Safe not Sorry
Safe not Sorry works with you to proactively minimise
risk in the conference, exhibition and events industry.
We work with our clients to proactively minimise risk in the conferences, exhibition and events industry. Our approach makes health and safety a priority and delivers sustainable long term safety management.
With over 20 years of occupational health and safety management, we can cover all needs including:
- Workplaces
- Events
- Exhibitions
- Outdoor Festivals
- Concerts
We provide an honest and clear approach to safety and will empower your employees to take ownership of safety with confidence and understanding. Moreover, we will train them to consider safety from two perspectives – their own and those around them.
With planning and forethought we assist our clients’ focus and prioritise on all matters concerning health and safety. This includes the development of simple systematic solutions, individually tailored to each event, and providing a long-term understanding of safety.
Safe not Sorry has in place insurance policies covering:
• Professional Indemnity • Public Liability • Workcover Liability
The Team
Bea Tomlin
Director
Event Safety Consultant
Originally from the UK, and now as a permanent resident of Australia, Bea has over eight years experience in Safety Management within the events and exhibition industry and 12 years in Event Management and Production.
Bea has completed a Diploma of OH&S to ensure she is proficient in understanding Australian OH&S legislation and requirements. In addition to her extensive experience and OH&S studies, Bea is a qualified OH&S trainer and assessor.
Bea has always been committed to implementing appropriate OH&S procedures in her long history in the events industry. This extra dimension to Bea’s skill base has become evident to all companies she has become involved with. Quickly, her roles have evolved into developing risk assessment plans and OH&S policy and procedures for her clients.
With such a substantial career profile, the establishment of Safe not Sorry with her business partner Paul was the natural and most obvious next step in Bea’s journey.
Paul McCarthy
Director
Event Safety Consultant
Paul has accumulated over 20 years experience in both the event and entertainment industries.
With the development of a successful rigging and production company between 1991–1997 that operated throughout Australia and Asia Pacific, Paul quickly established a thorough understanding of OH&S legislation, policy and procedures.
Following ventures have credited Paul with roles including Technical Manager at Colonial Stadium (Telstra Dome) and the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre. In 1999 Paul developed the extensive OH&S guidelines for Telstra Dome as their first OH&S Manager. These guidelines involved groundbreaking induction programs for events and entertainment at the iconic venue.
In the technical events arena, Paul has worked on development of training for Audio Visual Technicians resulting in advisory status with R.M.I.T. consultative curriculum work group. Paul’s natural ability to apply strategic and tailored OH&S solutions to the event and entertainment industries has promoted his need to team with Bea and establish Safe not Sorry.
Julie Taylor
Safety Officer
Julie Taylor joins the Safe not Sorry team with over 9 years of experience in the exhibition and events industry.
Her previous experience includes eight years at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre (MCEC) where Julie undertook several responsibilities such as delivering Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) inductions for new employees as well as being a member of the internal team for SafetyMap audits.
In her time at the MCEC, Julie also held the role of Deputy Chief Fire Warden equipping her with practical experience and understanding of fire panel and Emergency Warning Intercommunication System (EWIS), emergency responses and procedures. She liaised with contractors, event organisers and centre management giving her a well rounded sound understanding of the complexities in running major events.
Julie went on to join McCall Security where client satisfaction was her main focus in the position of Operations Coordinator. She successfully achieved this and today continues to use her operations knowledge to apply the importance of timeliness in running events whilst ensuring safety is paramount.
Nils H Benedix
Safety Officer
Nils is the latest addition to the Safe not Sorry team, with over twenty years of event rigging.
Nils' experience in event rigging and more recently working on different types of rigs - oil and gas ones! His history with our industry has comprised numerous films, television commercials and touring with many international artists not to mention being the Advanced Production Coordinator for the Big Day Out since 1994. This extensive knowledge of production and technical requirements as part of large music festivals will be a valuable asset to the Safe not Sorry team and Nils has recently completed his Occupational Health and Safety Diploma.
