LEEA sets date for #GLAD2024

UK trade association the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) has announced that its #GLAD2024 initiative will be celebrated on Thursday 18 July, 2024.

#GLAD is an annual event (online and in-person), led by LEEA and supporting organisations, where manufacturers, suppliers, and end users share material that promotes safe and high quality load lifting. Social media posts, videos, articles, and in-person activity will be bound together by the hashtag, #GLAD2024.

Ross Moloney, CEO at LEEA, said: “GLAD is now positioned as a globally recognised concept and has achieved a brand-like status, perhaps ahead of schedule, following ongoing efforts from industry stakeholders to raise its profile. We’re looking to use its popularity to raise awareness of what our industry people do and what those outside of the sector need to do to become part of our world. This is why the themes LEEA will focus on this year are skills and employment.”

As part of #GLAD’s growth it has a new logo designed to promote the title of the awareness event, reiterating that #GLAD2024 is for everyone.

Moloney said: “The messaging has always been underpinned by raising awareness — a theme that endures. We are still raising awareness, but the difference will be that we will focus on attracting new recruits and developing those already in the industry. Expect to see references to CPD [continual professional development] and training, as we showcase the abundance of opportunity our marketplace represents.”

As with previous years, LEEA is encouraging its members, end users, and everyone in between, to contribute by using the graphic and hashtag to celebrate their involvement with the industry and promote it as an interesting place to work, with skills and employment as suggested focal points of outreach efforts. It is a membership that understands the value of continually raising standards, with #GLAD2024 serving as a platform from which to convince a wider community to train and develop their staff, while signposting pathways into lifting.

Moloney added: “LEEA’s vision is to reduce all accidents, injuries, and fatalities within the lifting industry to zero, and we have various initiatives in place to achieve this. The fundamental tool in all these initiatives is knowledge transfer, enabling CPD, and raising standards of practise. The way by which LEEA provides access to and disseminates knowledge, is through vehicles such as our online training platform, technical triage, Chatbot, guidance documents, and other resources.”