Technical diver and human factors expert, Gareth Lock, has announced the inaugural Human Factors in Diving Conference with world-leading speakers presenting on how applying human factors (HF) can improve diving safety, incident reporting and team performance. The conference takes place on September 24 and 25 this year.

The first event of its kind, the conference provides a unique opportunity to share the knowledge and skills to make diving safer, more effective and more enjoyable, by allowing divers and instructors to take more informed risks and reduce uncertainty.

The world-class speakers will be highlighting how they have created positive change, sometimes when faced with significant challenges and how attendees can be inspired to create change in their own diving, diving operations or diving community.

Gareth will be the first and last speaker at the two-day conference that takes place virtually. His first talk is at 10am on September 24 and is entitled ‘A Voyage of Discovery & Learning’ with his second talk ‘The Voyage Continues’ taking place at 5pm on September 25.

There are 29 presenters in all over the two days, and notable names include Professor Simon Mitchell, Diane Chadwick-Jones from bp, Ashley Bugge, Laura Maroni from DAN Europe and Frauke Tillman from DAN.

Topics will range from how novice divers can include HF tools and techniques in their diving, to how technical instructors can build HF into their training, to how bp changed their safety culture by looking differently at how adverse events occurred, to how healthcare has embraced human factors and how diving can learn from this.

Gareth has written a book ‘Under Pressure: Diving Deeper with Human Factors’ which is considered THE textbook when it comes to applying human factors in diving and comes highly recommended. Working with Ashley Bugge and her late husband Brian’s dive team, he also went to Hawaii in November 2019 to film a documentary about Brian’s accident which was called ‘If Only…’ and was released in May 2020.

Gareth lives with his family in Malmesbury, Wiltshire and travels the world sharing his knowledge of how human behaviour can affect diving, facilitating ‘counter-errorism in diving’. Through his company, The Human Diver, Gareth trains high performance teams and speaks at conferences focused on diving, extreme sports and supporting teams in high-risk sectors.

As the Human Factors in Diving Conference is a global first, it is expected that tickets will sell quickly, especially as there are only 300 available. The conference is aimed at all divers from beginner open water divers to cave and CCR divers to commercial and military divers. It is for divers who recognise that human factors are critical to greater enjoyment, better-informed risk-taking and increased safety whilst diving.

Tickets for the Human Factors in Diving Conference are available for sale at: https://www.hf-in-diving-conference.com/buytickets.

There are three ticket options:

• Live viewing only, which allows you access to all of the presentations over the two days as they are presented live. You can move around the conference rooms as you want to, but you won’t be able to be in two places at once, so will not be able to see all the presentations.

These tickets are priced at US$80.

• Live viewing plus recordings, which gives you access to all of the presentations over the two days plus you get a copy of all the presentations that will be accessible after the event.

These tickets are priced at US$150.

• VIP tickets that include live and recorded access along with a number of digital assets/courses and a one-hour coaching call with one of the Human Diver instructors, who will talk through your problems and how to help you resolve them.

These tickets are priced at US$250.

You can see what the detailed schedule is at: https://www.hf-in-diving-conference.com/theconference and find more information about the expert speakers at: https://www.hf-in-diving-conference.com/speakers.