Roy Cooper wrote ahead of IFSEC in his April 2013 gossip column.
I will let you into a little secret; I am not good with heights. So when I attended the IFSEC 2014 launch the other week, you can imagine how worried I got when they told us that we were going on the new Emirates Air Line cable car from the ExCel exhibition centre in London across to the O2 Arena, the Millennium Dome. Yes this was the launch that UBM ran to explain to the industry why they have chosen to move the show back to London and in particular to ExCel. The 140 guests listened to the presentation by Simon Parker as to the reasoning behind the move and a presentation from ExCel themselves about the facilities in the area. To be honest I believe Simon when he says that the easiest decision for him and his team was to leave the show in Birmingham; but as he told me later, what was the point in doing two years of research on how to improve the show, to be told that most people wanted it back in London? and then to simply ignore it? To me the numbers stack up and I support the decision. I will get into UBM to interview Simon and share all the information with you as soon as I can.
However back to the the cable car. I asked a number of people to hold my hand, yes OK, ladies in particular, but as it happened they all disappeared on me and left me holding Gary Rowden’s hand. Yep, Mr Samsung himself, who I can say was much more scared than I was, as you can see from this pic, taken on my phone! Sorry, Gary. And I must thank Paul Singh of Y3K for talking about cable cars crashes while he shared our car with us.
Talking of events can I also congratulate Peter French and his team of hard workers for yet another successful spring ball (see page 78). Yet again Peter and crew managed to raise just under £30,000 not bad considering there was only 160 people in the room, I say only, that’s because you could not fit any more in. Did I catch you on camera? If you’re not in the magazine, maybe you’re on the ‘gallery’ part of our websit. And before you ask about the dark glasses, no it was not a 3-D night; it was a ‘Blues Brothers’ night.
So to that gossip you love so much. Steve Green is leaving Mayflex to join Vicon. Seems he has the opportunity to become the sales director once Mark Provencal moves back to the US in a few years, that is of course if Steve can prove he is the man for the job which I have no doubt he is. Good luck Steve. Yes that means there is a hole at Mayflex; Gary Harmer there tells me that he has already filled that gap and has recruited two new people. John Reid has joined from Siemens Security Products to cover the north west and Midlands and Peter Collins from Bosch joins on April 2, covering the north east and Scotland.
Also new Justin Barrett has left Lenel to work with Red Cloud, no surprise to you if you know Justin as Red Cloud was set up by the guys that owned Lenel before they sold it to UTC, so that means that James Wheeler has been promoted and now has Justin’s job. It also means that James is looking to recruit a new business development manager to replace himself. Well done to James. Anyone want to move?
Some of you will know Tony Mann from Visonic; he has joined CSL Dualcom as their new operations director. Tony has technical experience and of managing and leading operations. Is it just me or do you also think Tony looks a little like Simon Banks? Talking of CSL DualCom they have also announced Gemini Insight, a new web portal. Alarm receiving centres and installers can use it to investigate and control their DualCom connections.
You know from my January gossip that Phil Doyle has left Axis Communications to join Quadrant; and it has been announced that Atul Rajput is the newly appointed regional director for Axis’ Northern European region (including the UK). Atul has worked for Axis for 15 years. He is one of the most experienced video professionals in the security market and has been involved in some of the UK’s highest-profile network video developments.
Wavestore has appointed of Iain Cundy as Business Creation Manager. Iain is well known within the electronic security industry having for the last two years been Demand Creation Manager for Panasonic and he was previously the Sales Manager for JVC.
Nick Moss has joined Tavcom Training. Nick has worked for the last 14 years for the security division of Gratte Brothers which he joined as a Project Engineer and was promoted to technical manager. He previously worked for 10 years for the MoD as part of the team giving resettlement technical training to armed forces leavers.
Charity
Steve Nelson, Operations Director at Visual Verification, someone we have not heard from for a while, has asked me to let you know that he is doing a charity sky dive on April 13. The jump is on behalf of Bolton Mountain Rescue Team, and Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA) Wales. Steve is an active member of both. Steve has been in the security industry for three decades. Donate online: http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/supportmr Anything that encourages Steve to jump out of a plane has to be money well spent!?
Andrew Williams at the spring ball told me to say thank you to everybody that has sponsored me in support of his alcohol-free January and February. So far he has raised £1200 of his £1000 target. To donate any amount: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/tash4cash
