Infosecurity Europe is now the largest Information security exhibition in the world, organisers report.
They point to 6172 square metres of stand space (approx 68,500 sq ft) and 282 primary stand holders and 350 exhibitors (including companies sharing stands).
Attendance in April 2006 broke records with numbers up by 7pc with 11,635 visitors compared with 10,874 in 2005. Organisers report that the event was truly international this year with almost a third of companies exhibiting from overseas; a large contingent of companies exhibited from North America, South America with the "BRASEC" Brazilian Pavilion, Asia and Australia. Infosecurity also saw interest from overseas visitors with almost 1000 attending from as far afield as USA, Japan, and Israel. As for the education programme, Gary Mckinnon in the ‘hacking session’ made his last public appearance where he was able to talk about his experiences as a hacker – this was before his trial which has resulted in the courts allowing his extradition to the US. The ‘Lion’s Den’ was also a crowd-puller, say organisers, where seven vendors faced Europe’s most knowledgeable IS buyers in a head-to-head battle where the products were scrutinised – leaving just one company standing – the winner was BeeWare with their product Intelliwall I-Sentry.
The final results of the DTI Information Security Breaches Survey were also revealed at the show with the key finding that Information security was now a very high priority for UK business with three-quarters of senior management or board directors taking the issue of Information security as a chief concern and therefore spending more money than ever before with budgets up by an average of 4 to 5pc.
Chris Potter, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP who manages the DTI information security breaches survey said: "We chose Infosecurity Europe as the launch venue for the DTI information security breaches survey because the show attracts a huge attendance of information security professionals and business people with information security concerns – it was certainly the right forum for the survey and proved to be a great success all round."
What organisers report
Claire Sellick Infosecurity Europe’s Event Director said: "This year topped the previous decade of Infosecurity shows with the quality of visitors, exhibitors and educational programme. The exit polls showed a great deal of business was done at the show and with the high attendance at IT director and senior management level the exhibitors were very happy indeed. It was also pleasing to see the large numbers of overseas visitors who had come to the show with a purpose – and every seminar and keynote was packed to the brim which shows that Information security has at long last arrived and is no longer viewed as a one-off fixable business issue!"
