April already and I am looking forward to my first holiday of the year, which has been a long time coming; like it has for us all.
So much been going on since last month as life starts to get back to normal with a bang, did you get to Security TWENTY (ST22 for short) in Birmingham? So many of you did, so thank you for joining us. We had a fantastic turn-out and it was a very successful show, one of our best I kept hearing. Not only that but we managed to raise just under £4,500 for the charity Footprints which was nominated by Rob Evans from CSL. Rob and John Coleman did a great job at extracting money from the delegates in the nicest possible ways: either via a card machine, an iPad with a just giving page loaded or even cash for the raffle. Saying that can I also thank everyone for the raffle prizes that were donated, but we can’t not forget to mention Mark Hirst from Evolution who added £1250 to the pot. Wow thank you Mark. Our next ST22 event is in Glasgow on Tuesday, April, 26 with the charity night dinner on the Monday evening. Come along, you are all very welcome.
I also then attended the Worshipful Company of Security Professionals (WCoSP) spring ball in London. What a night, we danced to Irie J and ABBA – or rather a tribute band, not the holograms! I know, yes, dancing, I did put that in writing! Great food, great company, you always know it was a good night when your head is sore the following morning. The Worshipful Company had some 200 people in the room and so far have raised just over £35,000. I say so far because some of the auction items are still being sold. What a fantastic amount of money raised for charity, congratulations to Past Master Peter French and his team for doing a great job. The money is going to be shared across a number of charities, the usual Hackney Carriage divers that send some 400 cabs with terminally ill children and children with life changing disabilities, their families and medics to Disneyland in Paris; and the Security Benevolent fund that assists people in the security industry that have fallen on hard times. More needed than ever we heard.
Enough about that let’s share that gossip, starting with Vicon. They have appointed Darren Cawte as regional sales manager in the south west. Darren is fairly new to the industry having been with us for a mere six years. He worked at ERA Home Security as a Product Manager and UK Sales Manager, as well as at ABUS as Regional Sales Manager. Not many of you will know this but Darren started his career working overseas for TUI! I bet he has some stories to tell.
Technical Resources have appointed David Bowles as a company director after his purchase of a 15 per cent stake in the recruitment agency, which specialises in the security, fire safety, telecoms, IT, mechanical and electrical sectors. David began with the company as an apprentice 12 years ago, and then steadily worked towards operations director – his job for the past four years. Alan Derry, Managing Director at Technical Resources says: “We’re delighted with David’s promotion. It’s very well-deserved and demonstrates our commitment to training and advancing members of our own team. His personal investment in the organisation illustrates a secure and long-term future for Technical Resources.”
At the detection product firm GJD, and I defy you to say that over and over fast, Madeline Akinwumiju has recently reprised her role as Marketing Manager. Despite the global component issues, GJD has continued its marketing and has seen an increase in sales in the UK and globally. Madeline, who has returned from maternity leave has worked at GJD in the sales and marketing department. She joins with a degree in Public Relations and a background of marketing and PR in manufacturing, industrial and construction. And talking of GJD Greg Stuttle has announced the date for the next DSE (Down Syndrome Extra 21) charity race. He told me: “The pandemic prevented the last two races happening and we have had to wait until Buckmore Park were ready to start running team/endurance events again before we could get this booked. The slight twist for 2022 will be, that this year it will be a three-hour race (not six hours like previous years) and a maximum of 24 teams. We are just glad to be able to run the event again, as this is our main fundraiser of the year. Not being able to run one in 2020 and 2021 has made huge difference to the charity’s funds.” That is an important point about how so many good causes suffered through the pandemic, so note the date is Saturday, June 25.
At the key locker firm Traka their UK Managing Director Steve Bumphrey has made some internal promotions. Tom Smith becomes UK Sales Manager and Wayne Kynaston Major Accounts Manager. Ben Farrar has been moved to focus on healthcare trusts and partnerships.
Some acquisition news in brief: Motorola has acquired Ava Security, a supplier of cloud-managed video surveillance devices. More from them in the May print magazine, if you know them for their radios, they are a broad tech and security firm now, having acquired Pelco, Avigilon, and IndigoVision. Will they stop there?! And Johnson Controls has announced the acquisition of Envision Intelligent Solutions, a bespoke security business, specialising in technology-enabled remote monitoring and perimeter protection services, based in Northern Ireland.
