Pictures say it all, writes Roy Cooper in his gossip column in the August 2013 print issue of Professional Security.
May I start with a big thank you to all of you that supported our London event last month (full report in the August issue). The sponsors, exhibitors, speakers, and Mike Tennent for chairing the conference, the hotel staff, my staff, but most of all to all the visitors. The general feed-back has been very positive and as such we are moving it north now to Newcastle. We managed also to raise £2100 at the networking dinner, as you can read from page 40. If you were there maybe we caught you on camera? All the pics are on our website under the ‘gallery’ button.
You just never know when your body is going to let you down. I was talking to Martin Cowley recently who never made it to Security TWENTY 13 in London. Why? We all know of Martin, he is the channel manager with IDIS, but has been in the industry for years and years. He was the man at Silent Witness; yes, remember them? He had a stint with Honeywell, because they bought Silent Witness and he went to Cieffe which got bought by March Networks; and so on. He told me the other day that one weekend he was on his way to a party. He had a bit of an upset tummy as he suffers from heart burn. He thought that as he had an hour to kill he would nip down his local hospital and get some anti-acid pills. Those of you that suffer (like me) with this will be familiar with this. The pharmacist told him that he couldn’t have these unless they gave him a check-over. Like I say Martin had an hour to kill so said OK. They started their checks, and suddenly he was getting all this fuss made about him. Doctors and nurses were running out of nowhere. He asked what the fuss was all about? The doctor stood over his bed and looked down on him and said: “You have not got heart burn sir, you are having a heart attack!” Now Martin says that he feels like a bit of a fraud as it was just like heart burn, and was heard to say “are you sure”. It seemed that one of his arteries in his heart was constricted so they operated on the Monday morning and inserted a stent, and yes he is fine. Chomping at the bit to get back to work but has been told by the specialist that he has got to take six weeks’ rest. If you know Martin you will know that that will be torture as he does just want to get back in his car, or on his bike and get back to work. I think you will find he is working from home nonetheless. We wish you well Martin and I am sure there is a lot of people out there that have had what you had but didn’t think it was heart burn. I know Martin won’t like this picture but mate that’s what you look like! I can also tell you that Steve Proctor ex-NVT has landed the job as the new sales manager at Panasonic. Steve has been doing some consultancy work since he left NVT but felt that getting back with a main player such as Panasonic was an offer he couldn’t refuse. He rang me from New York on his first day at the new company; not a bad place to start, eh! Now I have a picture which I ran of Steve on a dummy front cover once, I bet he is glad I never used that one!?
Another guy on the move is Gary Frost who has been at Vicon for just over four years. He has left to Join the Risco group as a business development manager. Gary started in our industry in 1998 at Intervision; now that is a name from the past, sorry about that pic Gary, but the camera never lies.
Some quickie mentions here: Valerie Guesdon has joined DVS in Cardiff as business development manager. Valerie has worked for Synectics and DeView (yes that’s where you recognise the picture from) and has joined DVS they tell me to aid further expansion into new vertical markets and installers. Also Gavin Dunleavy has been promoted after a first year as Strategic Accounts Manager. Before DVS, Gavin also worked at DeView for seven years.
On another note you get some people who just can’t stop themselves from dressing up. Here is the latest pic of Peter Grainger doing his thing at the recent Glastonbury concert! I have never been to Glastonbury; what can I say? Perhaps fancy dress is compulsory.
I was at the recent BSIA lunch in Mayfair which you can read about on our website. Nice and air-conditioned inside; I kept my jacket on during lunch. I wanted to pick up on the apprentice installer of the year award, given to two lads. Jack Finley, 17, is a first year apprentice at CTM Fire and Security, and Ryan Jenkins, 23, is just three years into his apprenticeships at Chubb Fire and Security. It reminded me of my early days especially as Ryan works for Chubb which is where I served my apprenticeship, more than 40 years ago now. Did I ever look as young as them?! Sorry, no picture of me 40 years ago! And yes, they did have cameras then!? Ryan, this is what the industry holds for you and I am sure that you both will become very successful guys in our industry. Likewise Simon Banks has re-launched the ‘100 in 100’ scheme again for the second year, that is a challenge to get 100 people in apprenticeship jobs in 100 days. Last year they smashed that number and recruited 320 in 100 days, so the challenge is to beat that. Forty days in and Simon could report they had already secured 140 jobs, still a long way to go. Being an ex-apprentice I am 100 per cent behind the initiative. It’s not difficult, you can all have an apprentice, Picture this, being able to train a new employee up to do it how you want it done, that will become a loyal and trustworthy employee. If you want to know more then get hold of Simon or come through me and I will point you in the right direction.
