If you were at one of Professional Security Magazine’s Security TWENTY events in Ireland last week and enjoyed them, take note – the next one is coming sooner than you may expect.
That’s because the ST order is having a rejig for 2024. Traditionally, in fact from the very beginning, the ST year has begun in the Midlands; but not for 2024. ST24 opens in Dublin, on Tuesday, February 6, and moves on to a new venue in Belfast, the Crowne Plaza, on the Thursday, February 8. The Midlands ST has moved to September, to allow for another ‘summer sizzler’ event that will start at midday and run into the early evening with food and some entertainment.
Professional Security MD Roy Cooper explained the change of venue in Belfast is out of the city centre, which gives plentiful parking and space for loading and unloading. The Crown Plaza on the southern outskirts of Belfast has a curry house inside. It’s a tradition of ST is to hold a gathering the evening before the actual ST show – for some years it was a sit-down affair, then after the covid pandemic the trend went to something more informal. “We’re going to have a curry banquet,” Roy said of ST24 Belfast, and he will be encouraging the exhibitors to invite their friends and customers to come along, ‘to enjoy a curry on us’.
Roy said that he was pleasantly surprised by the number of people that came to the ST Ireland dates last week: first at the Crown Plaza Blanchardstown last Tuesday (the ST24 Dublin venue again) and then on the Thursday at the Europa in the city centre. “And we had some very influential and key people that came out to see us. It was a steady flow, as opposed to surges.”
Dublin, he added, had the better attendance than Belfast, which he put down to the fact that ST is currently the main security exhibition in the city’s calendar.
For the gallery of ST23 Belfast photos, and for ST23 Dublin’s, visit the ‘gallery‘ part of this website.
It only remains to mention the final ST event of the year, as usual in London. ST23 Heathrow runs at the Radisson Red Hotel, at the round-about where the turning is for Heathrow Airport’s tunnel. Doors will open around 8.30am on Thursday, November 2, and close about 3pm.
About ST
Come for the scones or bacon butties served first thing, or the mid-morning tea and biscuits, or the hot buffet lunch, or stay for all three; visit the exhibitors’ stands offering networked, electronic and physical security products, whether hardware or software, or the numerous industry inspectorates and associations’ stands (at Dublin, the Irish Security Industry Association, the ISIA; at both Belfast and Dublin, the Association of Security Consultants).
It’s free to attend an ST event; all the organisers ask is that you sign up beforehand, so as to help gauge numbers for the sake of catering. Although, we accept that some people arrange to attend only at the last minute and they can sign up at the arrival desk. You can register on this link: https://professionalsecurity.co.uk/security-events-and-conferences/security-twenty-home/.
Photo by Mark Rowe: The FAAC stand at ST23 Belfast.
