End users join #GLAD2024 campaign

The countless industries that use lifting equipment are being urged to unite in support of Global Lifting Awareness Day on Thursday 18 July.

Driven by the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA), #GLAD2024 is an established event where its members, manufacturers, and suppliers lead those sharing material that promotes safe and high quality load lifting across the world. Social media posts, videos, articles, and in-person activity are bound together by the hashtag.

However, LEEA and supporting stakeholders recognise that the continued growth of the concept –  and realisation of the association’s wider vision of eliminated accidents, injuries, and fatalities –  is collectively in the hands of those that use lifting equipment. Accordingly, messaging is being positioned more squarely on the point of use than in four prior GLAD events.

Cranes, hoists, rigging gear and height safety hardware is central to safe operations in a myriad of end-user sectors, including civil engineering, construction, material handling, metals, military, offshore, subsea, and renewables, to select just a handful. It is towards these applications that LEEA’s daily work and #GLAD2024 campaigning points.

Ross Moloney, CEO at LEEA, said, “To take GLAD from an idea to a globally recognised movement required us to garner support from major stakeholders in our industry, many of which are LEEA members and long-time collaborators. Empowered by their support, and that of fellow trade authorities, media, and a select group of users, we must now energise more people with lifting equipment in their hands and on their person, as well as those responsible for sourcing it.”

The latest campaign messaging harmonises with the launch of new promotional graphics that centre on the truism that end-user marketplaces need the lifting industry and vice versa in terms of elevating the profile of the annual awareness day. Already in circulation are two immediately recognisable #GLAD2024 graphics that share the slogans:

• ‘You Need the Lifting Industry’
• ‘The Lifting Industry Needs You’

Moloney explained: “There are kindred spirits at both ends of the supply chain. The lifting industry needs equipment users to spread our message, central to which is that the safe application of our technologies and solutions is their lifeblood too. Where would construction be without cranes, or wind energy without height safety equipment, or wet logistics without all kinds of lifting gear? You Need the Lifting Industry; The Lifting Industry Needs You.”

This year’s campaign trail is already advanced, with the two pillars of earlier announcements being that LEEA will focus its strategy on skills and employment and do so under a new #GLAD2024 logo. It is encouraging everyone to contribute by using graphics and the hashtag to celebrate their involvement with the industry, at all levels of the supply chain.

Industry representatives are reminded to share their content so LEEA can add it to the website — www.globalliftingawarenessday.com — where information about apprenticeships, military recruitment, diversity, sustainability, and technology has been posted during previous years.