Here we are August already, where is the year going? I hope you are having a great summer?
Can I start by passing on my congratulations because in the overseas list of the King’s birthday honours list Joe Connell was made an MBE for his services to consultancy and counter-terrorism. Now Joe chaired the ASC association of Security Consultants for many years, and we have worked with him on Consec for the last ten years or more. He also won a lifetime achievement award at the OSPAs as did I! So I feel I’m in good company.
But he was not the only recipient of an award because In the UK list, British Empire Medals went to Barry Palmer, Head of Safety and Security at the Tate; Matthew Wennington, Security Operations Manager at the Prime Minister’s Office; and Corina Pearce, Programme and Policy Manager, Land Transport National Security, Department for Transport, an MBE went to Colin Woolford, Strategic Security Director and Counter Terrorism Adviser, City of London Corporation; and OBEs went to James Brereton, as Deputy Director, Transport Security Operations Centre at the Department for Transport, and Deputy Head, Safety, Security and Business Resilience, Ministry of Defence, and Claire Merron, Deputy Head, Safety, Security and Business Resilience, Ministry of Defence, for their work during the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II last autumn. MBEs went to William Brown, the retired National Security Adviser for museums at Arts Council England; Angela Caroo, Head, Physical Security Compliance, Barclays UK; Sandra Stephenson, Head of Personnel Security, Department for International Trade, and Richard Symonds, Security Incident Policy and Investigation Team Leader, Ministry of Defence; Rachael Atkins, for her work as Deputy Head, Venue Security and Transport, for the COP26 summit in Glasgow last year; and to Dr Jessica Barker, and Lisa Ventura, for cyber security work. An OBE went to Paul Mott, Head of Joint Extremism Unit, Home Office and HM Prison and Probation Service. Congratulations to you all.
While we’re talking of summer, did you get along to our new event in Manchester United football ground, the event we called our summer sizzler? Lots of you did and maybe we caught you on camera, take a look on page 48 and 49. Or look in our gallery online. We thought we would mix it up a bit so started at midday, ran three one-hour tours of the stadium, brought out a free BBQ at 5pm, with free beer and wine, plus we hired a band to entertain us. I have to say it was a great success, so much so that we are going to do it all again next year. In fact we will do it twice as we have moved our event in Birmingham from February to September and from the Hilton Metropole to the CBS Stadium in Coventry where I believe there is a massive casino! Yep that means we have moved our Irish shows to February. A quick round up of what’s to come, September 5, Crowne Plaza Blanchardstown Dublin, September 7, Europa hotel Belfast, and September 14, Women in Security at the Shakespeare Underglobe Theatre, and to close 2023, November 2, Radisson Red Heathrow.
We have launched next year’s dates – 2024 sees us in Dublin on February 6, Belfast (note a new venue) on the eighth, our STS (meet the buyer) will be at Twickenham as usual on March 12 and 13. Back to Glasgow on April 16. We are doing another STS in Manchester on July 2 and 3, and staying up there for the simmer sizzler on July 4. Then it’s Coventry on September 3, not forgetting WiS will also fall in September and then back to end the year at the Radisson Red on November 7. Now don’t say you haven’t been told.
Talking about events, you need to get your nominations in for those Women in Security awards 2023 as the deadline is fast approaching, namely August 4; it’s now, yep this week, we are looking for five winners in the categories of Security Manager, Business Manager, Frontline, Technical and Contribution to the industry.
So to some gossip and I have to say there is not much going around. Is that because we are in holiday mode? Anyway Bosch recently invited me to join them in their 125 year celebration by inviting me to a very posh meal in the Guildhall (which was very nice thank you). In fact the top directors flew over (known as the “G” men – that is to say, the boss of all bosses is G1) started their visit at the RAC in Pall Mall where they were driven in vintage cars to the Cromwell Road and opened a museum exhibition display, you see they started selling their products in the UK which was in fact a dynamo for cars, after which they nipped into number 10 Downing Street for a chat and then came to the Guildhall for dinner. They have bought Paladin Technologies, a provider of security and life safety products besides system integration services in Canada and the United States. This purchase complements Bosch’s 2015 acquisition of Climatec, LLC, with more than 1,000 employed in the US. Paladin Technologies has over 1,500 and projected 2023 sales approaching USD 400m across 35 offices. Bosch Building Technologies thereby expands its system integration business by entering the Canadian market and adding to its US operations.
