Cadent Gas
A full-day immersive safety conference to strengthen Human Factors, psychological safety and shared responsibility
Cadent wanted an annual H&S conference that would truly land, not a format that spoke at people. With a strong safety record already in place, the focus was on addressing the human factors that sit underneath day-to-day decisions: behaviour drift, psychological safety, and the everyday moments where people choose whether to speak up, slow down, or take a shortcut.
Ripple & Co designed and delivered a full-day, immersive experience in Birmingham for 350 H&S colleagues from across the UK - a cross-section of the organisation, with every level represented - bringing Cadent’s learning priorities to life through bespoke scenarios, learning stations and live facilitation.
At a glance
The challenge
Cadent wanted something meaningfully different from the typical conference experience, a format that engaged people, not one that spoke at them.
They needed an approach that would resonate with the real pressures and decision-making realities their people face, while reinforcing a clear message:
Safety is everyone’s responsibility - no matter your role, level, or where you sit in the business.
With an excellent safety record, the risk wasn’t a lack of care or intent. It was the quiet, human reality of behaviour drift, where familiarity and confidence can lead to small deviations over time (“we’ve always done it this way”), especially when nothing adverse has happened for a while.
Cadent wanted delegates to leave with renewed ownership and practical intent to:
Speak up when something feels unsafe or unclear
Hold the belief that safety is their responsibility, not “someone else’s job”
Do it properly first time - no shortcuts
Create clarity of expectations and accountability, even under pressure
What we delivered
Ripple & Co created a full-day immersive conference designed as a deliberate pattern interrupt, built entirely around Cadent’s learning priorities and operational reality.
Experience design
7 bespoke scenarios and 7 learning stations, built around specific learning points Cadent identified as critical based on internal insight into day-to-day challenges (e.g., speaking up, clear communication, recognising early warning signs).
14 actors bringing scenarios to life with emotional realism and credibility and improvising with the delegates to deepen their understanding of the experience.
Dedicated facilitators in each learning station to guide reflection, learning capture, and “what this means for us”.
Facilitators supported each live scene to guide the improvisation and ensure the learning point landed safely and clearly.
Materials
Bespoke, highly visual learning materials designed to support different learning styles and encourage engagement, including:
station cards for each different topic area
posters for reflection and insight capture
action planning sheets
worksheets
Materials were built to help people translate the experience into actions they could take back into the business.
What changed
The day delivered more than engagement. It created collective ownership, practical reflection, and valuable organisational insight.
Observable outcomes included:
A unique, immersive experience that many described as unlike anything they’d attended before, sustaining attention and participation across the full day.
A visible shift in understanding that everyone has a role in safety, regardless of job title and that small actions and conversations matter.
Delegates left with clearer intent around speaking up, avoiding shortcuts, and strengthening accountability.
New insight captured at scale:
Hundreds of comments were collected from each learning station (alongside facilitator notes), collated and transcribed. This insight is now actively informing future strategy.
The conference has sparked momentum for follow-up activity, including plans for continued engagement and a wider roadshow to all employees.
Delegates were fully engaged throughout the day; immersed in the scenarios and actively participating in each learning station. Feedback most commonly referenced realism, emotion and impact.
Why it worked
This was unusual by design, and that’s why it landed.
It was entirely tailored to Cadent’s priorities, pressures and culture, so it felt “for us”, not generic.
The scenarios were credible and emotionally engaging, opening hearts and minds so learning could stick.
The format created a true pattern interrupt, helping people pay attention differently and reflect more honestly than in a presentation-led setting.
It exposed the Human Factors of safety in a way colleagues could feel, not just understand, showing how communication, assumptions, confidence, drift and silence can all shape outcomes.
The design made it easy to turn learning into action through station facilitation and highly visual tools.
What people said
Howard Forstram, Chief Operating Officer
“It’s very hard to replicate real life but actually the skills of the actors brought that to life and created emotion that allows us to attach the things we’ve learned today to those emotions. Everyone I’ve spoken to say they’ll remember this day, and I think at the heart of that is that storytelling. Very believable in every context.”
Martin Rimmer, Chief People Officer
“I’m speechless because today I was expecting something more in line with what we’ve done previously - we tend to talk at people, present to people. Today has been absolutely amazing. The interaction, the moving people around and the fact that you’ve felt part of something — you just can’t put a value on it.”
Delegate
“Today has been the best conference I’ve been to since I’ve been at Cadent. Honestly, absolutely amazing.”
Delegate
“This year’s conference has been fantastic - really interactive. It’s great to see all the different perspectives.”
Talk to us about a different kind of safety conference: immersive, human, and action-focused.
A full-day, scenario-led format designed as a pattern interrupt — tailored to your operational reality.
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