Transport Security Expo is running in the National Hall, London Olympia, 14-15 September 2010.
Before the doors open to the expo, the organisers are ramping up for an event fully expected to break previous attendance records.
Being held against a backdrop of heightened threat levels in the aviation and maritime sectors and at a time of fundamental change in the regulatory framework governing the delivery of security in the passenger transport and supply chain networks, Transport Security Expo brings many of the leading thinkers within these three operationally critical areas together to debate the issues faced and determine solutions to them in two full days of conference supported by a world beating exhibition.
The year to date has been blighted by attempted and very real terrorist outrages across the transport sector with the hallmark being that suicide attack against people and infrastructure appears to be on the ascendency.
The attempted bombing of a transatlantic jet over the Christmas holiday period prompted US President Barak Obama to order rapid change in intelligence gathering and dissemination methodology, whilst the carnage on the Moscow metro system in March led to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev demanding a considerable strengthening of security across his country’s transport networks.
These are the most high profile incidents taxing the minds of record numbers of delegates attending Transport Security Expo, being held in its new home at London Olympia.
Conference themes in the passenger and supply chain arena include:
โขEnsuring passenger security
โขDelivering effective facilities security
โขEnhancing the overall civil aviation security architecture
โขNew solutions to emerging threats
โขOvercoming the human factor/technology disconnect
Meanwhile, international effort to subdue attacks against merchant shipping in the Horn of Africa/Gulf of Aden region continue to be less than effective. Earlier in the year the European Union (EU) Navfor Commander, Rear Admiral Peter Hudson, highlighted that new swarm tactics on the part of the Somalia based pirates had resulted in a substantive increase in the number of attacks against shipping in the region.
Self help is seen as the most viable option available and to that end The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Shipping Centre (NSC) will hold a tactical floor exercise at the expo.
This specialised full-day exercise offers much in the way of mission critical and real world advice designed to aid in the safe passage of shipping through such pirate infested waters.
Delegates attending this tactical floor exercise will discover:
โขWhat can be done to deter piracy
โขThe level of support that can be expected from military forces in the area
โขHow to prepare prior to departure
โขThe legal implications of armed/unarmed security
โขWhat to expect if boarded and what actions should be taken
โขThe process of negotiation
The EU has acknowledges that the pirate threat in the Horn of Africa region is an expanding phenomenon, both in terms of level of activity and range. This tactical floor exercise is therefore a mission critical event for merchant marine operators using sea lanes in this part of the world.
The troubling increase in both international terrorism and piracy seen since the beginning of the year, serves to emphasise that they remain potent threats to the global transport industry and its related infrastructure.