Jessica Matley
General Assistant
Jessica is the ‘glue’ that holds Safe not Sorry together – providing excellent administrative support.
Jessica came to the team being highly recommended by her tutor at William Angliss, after recently completing her Diploma of Event Management as a mature student. Her exceptional study skills have transferred well to support the Safe not Sorry team, and her strong passion and determination for the events industry, along with a willingness to learn will see this role as a stepping stone for Jessica to move up in to bigger things as Safe not Sorry grows.
Clients will enjoy Jessica’s approachable manner, friendly smiling face and her natural enthusiasm to service them to the best of her ability. She is based part time at the Safe not Sorry offices and also works part time with an event production company giving her a well rounded knowledge of the events industry.
Latest News & Event Information
Ensure you are Safe and not Sorry
at all of your events...
The arrival of Safe not Sorry in the Australian Events Industry is a long awaited relief for event managers & organisers. Traditionally a self regulating industry, the events industry has been fortunate to not be the casualty of serious workplace injuries or even fatalities. Safe not Sorry’s mission is to ensure this remains the case.
Recently, Safe not Sorry have been working with fellow ISES member, the Reach Foundation who are known for facilitating highly successful youth programs for young adults throughout Victoria. Their programs can be intensive; action-packed and push the boundaries of creativity in order to impact and engage all involved. This being the case, it is essential that they have an Occupational Health & Safety (OH & S) policy and procedures model in place that is tailored to the specific needs of this unique organisation and their programs.
The Reach Foundation team found that the incumbent procedures were somewhat irrelevant and not user friendly. The biggest obstacle they faced was changing the mindset of structured OH&S policies and procedures limiting the creative freedom of activities in the youth programs. Happy to step up to the challenge, Safe not Sorry developed and executed several interactive and role-play styled workshops. These provided the audience with both insight into the world of OH&S and also how vital it is to the success of their programs.
The workshops also provided Safe not Sorry with essential information to assist with the development of an OH&S handbook for the Foundation. Katie Inglis from the Reach Foundation said that “In my 8 years as a Reach staff member, I have had to listen to the OH&S spiel over and over and it has always been boring and dry. Safe not Sorry has made them fun, engaging and informative to all levels within our organisation from Junior crew to senior staff. They have taken a topic that is often avoided and made it easy to talk about whilst helping us find solutions rather than constantly highlighting problems." Annual OH&S training workshops are now an ongoing practice to educate The Reach Foundation team.
A Day on the Green has also been using Safe not Sorry’s services for the development of site inductions. The lucky team were able to tour the concert series during the summer season, and whilst they couldn’t sit back and enjoy the entertainment, they are proud to report that the event was very successful. Safe not Sorry further assisted a Day on the Green execute a crisis and media plan when the Victorian Bushfires resulted in the cancellation of one of their concerts.
Site inductions for all staff and volunteers are a legal requirement prior to them commencing work, and Safe not Sorry has now streamlined this process for event managers and organisers with a new product - ‘Venue Induct’. Launched in partnership with the John Temple Group, Venue Induct provides a tailored online system to ensure all the legal induction requirements are met. The system is quick, can be undertaken at a remote location and the results can be stored for the minimum 7 years required.
Safe not Sorry are proud to report that all our onsite team members are accredited ‘Safety Officers – Public Entertainment’ through the Melbourne Fire Brigade. This makes them 3 of only 31 people in Victoria to achieve this accreditation.
Safe Not Sorry's First Birthday Party
A big thank you to...
Allie Hammet from Table Art, Sue Ryman-Kiernan from
Wise Connections and Simon Patterson from SKP Events
Down a dark smokey alleyway...
