As I sit writing the gossip I am saddened by the news of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Can I on behalf of all of us at Professional Security Magazine offer our sincere condolences to the family and everyone that this is affecting.
I had bumped into Her Majesty (not literally!) a few times as like her I am a keen supporter of horse racing and living just down the road from Epsom where the annual Derby is run we would see her there all the time. In fact the first time I got anywhere close to Her Majesty was in the days when I was an apprentice for Chubb. I was pulled over in my Ford Popular by the police to make way for her entourage to go by. That was in Stevenage? Why was she in Stevenage? I don’t know; hardly to open the new Tesco that I was working on. I just remember waving to her as she passed by and of course she waved back no doubt saying to Prince Phillip, oh there is Roy – did you see him? What a difficult time for King Charles III, mourning the loss of his mother and at the same time starting his new role. Three cheers for the King.
Now you know they say there are key moments during your lifetime when you will remember where you were when the news broke. I was in Dublin Airport staring at the screens that were reporting that all Ryanair planes were delayed, when my phone pinged with the royal news. I was on my way home from our Irish week; we held Security TWENTY in Belfast and then moved the whole show to Dublin for our second event 48 hours later. I even hired a ‘party bus’ to move the team into the Republic. We managed to raise £1,000 for the RNLI Northern Ireland on Monday evening and 1000 euros for the Little Blue Heroes in Dublin in memory of Donnie O’Callaghan who introduced us to them three years ago, and has since died.
Pictured is Little Blue Heroes chair Karl Heller at the ST Dublin venue, the very nice Crowne Plaza at Blanchardstown, with myself and ST organiser, Liz Lloyd.
We had a great attendance at both shows with some excellent introductions being made. It was the first time we had been at Dublin after three years and people came from miles away to join us. We will return! Can I thank everyone for their support, the exhibitors, those that gave and donated to the raffles, the delegates for coming out, and the staff at the hotels during the four days. The ST next stop is London Heathrow in the Radisson Red (formerly the Park Inn) on Thursday, November 3.
As a mark of respect we have moved the Women in Security (WiS) awards to Thursday, November 10, so make a note in your diaries especially if you were joining us. That’s going to be a great night and the last event for us for 2022. The dates for 2023 have been released so let us know if you want to be involved.
Onto gossip! Andy Cassidy has started a new position as Customer Engagement Manager at TKH Security, who specialise in smart electronic security, safety and parking systems. They have offices worldwide at 17 locations and are a member of TKH Group NV. You may know that Commend is also part of the group. I first met Andy in the early 2000s as he was at Videoswitch where he started in our industry back in 1995. In fact not many of you will know this but I did, many years ago, offer Andy a job with Professional Security Magazine, he turned me down though! Shame.
Also Chris Norton after taking a few months break has rejoined the industry working for Steve Liddiard (someone who did take a job with me once at Professional Security! small world) at Lilin. Now Chris has also been in the industry for many years and in fact started with Northern Computers in 1995, remember they sold out to Honeywell I seem to remember. I have known Chis for many years and once visited Canada with him when he worked for Senstar, we did a factory tour, or rather a field tour as they are all about perimeter protection of course. All I will say about that trip is that what goes on when on tour stays on tour. Ask Chris and he may tell you?
Mayflex, the distributor of IP products, has appointed Billy Hopkins as account manager for Converged Technology with an emphasis on IP Security. Billy joins from Hanwha Techwin Europe where he was based for the last three years as a National Account Manager. Prior to that he worked for IDIS for five years in business development and technical roles. Simon Steer, Director of Sales for Security at Mayflex said ‘he’s got great experience in the security market, and he has a strong technical background which I believe is extremely beneficial when selling IP security solutions and supporting our customers to make the right decisions.’
As I say next up is Security TWENTY 22 on Thursday, November 3. The night before (the Wednesday) is the charity night. We have a few special things planned for that night so make sure you don’t miss it, come along, it’s going to be a great night and that is a promise. Before that, see you at Consec, the annual show of the Association of Security Consultants, which will be in that fantastic venue of Twickenham stadium on October 13, another Thursday. What is it about Thursdays?!
