Let me start by reminding all you romantics out there that this is the month that Valentine’s day falls in; don’t forget. And you can’t say you have not been reminded, because you just have. However before Valentines we are holding our first ST17 conference and exhibition in Nottingham on Thursday, February 9. Yep, the usual events, on different days of the week – the charity dinner will be on the Wednesday night, the night before, and this is being sponsored by IFSEC. We have a magician for this year’s dinner who may just be able to magic up some goodie stuff for IFSEC, nope not a discount for exhibitors I’m sure.
In fact this year we are spreading our wings and getting a bit larger, to 85 stands at Nottingham, with of course a great line up of speakers as always. You can’t miss it as for sure there will be something for everyone to see, or someone you have not seen for a while. It will be a great place to network and to be educated. So much comes out of these events, each and every time, and I get so many people thanking us for guiding them along.
We are back to Dublin in April “to be sure”. Sorry to my Irish friends I can’t help it! And we are at a new venue, Harrogate, in July. And no, not Mark Raine’s front lounge, although he did offer us it! We then see ourselves sneaking into Scotland, ‘aye’; ha, there I go again! We are coming to Glasgow in September and as in previous years back to Heathrow in November.
What about Wales “Ni all yn credo ei for” (can’t believe it)? We are holding a special event over two days in the Celtic Manor resort in south Wales at the end of March. A very special event as I say, 12 exhibitors and a select few buyers of installers, end users and security consultants. If you are interested in that, you had better email me directly [email protected] but needless to say Celtic Manor has seven restaurants, four golf courses and even two spas; hence making this one a two day event so that we can enjoy the facilities. I’m not sure if even the biggest fan of golf can go around all the golf courses in that time?!
For date and venue details of ST17 visit our web pages.
Let’s get into the latest gossip then, shall we?!
We should start by talking about our Scottish friends Veracity, who have acquired icomply. That’s the Leeds-based provider of command and control security software. The agreement includes all operational staff, software, intellectual property, ongoing business and icomply’s sales and support subsidiary in India. Alastair McLeod of Veracity has told Professional Security that they’ll maintain comply as a separate business and will expand its operations including an imminent move to larger premises near Leeds. Onto the personal and personnel details that you want to know; Michael Gallagher will remain in charge of icomply business development and be responsible for running sales, support and operations for the business. You can read the full details on our website. It was interesting that Alastair was saying last month, when he could speak about the acquisition having gone through, that often it’s a company that already knows the other company that does the acquiring, rather than complete strangers. Alastair spoke of how amicable the acquisition and indeed the negotiations were with icomply’s MD Hugh Barker. And right away icomply’s staff were in Scotland for the Veracity annual party, held after Christmas rather than before. For the record we asked if Veracity have any more plans to acquire and Alastair had a chuckle and the gist of his reply was that while you can never say never, they have no immediate plans to; which sounds only sensible as the digesting of icomply will take some time. “We have high hopes for icomply,” Alastair says.
On to HIKVision. Now I mentioned last month that Jeremy Furze had joined them, and they are continuing to recruit. They have also taken on Andrew Keeley, pictured, as their marketing manager and Scott Davis, yep without the “e”. Scott has also joined as BDM (business development manager) from Avigilon. But many of you will know him from his ADI days or maybe even Norbain. I first met Scott at Gardiners of course, yep he is the very tall one! Andrew also served with Norbain and has been doing some sub-contract work for the likes of Wavestore. Two good and well respected guys to join the team.
Briefly:
At CCTV firm Redvision Jason Morriss joins as Procurement and Operations Manager.
At Mayflex the distributors, whose 100th birthday is coming up, can you believe it! They have a new dedicated Technical Support Manager. Mustafa Masri joined on January 19, and will support the existing team covering the Middle East region.
Zebra Technologies has appointed Richard Hudson as VP and General manager in EMEA. Heald ltd the hostile vehicle mitigation product company has appointed Craig Mason as Business Development Executive. And to bring some French glamour to this page GJD has appointed Khadijah Onneby as the company’s new Sales Consultant for France with effect from Tuesday, January 3.
Charity
The inaugural Great Security Bike Ride will set off on May 10, 2017 from The Peak District, after an evening of networking in a local hotel. The ride is open to riders of all abilities. The peloton will travel around 180 miles (290km) over two days from The Peak District to the City of London. The group will arrive on May 11 to a celebratory reception hosted by The Worshipful Company of Security Professionals Charitable Trust.
They ride at the pace of the slowest rider and riders will experience road cycling from an elite rider’s perspective, including a full crew comprising technical support, medics, sports injury therapists, motorcycle outriders and lead car, as well as UK support staff.
Leaving you free to concentrate on turning the pedals and raising money for charity. The ride will be raising money for The Security Benevolent Fund administered by The Worshipful Company of Security Professionals Charitable Trust. Its a great opportunity to meet like-minded people from the security industry and make new contacts and friends while seeing the best parts of the beautiful UK countryside. Click here to sign up http://clubpeloton.org/security/.
