Let me be the first to wish you a happy Easter! I noticed that the Easter eggs are already in the shops, great eh! Mind you I do like a bit of chocolate.
Did you manage to get to ST17 in Nottingham, our first Security TWENTY event of the year; it was a great success; these events just keep growing and growing. We had around 180 people join us for the charity dinner the night before which was kindly sponsored by IFSEC. We raised a pretty impressive £2400 which became even more impressive when Mark Hirst of installer Evolution added £600 to round it off to £3000.
The money raised by diners went to a local good cause – Simon’s Heroes, for Midlands children with life-limiting diseases nominated by Debbie Carter from Smarta Recruitment, one of our exhibitors the next day. The money was raised by a raffle so thank you to all those companies (too many to single out) that kindly donated the prizes. And we played my the heads and tails game, of course. The usual tosser of the coin (to tell the players if they were in or out of the game, depending on whether they had chosen to pat their ‘heads’ or their ‘tails’ beforehand) Jarod Booth could not make it as he was travelling; so Damian Marsh, UK general manager of sponsor Anixter ably stepped into the role and to be fair he is a good tosser, never dropped the coin once, I mean!
Just to interrupt my flow, Damian has since emailed me that on March 18 he is challenging myself (and dodgy knee) to 40 miles of Middlesex, Surrey and Berkshire roads, cycling from Kempton Park in Sunbury to Reading as part of the British Heart Foundation’s Charity Bike Ride. He writes: “It will be a good excuse to help my physio and strengthening of my knee (hopefully avoiding further surgery that is on the cards), plus raising money for a worthy cause. The BHF do some great work and I am sure we all know someone that has been affected by problems of the heart or heart disease.”
Here’s the link to his Just Giving page – https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Damian-Marsh. As he says, do give as little or as much as you can as every donation helps the BHF to carry on their work and research.
Oh and in case you are wondering Stuart Harris of NVT won the heads and tails and got the pick of any of the 27 raffle prizes we had on offer. The next day, the Thursday saw a record number of visitors joining us to visit the 85 exhibitors and to sit through the various presentations in the conference room next door. So can I thank every one for taking the time out to visit: the speakers for taking the time to prepare and deliver their presentations, to the exhibitors for their continued support and to our sponsors who likewise enable us to finance the couple of days: and they are Anixter, Hanwha Techwin, Hikvision, IFSEC International, Seagate, CSL DualCom, Jacksons Fencing and the SSAIB. And last but not least to Mike White who chaired the conference and to my team for all their efforts in bringing it all together. As you will know our next stop is Dublin, April 5, a Wednesday; so register now to ensure you have your place and a free buffet lunch, as ever of course.
So to the gossip. Zak Thompson has joined Wavestore‘s UK and Ireland sales team as Regional Sales Manager for the north of the UK. Zak will be working with the video management software (VMS) company’s northern UK-based installer, distributor and consultant partners. With a security industry background that spans over 13 years, Zak is joining from video analytics and VMS provider Aimetis where he was Regional Sales Manager in the UK and Ireland. Earlier, Zak held business development and account management positions at Panasonic, Anixter and Norbain.
Seems it’s all happening in the north this month. Dave Pickering joins RBH Security Group Ltd as Northern Business Development Manager to the UK. Dave has over 20 years’ experience within the industry, in sales and strategic marketing areas. Says Steve Proctor, Sales Director: “We’re delighted to have Dave on board as he brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to already strong and progressive team.” Now many of you will know this but Dave is a professional photographer and in fact taught me to take photos; yep, some might say I wasn’t listening to him, but he certainly knows his stuff and I believe is available for hire, via Steve Proctor, of course.
And talking of photographs, see the gallery section of this website for hundreds of pictures from Nottingham – are you there?!
Staying in the north, Army veteran Lamin Manneh was left fighting for his life after stepping on an improvised explosive device while deployed in Afghanistan. After surviving his injury, Lamin, now a triple amputee, has landed a job with the remote security monitoring company Visual Verification Limited which marks his first employment since being discharged from the Army.
Company gossip
ADI Global Distribution, and manufacturer Hanwha Techwin have formed a strategic alliance, that will see the two companies work together throughout Europe. Under the terms of the agreement negotiated by Alan Paterson, managing director of ADI’s Europe, Middle East and Africa businesses’ and Bob (HY) Hwang Ph.D., managing director of Hanwha Techwin Europe, ADI is now able to offer customers the full range of Hanwha Techwin’s Wisenet video surveillance products.
And still in the north – Heywood, Greater Manchester – the detector and security lighting manufacturer GJD’s acquired Embsec’s product technology and IPR. The company has signed an agreement to acquire from Embsec AB ta swedish R&D house all of their internet protocol IP and laser technology plus all related intellectual property rights.
Charity
Talking of GJD, Gregg Stuttle asked me to forward this to you all. Back by popular demand the industry kart race. For those of you eager to take part in the six-hour fundraising team race in 2017: the date is Saturday, May 27. Email Greg for an application form if you would like to take part: [email protected] But be warned!
This extremely popular event sells out very quickly so please reply and reserve your place with a £50 deposit asap to avoid disappointment. He also told me: “I have also set up a JustGiving page for kart payments if this makes it easier for you to pay and you can access this via https://www.justgiving.com/KartPayments2017.
Funny note
We received this note from Robyn Stones from the CCTV Advisory Group. Oh, I hope it’s a true story! “Have you ever felt that photo ID is sometimes little more than a tick-box exercise? If so, the attached ID card will most definitely qualify. I was in Miami as my grandson, who had just been born was being treated at the Miami Children’s Hospital (also known as the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital) cardiac intensive care unit – CICU.
“I duly queued up with my passport as photo ID was necessary to get on the wards. After I thought the photo for my ID pass had been taken by the guard I took a quick swig of my drink, only to find that was the moment the photo was taken. Nonetheless the ID was issued showing a wonderful picture of my Styrofoam cup but very little of my face. The next day I again went through security, but was informed I didn’t need a new photo as they already had one on file and “cup-man” again roamed the hospital. On the third day it was pointed out that as I was a regular visitor they would issue a new one month pass and again the original photo was used. I wouldn’t have minded but it was a pain having to carry the Styrofoam cup around all day just so I could be ID’d.” Ha thanks Robyn, great story. Oh, and here is the ID pic.