Hannah Henderson from Events Australia, Paul Rumble MCEC,
Janine Barnett and Francesca Grenache
Highly visible cake
Jane Klose and Kerryn Howell from Theme from Jak,
Allie Hammet from Table Art and Melinda Merson From
Peter Jones Special Events
Nigel Derricks from Tag it Safe
Paul talking to Paul Rumble from MCEC
and Andrew Roberts from Revolution AV
The prefect venue...DeLaceys
Safe not Sorry at RSVP!
In a first for both RSVP Melbourne and RSVP Sydney, Exhibition & Trade Fairs (ETF) selected Safe not Sorry to be the onsite ‘Public Safety Officers’ at their shows in June and July respectively. Not only was the team onsite during the event, but Safe not Sorry were the Occupational Health & Safety (OH & S) Officers for both the load in and load out of the shows.
The two tradeshows formed part of an impressive list of upcoming exhibitions to engage the services of Safe not Sorry. Working with ETF, Safe not Sorry will consult for nine exhibitions including the Motorcycle Show and Melbourne 4 x 4. They have also been engaged by Peter Jones Special Events, to provide services for the Australian Tourism Exchange, the largest international travel trade show in the Southern Hemisphere.
“It is encouraging that on-site safety continues to be a priority for event and exhibition managers”, said Bea Tomlin, Director of Safe not Sorry.
“We have always known the importance of safety management and are pleased there is such an emphasis in this area. By taking a proactive approach we can minimise the occurrence of hazards and the possibility of injuries”, she said.
The Sydney International Boat Show, organised by the Boating Industry Association of NSW (BIA), is another example of utilising the range of services provided by Safe not Sorry. Not only has Safe not Sorry reviewed their existing risk assessment and emergency procedures for the exhibition, they also provided site inductions for all BIA staff.
Both Bea and her co-director, Paul McCarthy, have an extensive history in the events industry within Australia and internationally. Paul has spent over 20 years in the event and entertainment arena, working at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre and Telstra Dome, and has been either Safety or Technical Manager at some of the largest outdoor concerts and events held in Melbourne.
Similarly, Bea has over 8 years experience in event safety and 12 years experience in event management and production. Her previous role as Operations Manager for Haymarket Exhibitions in England is coupled with employment as the Safety Officer for the London Fashion Week and also the Freize Art Fair, the largest temporary structure in the Northern Hemisphere.
Safe not Sorry proactively minimise the risk in meetings, exhibitions and events industry. They specialise in risk assessment, safety management, onsite management, hazard identification, emergency planning, site evaluations and audits and venue inductions.
A branded Bea!!
Cliff from The Motorcycle Show and Joel Rowland from MCEC
Ensuring everyone was safe...
James Laity from MCEC and Lofty from Lock and Load
Jo Camilleri from Your Business Alliance
Julie Safety Officer Taylor
Making everyone visible
Judy Seedsman and Lauren Goethals
from Logistics Events Australia
Party in full swing
The Safe not Sorry team
Tamzine Walshe, Event Manager
eNewsletters
Our eSafety updates.
Please select from the eNewletters below.
April 2009
July 2009
October 2009
December 2009
Testimonials
“Safe Not Sorry did an excellent job
supplying OH&S Consultants”
Safe Not Sorry’s approach towards occupational health & safety issues and working with various teams on different ETF events was most professional in every aspect. From the pre-planning reports and paperwork that was submitted to our company and to the various venues, to the final overall event report that was submitted at the conclusion of the event, highlighted their excellent organisational and planning skills.
Safe Not Sorry did an excellent job supplying Occupational Health & Safety Consultants at several ETF events in 2008 and were an absolute pleasure to work with. I would not hesitate in recommending them in the future.
Sophie Treasure Operations Manager, Exhibitions & Trade Fairs Pty Ltd
“We recommend their services highly.”
At 'adayonthegreen events', we feel an enormous responsibility to all staff and patrons and their safety and comfort is of primary concern.
It has been enormously comforting for us to have the team at Safe Not Sorry on site during the set ups and at the events.
