This spring, the Energy Safety Conference & Tradeshow (ESC 2026) returns to Banff with four days of practical, real-world learning focused on what matters most in high-risk work: serious injury and fatality (SIF) prevention, human performance, leadership, and operational reliability.

If you’ll be there, we’d love to connect—especially for Wes Spence’s session on building high-reliability teams through transformational leadership.

Event details

2026 Energy Safety Conference & Tradeshow
Dates: April 27–30, 2026
Venue: Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel
Location: Banff, Alberta

ESC is recognized as Canada’s longest-running energy safety conference and tradeshow, bringing together safety professionals, leaders, and solution providers to share what’s working—and what’s next.

Session spotlight: Transformational Leadership for High-Reliability Teams

Speaker: Wes Spence, VP of Business Development, CAVU International
Session title: Transformational Leadership for High-Reliability Teams: Lessons from Military and Industrial Operations
When: Wednesday, April 29 | 9:15–10:15 AM
Where: Van Horne Ballroom

High-performing teams don’t happen by accident—and they don’t stay strong without intentional leadership. In this session, Wes draws on his experience as a U.S. Navy SEAL officer and his work coaching high-reliability teams across Oil & Gas, Chemical, and Manufacturing to break down the human performance and leadership principles that actually move the needle in the field.

What you’ll learn (and be able to use immediately)

Attendees will walk away with practical strategies to:

• Spot and address leadership gaps that quietly undermine safety and performance
• Apply human performance principles to reduce errors, incidents, and non-productive time
• Build high-reliability behaviors that hold up—from frontline crews to the C-suite
• Use continuous improvement + crew resource management to drive operational consistency and stronger outcomes

Wes will bring these concepts to life through real case studies—from global oil rig operations to manufacturing environments and multi-national project teams—showing how structured leadership development and standardized team behaviors can lead to zero incidents, reduced downtime, and measurable performance gains.

Who should attend?

This session is built for leaders, supervisors, and safety professionals working in complex operations who want actionable ways to:

• strengthen safety culture without relying on slogans
• improve consistency under pressure
• lead teams through real-world constraints while still raising the bar

If you’re responsible for results—and for people—this one will hit home.

Planning to be at ESC 2026?

If you’re attending, put Wes’s session on your schedule and come say hi in Banff. ESC 2026 is designed to be hands-on, story-driven, and solutions-focused—exactly the kind of environment where meaningful learning (and great conversations) happen.

We’ll see you April 27–30 at the Fairmont Banff Springs.

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