Advance Your Expertise. Expand Your Impact.
Advanced Practices in Product Safety 2025
September 17 - 19, 2025
Hosted at 3M, St. Paul, MN
Facilitated by the Society of Product Safety Professionals
Who Should Attend?
Are you an experienced product safety professional from a manufacturer, supplier, or retailer who is looking to take your skills to the next level?
The Advanced Practices in Product Safety program is designed for:
Professionals who have been working in the product safety field and want to deepen their skills.
Team members preparing for senior roles or leadership
Managers seeking to elevate team effectiveness and strategic impact
You’ll gain critical tools and insights to lead with greater clarity, influence, and confidence in an ever-changing regulatory and product development environment.
What You’ll Learn
This immersive training combines expert instruction with interactive exercises designed to build strategic and operational competence across key safety domains:
Strategic Leadership & Culture
Drive safety into company culture and leadership priorities
Develop and lead a product safety committee
Engage with regulators and external stakeholders over the supply chain
Risk & Lifecycle Management
Conduct effective hazard/risk analyses
Evaluate safety considerations across every entity in the product lifecycle
Monitor post-sale performance and respond to incidents
Systems Thinking & Documentation
Implement SPSP’s Five Pillars of Product Safety Knowledge
Document and improve safety design processes
Develop a proactive recall strategy and incident response plan
Navigate uncertainty and evolving market conditions
A strategic investment in your professional growth.
Investment
Tuition for the course: $1,900.
SPSP Members: Save $150
Early Bird: Save $150 - Register by July 15
Registration Deadline: September 5, 2025
Includes: Program materials, lunch, and snacks
Not included: Travel, lodging, dinners
Group rates available at the Courtyard St. Paul Woodbury and Residence Inn St. Paul Woodbury. Reserve by August 19, 2025. Click here to book your room.
Schedule
Program Dates: September 17-19, 2025
The Advanced Practices in Product Safety program will be conducted over two and a half days on-site at the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, MN.
Program Features:
Engaging group activities
Strategy sessions and skill-building workshops
Evening networking reception
A group tour of 3M’s Innovation Center
Program Agenda
There will be a morning break, lunch and afternoon break each day.
DAY 1 – September 17th 9:00a-4:45p plus evening event 5:00p-9:00p
Welcome and Introduction
Foundations of Product Safety
o SPSP's Five Pillars of Product Safety and Knowledge
o Organizational Structure
o Driving Safety into a Company's Culture—Manage Up!
o Ethics
o Product-Integrity Maturity Model
Integrated Product Safety—Part 1: Design, Analysis, Testing, and Development
o Developing a Product Safety Committee: Structure, composition, and duties
o Ensuring Compliance
§ Federal and state regulations
§ Compliance with industry standards
§ Developing a robust compliance program
§ Tools for mining compliance requirements
o Integrated Product Design and Development
§ Safety
§ Conducting design reviews and human-factors/product-use analyses
o Break-Out 1: Hands-On Hazard/Risk Analysis
o Risk Management and Safety
§ Hazards and Risks
§ Risk Assessment (RA): PHL/PHA, FMEA, and FTA
§ Warnings, instructions, manuals, and marketing materials
Evening Event for All Participants and Instructors – Boat Trip and Dinner
o Sponsored by Amazon
o Transportation provided to and from
DAY 2 – September 18th 9:00a-5:00p (Dinner on Your Own)
Integrated Product Safety—Part 1 (cont.)
o Break-Out 2: Development of Warnings and Instructions
o Evaluating Retailer & Distributor Considerations in Product Lifecycle
§ Training and educating sellers of your products
§ Involving distribution network in design, warnings, instructions, and marketing
Integrated Product Safety—Part 2: Market Surveillance
o Monitoring Product Performance in the Field
§ Data sources: customers, retailers, dealers, social media, mass media, etc.
§ Call-center operations and training
§ Databases—internal and external (e.g., NEISS, CDC, ...)
o Using early-warning advanced data analytics
Integrated Product Safety—Part 3: Evaluating Post-Sale Corrective Actions
o Investigating product-safety incidents
o Post-Sale Risk Analysis and deciding what to do and when--redesign, safety alerts, retrofit, recall…
o Engaging with Retailers and Distributors
o Engaging with [U.S.] Regulators: Requirements and deadlines
o Developing a Recall Strategy in U.S. and Elsewhere
§ When to stop sale, stop production ...
§ Ensuring corrective action is effective
DAY 3 – September 19th 9:00a-12:00 (Lunch on Your Own and Departure)
• Integrated Product Safety—Part 3 (cont.)
o Break-Out 3: Case-Study with Role-Playing Workshop for Mock Post-Sale Analysis and Recall
Prevention of Corrective Action
o What can/must be learned from a post-sale corrective action?
o Auditing: Finding gaps
The Future
o Operating in Uncertain and Changing Times
§ Changes at CPSC
§ Using AI in Product Safety
Course Wrap-Up
o Concluding remarks
o Certificates presented
Confirmed Program Instructors:
Alan Abrahams, Virginia Tech
Asha Allam, Cooley LLP
Heather Bramble, Mattel Inc
Geraldine Cosh, Geraldine Cosh Consulting
Ken d'Entremont, University of Utah
Chris Harvey, Sedgwick
Mark Hickok, Milwaukee Tool
David Kosnoff, Walmart (Retired)
Don Mays, Product Safety Insights LLC
Ken Ross, Bowman and Brooke LLP
Rebeca Sharpe, Best Buy
John Wackman, Nilan Johnson Lewis PA