Their reporting of the many aspects of the shows has been thorough and their advice is invaluable.
We recommend their services highly.
Athea newton ADOTG
“fun, engaging and informative to all levels...
from Junior crew to senior staff.”
In my 8 years as a Reach staff member, I have had to listen to the OH&S spiel over and over and it has always been boring and dry. Safe not Sorry has made them fun, engaging and informative to all levels within our organisation from Junior crew to senior staff. They have taken a topic that is often avoided and made it easy to talk about whilst helping us find solutions rather than constantly highlighting problems.
Katie Inglis Facilitator, The Reach Foundation
“...easy to use and effective”
Risk assessments are generally not one of the most exciting tasks on a program’s ‘to-do list’. Safe not Sorry have helped us communicate the importance of this process and provided our young leaders with an easy to use and effective system to ensure our programs are the safest they can be.
Jodie Barry General Manager, The Reach Foundation
"We would definitely recommend Safe Not Sorry to be part of your team."
Peter Jones Special Events has used the services of Safe Not Sorry on numerous occasions from their inception. At all times they have been very professional, flexible and most importantly very knowledgeable in their field. We would definitely recommend Safe Not Sorry to be part of your team.
Alexander Nihill, Event Producer, Peter Jones Special Events
“Your presentation was extremely helpful,
interesting and informative”
A warm thank you for your time and efforts in training and updating the Limelight Team with OH&S for the events industry and our head office. Your presentation was extremely helpful, interesting and informative, not the boring dull presentation we might have expected on the topic of OH&S!
We also appreciate your time in following up with us last week to ensure we have implemented a plan of attack for specific issues discussed on the day. We have now briefed the entire office and have elected several staff as our OH&S rep’s to ensure they keep an eye on the office and most importantly, ensure our events are executed in a safe and regulated manner.
Tamzine Walshe General Manager, Limelight Events
“What used to be 'scary' is now
an every day process.”
Paul's approach to OH&S was direct and effective. His input and development of ideas involved staff and prompted us to think and be aware.
We have adopted new strategies to be safe within our factory and also are more prepared to work off site in other Venues. What used to be 'scary' is now an every day process.
Lawrie Videky Director, Phaseshift Productions
“...keep up the great work.”
"Just wanting to let you know that your email update is fantastic, keep up the great work."
Rhona Walker, Managing Director, Solution Red
"I appreciated your specialised knowledge of the exhibition industry..."
" The Boating Industry Association of NSW reviewed all of its risk, safety and OH&S documentation in the lead up to the 2009 Sydney International Boat Show. Safe Not Sorry’s input and assistance with this review was invaluable. It was a pleasure working with you and I found the quality of your documentation to be thorough and addressed the unique environment of our event. I appreciated your specialised knowledge of the exhibition industry, and your ability to provide solutions that met both our legislative obligations and were practical and easy to implement operationally. "
Belinda Close, Event Operations Manager, Boating Industry Association of NSW Ltd
"We love Safe Not Sorry!"
"Look forward to the reports. Thanks again for a great Sunday (Midsumma 2010), you're a pleasure to work with. We love Safe Not Sorry!"
Ryan Barwood, General Manager: Festivals & Events, Adam Lowe Group Pty Ltd
Professional Affiliations & Useful Links
We know OH&S,
and so do our friends.
- Safety Institute of Australia
- National Safety Council of Australia
- Meetings & Events Australia
- Exhibition & Event Association of Australia
- International Special Events Society
- Worksafe Victoria
- Workplace Health and Safety Queensland
- Australian Government Comcare
- Workcover SA
- Worksafe WA
- NT Worksafe
- Workcover NSW
- Safe Work Australia
- Website photography by Michael Norton
Contact Safe not Sorry 
Be Safe not Sorry, contact us on:
03 8682 9360 or
1/66 Curzon Street, North Melbourne, VIC 3051
Alternatively, please fill out your details and we'll contact you in regards to your enquiry.
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