Let me start by wishing you a very happy new year, I hope that it brings everything that you wished for and more. And don’t forget to stick to those new year resolutions you have made.
Now I want to start, as I am a little excited, to tell you that our magazine has been featured in the new movie “Night at the Museum 3”. Some time ago we were approached by 20th Century Fox who asked if they could buy from us a number of our magazines as they wanted to feature it in their latest movie. Basically the Tablet of Ahkmenrah which brings the exhibits to life after it gets dark is being moved to the British Museum. When Larry, (Ben Stiller) arrives at the museum he meets Mindy a security guard played by Rebel Wilson. She is reading Professional Security Magazine at that point. She will probably ask Larry if he has read the latest in Roy’s Gossip! No I am getting carried away. We agreed to send nine copies to them for free and offered to knock up a dummy front cover which they agreed to. Some weeks later the magazines had not arrived so they sent a courier to collect nine further copies. Now they didn’t promise that they would use it but the trailer has just come out, I have say that I watched that trailer 20 times and there is a bit where Larry pulls up to the security gate and meets Mindy in the security hut, now if you look very carefully and don’t blink you will see on the desk behind her our magazine … now don’t blink otherwise you will miss it. OK I know that is sad, and sure you can only see a bit of it but it put a smile on my face. Professional Security Magazine as featured in a Hollywood movie.
Ok I mentioned last month that Andy Cassidy had joined Flir, well you will all know that Andy has been in the industry for some time, well since 1995 that is. I first met him when he was working for Videoswitch, he moved to Samsung in the days when there was only two or three of those guys and then onto Norbain. Now not many of you will know this but Andy was a member of the TA, that’s the Territorial Army, and not trained to kill like ex-SAS members that we know. As a result he has special skills, he has joined the Scout movement and is the ASL [sign language] and district nights away adviser, where he can put those skills to the test and teach the scouts some great tricks, he did this for my scout troop a year ago, and taught them how to dig in, make tents out parachutes, and build fires; he is a true Bear Grills. He will be concentrating on the UK and Ireland and we wish him well.
Also at Y3K, Dave Watkins has joined them. He is helping Paul with the massive expansion that Y3K are now undergoing with the deal with Senate Electrical, as you will recall this gives the company 104 local branches around the UK making it the largest branch networked distributor in the UK, I believe; unless you can correct me? Dave has already got to work and opened a new office for the company in Birmingham, in the famous Dunlop building.
Now talking of distributors it would seem that our friends DVS down in Wales have been growing very fast. They have recruited Louise Parsons as Area Sales Manager, Kylie Beach as Sales Coordinator, Lucy Newcombe as Internal Sales, Jake Britten (Looks like a young Johnny Depp) as Marketing Executive and Ryan Edwards to join the Warehouse Team taking their head count up to just under 30. I think we need to visit them!
It would also seem that Norbain have acquired CMS plc an IT distributor in Farnborough. CMS will continue to operate as a stand-alone business as part of Norbain.
Michael Flink has become the new President of ADI Global. He has been within the Honeywell – ADI organisation since March 2003 and seems to have travelled around for the company, ie he has been in New York, Amsterdam, Dubai, and is back in New York having being educated in North Carolina.
IDIS has announced the appointment of Billy Hopkins to the role of Regional Sales Manager based out of the IDIS European headquarters in Brentford, London. Billy brings with him over ten years’ experience from across the security buying chain including installation engineer through to manufacturer and distributor sales roles.
Charity
Thank you to all of you that supported our charity dog night which resulted in us being able to raise £4500 for the Worshipful Company of Security Professionals’ (WCoSP) charitable trust fund which is handed out to industry related charities ie the likes of Child victims of crime. So a huge thank you to the following: Selectamark, CSL DualCom, Xtralyis, Pyronix, Innerange, Panasonic, Anixter, Video tech, Axis Communications, Canon, Tavcom, Unipart, Raytec, Defence, Pelco, Winsted, Dallmeier, HIK and of course Samsung and of course all the quests that spent their hard-earned cash on the raffle and the famous head and tails game.
In October, Associated Security held a Halloween Masquerade Ball in aid of The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. The security firm hosted 70 guests who enjoyed a three course meal and entertainment from two live bands as well as fun from a table top magician and photo booth. A raffle and auction and the whole event raised just over £4000 for the charity.
