Roy's Monthly Gossip

Awards month

by Mark Rowe

Here it is; summer. It’s not quite the heatwave we had last year, sadly, but at least regardless of the weather we are seeing the slow lifting of restrictions.

However some events are still staying online. Two, in date order, are the ACS Pacesetters Security Officer of Distinction awards which will be broadcast on Wednesday, June 16 and the BSIA annual awards, broadcasting on June 30. I found myself as a judge on both these awards and in fact I will be hosting the Officer of Distinction awards. You will remember that I compered our own Women in Security (WiS) awards in February, so I have quite got the hang of it!

As a BSIA judge I had to read the large number of nominations; and there were, I was told, four times as many this year than in previous years. Now I can tell you that judging was no small task, as there was a very large number of nominations for both sets of awards. I liken it to reading a new crime book with hundreds of chapters and lots of stories, you have to concentrate; as one nomination can easily merge into another. So I tended to do this in the evening or weekends without the disruption of ‘phone calls.

I soon became aware that some people face some very difficult challenges and we should not be thinking that life on the front line officer is easy. Sure it maybe some days but other days some of these officers are having their lives threatened, facing people that are suffering with mental heath issues, drugs and violence, being chased by robbers, attending to car crashes; the list goes on.

Of course we saw that covid has taken its toll on these key workers as well. These are just some of the subjects within the nominations and I don’t know who has won, at all as of yet, so don’t ask me. But I do know that I felt that there were many more winners than awards to give out. I would make a note however that I was not aware of the people nominated or knew much about the companies nominated (I knew some of course) so it is all down to the nomination and the person that writes them as it’s their job to get across to the judges why this person or company should win. As someone who has given thought to this from our own WiS awards, can I say that some are better at doing this than others.

So, if you are interested then support these events and maybe you will be as impressed as I was. We are also a media partner to the Security Excellence Awards which will be on November 23. They are saying that these will happen either live in London; or virtually like last year, as the show must go on, let’s hope its live! These awards are now can you believe in their 22nd year; so that’s something to look forward to.

However our events will be live, all being well, as Security TWENTY is back on Tuesday, June 29 at The Belfry just off the M42 with ST21 Birmingham. We are holding an informal BBQ the night before on the Monday, and you are welcome to join us as it will be our first live security event since February 2020 and the first time since the pandemic you will be able to meet your peers and customers from the industry in the flesh, having been grounded for so long. It will be fun but it will also be safe of course as we will stick to strict guidelines. Shout out if you want to join us; just sign up at our website on this link.

Talking of ACS Pacesetters, a member company Kingdom has made further acquisitions, their biggest yet in fact they report; of cleaning contractor Facilicom, and on the guarding side Trigion.

Other gossip for you:

Firstly Sarah Barnes has secured herself a new role with B-Tech AV Mounts as Northern Key Account Manager. You may recall Sarah was at intercom firm Aiphone for a while but before that worked with distributors Norbain for some 14 years.

Phil Tennent dropped me a note: “I hope you do not mind, but we are pretty proud of ourselves down here in Hampshire. This month we were recommended for ISO 9001 and (ISO’s 17100 and 18587 translations specific) international standards certification (yet to be announced officially)”. You may recall that Phil works alongside his wife Beatrice and they run a translation company called Marsolutions. You can read more about Phil’s achievements on this link https://atc.org.uk/marsolutions-is-the-atcs-member-of-the-month/.

Alister Enser CEO at Reliance High-Tech has become a partner in the Zitko Talent Partner scheme. He said: “There’s no doubt that as a rapidly growing industry we’re going to need many more skilled engineers and technicians in the coming years. And the time to prepare for that demand is now, by attracting a new generation of entry level trainees. We’ve long supported the apprenticeship scheme and we’re very happy to be doing the same with Zitko Talent. It offers a fast-track route into our business, not only for college leavers but for experienced engineers we could reliably cross-train from other sectors.”

Johnson Controls announced it has acquired Esotec. That’s a security systems company that offers managed services for government, national heritage, transport and others in the UK. Didcot-based Esotec’s services span installation, maintenance and support, and design and consultancy. The aim, Johnson Controls says is to bring its specialist services directly to a nationwide customer base, rather than relying on sub-contractors for installation service contracts.

Atos has acquired Ipsotek. Atos’ and Ipsotek’s say that combined they will create a unique proposition across the entire value chain for the public sector, retail, manufacturing, transportation, and critical infrastructure sectors.

Last but not least, the control room furniture company Winsted has appointed Andy Graham as EMEA Sales Director. The firm says that Andy’s appointment comes as part of a reorganisation of the leadership team. Joining from Legrand, Andy, pictured, brings with him over 25 years’ experience from the audio-visual (AV) industry. No, not the other Andy Graham, from Barrier Surveillance that’s spending most of his time on the golf course these days.

Related News

Newsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay on top of security news and events.

© 2024 Professional Security Magazine. All rights reserved.

Website by MSEC Marketing