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SCREEN TIME REPORT • LABELINE MOVED ITS BIENNIAL ROADSHOW ONLINE BUT THE REVAMPED ‘WEBSHOW’ PROVED VERY POPULAR AND MANAGED TO DELIVER A LOT OF CRUCIAL INFORMATION THIS COMING 1 January marks the arrival of the biennial updates to the various modal and regional regulations governing the transport of dangerous goods – although there are a variety of transitional periods and delays to complicate multimodal operations. By rights, that deadline, which rolls around with depressing regularity every two years, should have been marked by gatherings of dangerous goods professionals, eager to make sure they were keeping up to date. But, in this strangest of years, travel restrictions
In the UK, one of the most useful of those events is Labeline’s Biennial Roadshow, which has been strongly supported by HCB over the past few years. While there had been plans in place to hold the one-day event in two venues, overwhelming forces led to it being moved online and it took place over three successive Tuesdays during September. Labeline has pursued a policy of making the event as cheap to attend as possible, so as to spread the word around as many people as it can – the dangerous goods function
and social distancing measures meant that those events had to move themselves into the virtual world.
regularly being rewarded with a desultory budget in many companies. So moving it online meant that it was even cheaper than normal: attendees did not have to travel, did not have to get their suit cleaned, and did not have to pay the modest charge to register. Indeed, the presentations were recorded and
LABELINE HAS PLENTY OF COPIES OF ADR 2021 FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT
HCB MONTHLY | NOVEMBER 2020
are available for anyone to view, free of charge, on the Labeline website at www.labeline.com/ dangerous-goods-webshow/. Given that free-to-view package, the hastily renamed Labeline Biennial Dangerous Goods Webshow attracted nearly 900 registrants, well in excess of attendance at recent physical events. It also attracted a wider range of sponsors, some of whom took the opportunity to speak and explain their goods and services to the audience. GETTING AROUND The Webshow was split into three days, each running for a few hours in the afternoon (UK time), so as not to force viewers into peering into their screen for too long. Even so, it was notable to hear pleas for a coffee break every so often, which is perhaps a learning that can be taken away by others planning a similar virtual event. The first day concentrated on the transport of dangerous goods by road and sea. The new edition of ADR, the regulations governing the transport of dangerous goods by road not just in Europe but increasingly in other parts of the world, is now available. Caroline Raine from the National Chemical Emergency Centre (NCEC) took attendees through the