA, SC&RA and other crane and specialized transport associations around the world. Silver sponsors are Goldhofer, Kobelco, Liebherr, Tii Sales and Tadano. Supporting sponsors are Blokcam, Casar, Modulift, Straightpoint and Tecsis.