Three days packed with interesting keynote presentations, sessions and posters on a wide range of different aspects of wellbeing at work made up a very successful 3rd Wellbeing at Work Conference in Copenhagen.
Wellbeing in a Broader Perspective
From the beginning the NRCWE decided to give the WAW2014 conference a broader perspective than the two prior WAW-conferences. The topics at the Copenhagen conference therefore included both the psychosocial and physical work environment and how wellbeing, psychosocial work environment and physical working environment interact.
– When employees assess if they feel well at work, they look at it from a broad perspective. They consider if they do heavy work, are comfortable with their colleagues and managers, if the jobs they have are meaningful etc. I think the presentations at the conference reflected all that, says Inger Schaumburg, Director general at NRCWE.
• Read news articles on the seven keynote presentations at the bottom of the webpage: http://www.arbejdsmiljoforskning.dk/en/projekter/wellbeing-at-work-2014-in-copenhagen/news
Young Investigators Awards
A Young Investigators Award was given to researchers below 35 years for the top three oral presentations and top three poster presentations.
The nominees for best oral presentations were Emil Sundstrup, Denmark, and Suzan J. W. Robroek and Esther van der Meer, both the Netherlands. The prize for best oral presentation was given to Emil Sundstrup for his research ‘Strength training reduces pain and prevents deterioration of work ability among slaughterhouse workers with chronic pain and work disability’.
Katja Siefken, Germany, won the special prize for best poster.
• Read more about the awards and the nominees: http://www.arbejdsmiljoforskning.dk/en/nyheder/arkiv/2014/pris-til-ung-dansk-forsker
Facts
WAW2014 in short
• 345 participants
• 7 keynote presentations
• 134 oral presentations
• 53 poster presentations
News, videos and social media
More than 20 scientists agreed to have their oral presentations presented in Danish news articles written by journalists from the NRCWE. English news articles on keynote presentations were also published during the conference as well as eight videos of wellbeing events and attendee highlights from the conference. In addition both participants, organizers and others posted news and comments on the conference hashtag #ww2014 on social media like Twitter and Instagram before, during and after the conference.
Wellbeing Events
Wellbeing events during breaks and in the morning were new momentums at the conference. The Brain Break was the most popular event followed by elastic band training, staircase walking and running in the morning.
Evaluation
Based on 93 replies
• 96% were satisfied or very satisfied with the conference as a whole
• 92% were satisfied or very satisfied with the scientific content
• 96% were satisfied or very satisfied with the keynote speakers
WAW in Amsterdam 2016
The next international WAW-conference will be in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 2016, and it is organized by TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) and VU University Medical Center Amsterdam.
