Ahead of IFSEC at its new London home for a second year, Mark Rowe previews the show.
In a sector that loves gossip as much as any other, IFSEC gives exhibitors, and security people generally, a sure topic once a year. Last year they could ask: will people come, at the new London Docklands venue? Isn’t it so much harder to reach than the Birmingham NEC? Are there places we can go for a meal and a beer after the show? The short answers to all the questions were yes. Blessed as IFSEC 2014 was at its new time of year – mid-June instead of May – by bright weather (never something to be sniffed at, especially if you’re a smoker), people hardly missed the old venue. And certainly no-one seemed sorry that the new event was three days instead of four; the old NEC days that ran from Monday to Thursday wiped out a whole week for exhibitors, who had to set up their stands the weekend before, and, exhausted, take them down again on the Friday.
Motivational speakers
IFSEC’s organisers could feel vindicated. The ExCeL may feel surprisingly cut off after hours, though IFSEC could say that after 5pm is not their business. You might also ask why the decision to cut to three days wasn’t taken years ago. Just as TV-watchers will gossip about EastEnders or Coronation Street – which aren’t even real places – so IFSEC-goers feel a sense of ownership. For all the gossipy grumbles, IFSEC would have much more to worry about if people weren’t bothering. Having the security exhibition in one rectangular hall makes for easier visiting, compared with the three halls at the NEC in previous years. As in any year, time will tell which of this year’s tweaks will work. The motivational speakers, for instance. Given that the I in IFSEC stands for International, will overseas visitors have heard of Sir Chris Hoy, Baroness Karren Brady and Sir Ranulph Fiennes? Will UK private security people want to give up half an hour of their day to hear whatever they have to say? In fairness, audience tastes are hard to gauge. Few of the talks put on for visitors over the years have pulled in crowds. One on explosions did a dozen years ago; last year’s debate on the state of the contract guarding sector did. Likewise the show’s theme of ‘Safe Cities’ is of a piece with London First’s excellent conference last autumn, repeated this, on ‘World Cities’.
Why we go
All this talk, including by IFSEC itself, of what’s on offer to visitors misses the point of why we go there. It’s not so much to benefit from any of the talks or ‘innovation theatres’ or anything that the well-meaning organisers put on for us. We go because it’s still as it has been in living memory the yearly place for private security to gather in the UK. We would go if the event were at some county showground. We go to network, to meet, to pick up and pass on gossip. And for all the grumbles during the show of ‘what have you seen that’s new?’, consider what the IFSEC of, let’s say, 2000 exhibited. Since then have come advances in biometrics, video analytics, management software and megapixel cameras. Clearly between then and now, some new things have come, even if in a particular year they weren’t as obvious. Consultants, specifiers and installers, and end users with a problem or a budget (and perhaps both) do attend to learn from the exhibitors, and with a view to doing business, later. Why else do hundreds of exhibitors do the show? Also, more subtly, IFSEC provides a barometer of the world market. The overseas pavilions, of Korean and Chinese companies, for example, have been a feature for years; last year’s show was notable for some major stands by Chinese firms. As ever, size of a company’s stand can be a statement of intent, as much as a practical receptacle for hosting customers. That suits organisers, as IFSEC makes more money from selling larger stand spaces. And it always will.
Simple worth
Why shouldn’t it play on vanity, because we are talking here about human nature? For all the seeming miles of show floor, and the assaults on the senses, the worth of IFSEC comes down to the endearingly simple: arranging a coffee with an old mate, or bump into an old workmate. We go each year because we have business to do, appointments set; yet afterwards, isn’t it the chance conversations, the product that we’d never heard of and would never have thought to look for, that sticks in the memory? Any preview of IFSEC in that sense is useless: we go because otherwise we wouldn’t know what we’re missing. p
