Keeping a grain handling, feed manufacturing or processing facility running safely has never been more complex.
New regulations, evolving technologies, predictive maintenance tools, cybersecurity threats and changing operational demands continue to reshape how facilities identify hazards, manage risk and protect their operations.
Protecting employees remains the highest priority, but today's safety decisions reach far beyond compliance.
They influence equipment reliability, maintenance planning, production schedules and business continuity. In an industry where an unexpected shutdown, equipment failure or safety incident can have lasting operational and financial consequences, identifying risk before it becomes an incident has become just as important as responding when something goes wrong.
Those challenges are bringing industry leaders to Omaha for CONVEY'26.
Hosted by Grain Journal, the Grain Elevator and Processing Society (GEAPS) and the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA), CONVEY has become the industry's leading conference dedicated to safety, maintenance and operations. Rather than focusing on a single issue, the conference examines how today's facilities can better prepare for tomorrow's challenges through practical strategies, emerging technologies and real-world applications.
Whether you're reading this from a seat at the conference or from a facility, the conversations taking place at CONVEY'26 reflect on information that continues to evolve. The topics on this year's agenda are not simply about meeting today's requirements. They are about preparing facilities to operate more safely, more efficiently and with greater confidence in the months and years ahead.
More Than Compliance
One of this year's keynote presentations reflects that changing landscape.
David Keeling, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, will provide attendees with an inside look at OSHA's 2026 regulatory, enforcement and compliance priorities and what those developments could mean for grain handling, feed manufacturing and processing facilities.
For facility managers and safety leaders, understanding regulatory priorities before they become enforcement priorities provides valuable perspective for planning future investments, evaluating safety programs and strengthening compliance efforts.
The session also reinforces a broader theme found throughout CONVEY'26. Successful facilities do not simply react to regulatory change. They work to understand what is coming, evaluate its potential impact and prepare before changes affect day-to-day operations.
Recognizing Risk Earlier
Another common thread running throughout this year's conference is the growing emphasis on identifying problems before they develop into failures.
Preventive and predictive maintenance have become essential tools for improving equipment reliability while reducing unexpected downtime. Sessions examining lubrication programs, vibration analysis, thermal imaging, oil analysis and hazard monitoring demonstrate how facilities use data and routine inspections to recognize warning signs earlier and make more informed maintenance decisions.
The same philosophy extends to structural integrity.
A panel discussion featuring Hayes Guillot of Custom Concrete Specialists and Hans McDonald of Louis Dreyfus Company explores strategies for inspecting concrete silos and steel bins and tanks to help facilities maintain structural integrity, preserve grain quality, improve safety and comply with industry requirements.
Whether inspecting a storage structure, evaluating a conveyor or monitoring a bucket elevator, the objective is consistent. The earlier potential problems are identified, the greater the opportunity to correct them before they affect employees or interrupt operations.
Safety Includes Digital Risk
As facilities continue to adopt automation and connected technologies, operational safety increasingly includes cybersecurity.
Jonathan Braley, director of threat intelligence for Food and Ag-ISAC, will examine the cyber threat landscape facing the food and agriculture sector, including the growing number of attacks targeting agricultural businesses and why harvest season presents unique vulnerabilities.
Cybersecurity may not resemble traditional safety topics, but protecting operational systems has become another important component of protecting people, assets and productivity. As facilities become more connected, understanding digital threats is becoming just as important as understanding mechanical ones.
Better Information, Better Decisions
While the conference agenda covers a range of topics, every session shares a common objective: helping facilities make better operational decisions.
Better information leads to better maintenance planning. Better inspections help prevent costly failures. Better understanding of regulatory expectations strengthens compliance. New technologies create opportunities to improve safety while increasing operational efficiency.
Reducing risk is no longer the responsibility of one department. It requires coordination across safety, maintenance, engineering and operations, with every decision contributing to the overall performance of the facility.
The conversations taking place in Omaha reflect an important reality across the grain handling, feed and processing sectors. The facilities best prepared for tomorrow's challenges will not be the ones reacting to problems after they occur. They will be the ones continually evaluating new technologies, strengthening maintenance programs, understanding regulatory developments and reducing risk before it becomes an incident.