ASIS International held its 14th European Security Conference & Exhibition on March 29 to 31, 2015 at the Messe Frankfurt Congress Centre in Frankfurt. Almost 500 attendees from 46 countries gathered in Germany for networking events, industry presentations and an industry exhibition showcasing European suppliers of security technology.
The event kicked off on the Sunday, March 29, with tours of the Headquarters of Deutsche Bank and the Operation and Security Center at the Messe Frankfurt and meetings of the European Advisory Council of ASIS International and the organisation’s region and chapter officers. This was, followed by the Welcome Party – Powered by Nedap.
On the Monday, the conference opened with a keynote presentation by Dr Thomas de Maizière, Federal Minister of the Interior of Germany. The Minister gave an overview of the security situation, in particular for industry and introduced the economic security architecture in Germany. This included the security authorities such as countermeasures against crime and espionage, also in cyberspace.
This was followed by a day of sessions on topics such as “the future of security technology”, “protecting soft targets from hardline Terror”, “social media – how does policing respond to mass data in crisis” and “eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons – the security challenges for the OPCW”.
In the evening delegates gathered for the President’s Reception, hosted by ASIS President Dave Tyson CPP and sponsored by Tyco Integrated Fire & Security at the Palmengarten Gesellschaftshaus.
Prof Martin Gill opened the next day with a keynote presentation on security excellence, after which the conference continued with sessions such as “the rise of the jihadists – the second stage of the Arab Spring”, “security awareness – sharing best practices” and “a pharmaceutical’s approach to mitigating the insider threat.
The conference was closed by Axel Petri, pictured, SVP Group Security Governance at Deutsche Telekom AG, Germany, who spoke about the impact of the Snowden revelations on the telecoms industry and need to regain the trust of the consumer.
Both conference days also featured a CSO Roundtable Summit, organised by the CSO Roundtable, the forum for most senior security officers within ASIS International.
London is the venue for the 2016 European event from April 4 to 6.
