Beyond the Expo Floor: Sessions That Deliver Practical Safety Takeaways

The educational program at the NSC Safety Congress & Expo features OSHA updates, AI, leadership and human performance sessions designed to help safety professionals strengthen their programs.

• By Stasia DeMarco
• Aug 12, 2026

While the latest products and technologies may be the biggest draw on the Expo floor, many of the National Safety Council Safety Congress & Expo's most valuable takeaways happen in the conference's educational program.

Throughout the week, attendees can choose from more than 130 educational opportunities ranging from introductory to advanced levels, along with more than 25 Professional Development Seminars, keynote presentations, Technical Sessions, Learning Labs and Safety Huddles. Together, they provide safety professionals with practical strategies they can implement long after they leave Indianapolis.

According to Necoya Tyson, senior director of conventions at the National Safety Council, many attendees are looking for solutions that help organizations shift from reacting to incidents to preventing them.

"Many attendees are learning more about ways to help predict possible hazards, effectively integrate data analytics, champion employee engagement and ultimately prevent incidents before they happen," Tyson said.

One of the conference's signature presentations is OSHA's Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards, a perennial favorite that consistently draws one of the largest audiences of the week. The annual session reviews the standards generating the highest number of OSHA citations while providing attendees with insight into enforcement priorities and recurring compliance issues affecting employers across industries.

For many safety professionals, the presentation serves as more than a review of citation statistics. It offers practical guidance on where organizations should focus compliance efforts and highlights hazards that continue to challenge workplaces nationwide. Attendees often leave with a clearer understanding of where OSHA inspectors are concentrating their attention and what proactive steps can reduce both risk and citations.

Emerging technology is another major focus of this year's educational program.

Technical sessions examine how artificial intelligence, connected worker technologies, wearable devices and data analytics are changing the way organizations identify hazards, assess risk and make safety decisions. Rather than replacing safety professionals, many of these technologies are designed to provide earlier visibility into workplace risks, allowing organizations to intervene before incidents occur.

At the same time, conference organizers continue to emphasize that technology alone cannot create a strong safety culture.

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