Hi We have used a company to deliver a play 'Gails Shoes' on our return to work in January of this year. Certainly delivers. Maybe worth a look? http://actingup.co.uk

As part of European Week of Safety we are running a "home" safety theme. We have had great success as we are trying to engage with staff at a more personal level, not just as employees. Bit that worked well was infant CPR sessions (30 mins long), 3 sessions standing room only! But, taking key messages around fire safety, driving, electricity, gas safety for the home translate really well into the workplace as well. Just an inexpensive idea.

We're just about to run a wellness day, including blood doning, know your numbers (blood glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, BMI), on line stress assessments and freebie stress balls, exercise sessions, healthy diet menus, stop smoking packs, talks on strokes and what to look for, etc, all timed to co-incide with National Stress Awareness Day. All these things have come from members of our organisation just looking into it and knowing people who can help out - just ask internally before you go spending loads of money because most people, when asked will have very clear ideas of what can be contributed.

dbrookf1 I have used/worked with the following who have all been useful in creating interest and interaction with the audience. 2 Macs: The company is called Macnaughton and McGregor (2 macs for short) and is based in the North East. They use actors to develop a variety of scenarios. They work with the client to make the scenes as realistic as possible but can interact with the audience. Hence they can change the sequence of events; ask the audience to develop the ‘future’ action etc etc. Can provide a powerful event. Their website is: http://www.2macs.com/ Dramanon: Similar to 2 Macs but cover greater training subjects. I used them for two acted scenes at a major corporate health and safety conference. This led to a very interesting and enlightening discussion on risk assessment from the audience, which included executives, senior managers, line managers, supervisors and safety representatives. The strength of the exercise was that a lot of effort went into making the scene as real as possible. This provoked a reaction between a few senior people arguing it ‘could not happen here’ and the majority who said it is happening!! Changes were made!! They are based in Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire and you can get more details at: http://dramanon.co.uk/dramanon-what-we-do/ Cragrats: I haven’t worked with them but they offer similar services and a wider education service. I’ve been in the audience and found their approach to be good. Have not seen them for many years. More details at: http://www.cragrats.com/about Other events that maybe of interest. Scottish Power held annual health and safety conferences organised by the union safety reps. I attended one in 2004 where they broke the audience into 4 groups. Each then attended 4 workshops in rotation. The first used employees as actors to set up two scenes – one at work, one at home – that was played out showing contradictions in approach; second was a video of a fish market in America and showed the employees interacting with customers – and dare one say it, having fun - the message was about making work interesting and a book had been written. We were each given a copy following a Q&A session; the third was an interactive session on workplace stress; and the final one was done theatre style and covered the enactment of the widow (professional actress) of an employee killed at work coming to the workplace and asking the supervisor and the deceased’s friend what had happened. The two other performers were Scottish Power employees. It was incredibly moving and had a visible impact on the audience. What else? Getting the Fire Brigade in to do sessions on preventing fires; at an environmental event, a ‘virtual’ company board was set up in front of the audience: a Finance Director, Marketing Director, HR Director etc. Each had been given a brief. In the exercise the individuals were executives in real life but none at the same company. A facilitator prompted the audience and put issues to the ‘board’. A very interesting session where the compromises and dilemmas boards may face was laid out in public. Perhaps you could ask your senior executives to do a similar exercise on the day, with the audience being from the workforce. When I worked for the trade unions, we had an education college which trained about 3,000 reps a year. In one course they set up ‘A Question of Safety’ along the lines of ‘A Question of Safety’. Questions were on things raised on their course. Yours could be health and safety issues at your workplace. It was videoed and it was great. Very entertaining!! However the success of the exercise was due to the participants: with more introverted people it is likely to have fallen flat. However with the incredibly wide game shows etc that have been on telly in the last 30 years, a suitable format could be found. You could set up some exercise now and get teams to make presentations using cameras, videos etc: 10 best things I like about working here: or for the ‘my glass is half empty types’ top 10 things I hate about working here then tie them into health and safety issues. Or get people in teams and ask them to take photos videos etc to identify their top health and safety issue. Using the general principles of prevention, they have till January to come up with a practical proposal on how the hazard can be eliminated and if not, why not? Then present their findings on your safety day. Or let them decide on how to present their findings. Some might like acting out a play!! Or ask the teams if they had all the money in the world how would you make it safe and healthy in this place – then present on the day for a discussion in preparation for the next budget round. What about …… the Police are at the door now so I’ll have to go. Cheers. Nigel