A happy Easter. So, did you manage to get to this years largest security show in Birmingham? I am talking about our Security TWENTY 19 event. We held it at the Birmingham Metropole hotel last month, we had over 80 exhibitors with their own stands and a great line up of speakers. Can I thank all our sponsors, exhibitors, speakers and visitors for making it our best event yet, which seems to be what happens every time we run these; they just get better and better.
A huge thank you for all of you that came to the charity dinner and to all those manufacturers that gave us raffle prizes, especially to Stuart Norris at Grattes for the auction prizes and to you all for your money. You may not be aware that we raised a massive £5,000 for DKMS, a charity that wants to wipe out blood cancer which was nominated by Grattes, as Ian Withal has had this illness and the charity have helped him through it.
But also I would like to thank IFSEC for the free bar, which was used extensively, by some more than others, as is always the way. Lots of you reminisced on how we all used to spend many an hour in that place, sometimes to the early hours, in the years of IFSEC at the NEC in May; and then struggled to get to our stands the next day. In fact some of you re-enacted that very situation, you know who you are!
Essentra told me that April Martyn, newly appointed Senior Business Development Executive, and Chris Anderson, Key Account Manager, saw a lot of interest in their ID solutions from the manufacturers Datacard and Evolis. Chris Anderson says: “System integrators were keen to see what a printed card would look like for their clients. Naturally this led to interest in the displayed Datacard CD815 ID card printer and its ability to print in colour, laminate and impress a tactile feature for extra security on up to 210 cards per hour.” Mind you visitors just needed to look at their own badge, as this was a printed ID badge. Anyway you can read more about the event from page 41; and can view even more pictures on the gallery part of our website. So that’s it; we are off to Glasgow to do it all again, so I hope to see you all there.
I posted a note on the Professional Security Facebook group (that I told you about last time; you’ve not joined it yet? why not?) saying give me a photo that you like and I will post the most liked one on this page. Here it is (Mary pic) and it’s actually a pet chicken owned by Liz Lloyd, called Mary? It lives in the house with her and her hubby and no Liz does not live on a farm! I don’t know why? Ask her, however that’s not really fair as she works for us. Number two was posted by Nigel Austin and I thought it was timely: a Brexit joke, in a ‘Now that’s What I Call Music’ style. Those of you who were not around in the 1980s or 1990s may need that explaining, or better still call it up online.
A shame I cannot print more as there were a lot of good pictures posted including one of Marie Tyler who is about to have a her second baby. We wish you all the best with that Marie, and you must find out what’s causing that. Thanks to you all for your pictures.
Hikvision have been growing the team in the UK and Ireland. They have no less than five new sales starters in the last couple of months. Neil Lafferty has joined as BDM for the South East working alongside Phil Wring who is taking on a more senior account management role. Also joining the southern team is Dominic Chandler-Johnson to cover the south west and South Wales. David Wood has joined from Meyertech covering the Yorkshire region; while Scott Gennard has joined from an installer to cover the Midlands. John Devine is covering Northern Ireland. And three regional sales managers have been appointed from within. Andy Coles will look after the south while Scott Davis will lead the northern sales team. And Ian Compton will head the ‘demand creation’ team.
GJD are back with their charity karting day, raising money for Downsyndrome.21. The date is Saturday, May 26 and the place, Bickmore Park International Kart circuit. They are looking for 25 teams of two to six drivers who will battle for six hours around the one kilometre track, needless to say you need to be 16 and over and can’t drink. If you want to take part or enter a team contact Greg on [email protected]. Greg tells me that he has already secured 12 teams leaving him with only 23 karts left, if you want to reserve a team, he will want a £50 deposit from you.
Jason Gregory, Thinking Space Systems’ northern sales man, has achieved ten years of service with the control room furniture manufacturers. To mark his anniversary, a plaque and card were presented to Jason with a personal gift by Managing Director Wayne Palmer; although I am not sure what that was? A desk maybe?
It is with a heavy heart that I have to inform you that Harry Slingsby died on February 19. Harry had worked within the intruder alarm industry for more than 50 years. A qualified electrician, he served his time with the London Electricity Board. He started in the security industry with AFA in about 1960, at first as a van driver, delivering materials to sites for the engineers. After about two years he got the job as a maintenance and service engineer. He was known to be a very conscientious engineer carrying out his work in a very professional manner, Harry, was there with the likes of other giants within the industry such as Michael Cahalane, John Harris, Alf Robjant, Alan (Tubby) Arnold. He became the electrical trade union’s shop steward for all the service departments of AFA (London) a post he held for many years and taken very seriously. The Management of AFA were grateful for his commitment to the smooth running of the company. Harry then went on to work for ADT at the Hemel Hempstead hub, answering telephone queries from engineers and clients alike, a position he held until he retired. He will be greatly missed by all those he worked with, and all those he helped over the 50 years.
