Lincoln-based Proud2bSafe (P2BS), which is run by father and daughter team Jason Anker MBE and Abbi Taylor (pictured), has reacted to the impact of Covid-19 by taking its presentations online and has already secured its first contract with ASCO, a global specialist in materials and equipment management.
The move to online delivery will look to help firms maximise their training budget and address social distancing restrictions by delivering expertise to more people than was previously possible, with up to 2,500 individuals able to access each live story and an option for others to catch-up with ‘playback’ presentations. It also promises to have a positive impact on the environment, as thousands of journeys will be replaced by virtual learning.
Anker is joined by James Howard of Red Orchid and Matt Hazelton from Four Friends, who both have personal experience of fatal workplace accidents. The trio share a passion for promoting the importance of positive occupational health, safety and wellbeing culture and work across all business sectors, including construction, manufacturing, nuclear, retail, rail and utilities.
P2BS MD Taylor explains: “Our network of speakers has delivered presentations to thousands of companies all over the world since we began in 2011, including some major names such as Babcock, Bombardier, Network Rail and Xylem.
“We had a full pipeline of talks booked before Covid-19 struck and then, pretty much overnight, all were cancelled or postponed until further notice. Health, safety and wellbeing have never been more important for companies to consider, yet we had no way of delivering our insights unless we pivoted the business model.”
She continues: “Our existing clients were very positive when we trialed the idea of moving online so we’ve invested in the latest audio visual and IT technology to deliver high quality, interactive production content to enhance the audience experience.
“They also really liked the idea of being able to present to 2,500 people per event, with the additional capability of giving 100 of those the chance to interact with the speaker. There’s even the opportunity to have the talks scheduled to suit daytime/nighttime shifts and different time zones. Although it has only been live for a few days, we’ve already had organisations sign-up to an annual package, with lots of interesting discussions taking place to deliver this on a global scale.”
Proud2bSafe is offering three different tiers of subscription, starting at Premium then moving up to Premium+ and Bespoke. These include a minimum of 52 live presentations over the course of the year, with the enhanced packages offering additional talks by hand-picked speakers from around the world and interactive break-out chats with the speakers.
Anker, who was paralysed from the waist down after a falling from height accident in 1993, continues: “Our talks are completely different in that we look at the human impact of what each of us have been through and how you deal with this, whether it was my accident and what led to it, how James managed the response to one of the UK’s deadliest workplace accidents or Matt’s recovery from being front and centre of a family business tragedy.
“Working virtually with P2BS is a win-win for manufacturers. They still get the same depth of insight and personal experience for a fraction of the cost and, better still, we can get the message across to far more people. It offers you the opportunity to maximise the return on your training investment at a time when there might be some pressure on budgets and you can even strengthen cultural alignment by trickling down our live interactive experiences and recordings with on-site supply chain partners.
“Covid-19 has accelerated our move to online delivery, but this could well be the ‘new normal’ for the business motivational speaking circuit.”