I have to say that under the current situation there is not a lot of gossip this month, but let’s not let that stop me from carrying on.
We all know a number of people that have been struck down with the virus, but all those that so far I am aware of have pulled through. thankfully. Our very own Liz Lloyd has had it, as did Mike Gillespie the cyber security trainer and consultant and Professional Security editorial board member. Liz had mild symptoms, Mike was really poorly; but managed to stay out of hospital. Although when I FaceTimed him I thought he should have been taken in, if I am honest. I have read via Linkedin and other social media posts of a number of people from our industry that have not survived the illness and our hearts go out to their family, friends and colleagues at this sad time.
I am, like most of you still struggling to understand how in today’s world we can find ourselves being locked in, and at the mercy off this thing that we can’t see or defeat at the moment. It has made us think outside the box and work differently. I think we will see a lot more people working from home now, as many thought they could not do it; but here we are. We at Professional Security have all worked from offices in our homes for the last three or so years so in that sense at least it’s just a normal day for us; other than the fact there are other people around where normally we have the house to ourselves.
We have seen a massive rise in people reading the magazine online, so check out our new sexy mag, why sexy? It now comes with videos, moving and web pages. Likewise we have always offered to send the magazine to your home address as we never, ever, sell our database, to anyone. So if you still get your mag sent to your office, then email me and I will get it sent to your home. With the new online mag comes a new app, but we are not ready to launch that, just yet; keep your eyes open and watching out for that.
One of the first things that we did when the virus hit the UK was to look to our Security TWENTY events, because ST20 have had to be rescheduled in case you missed that. Glasgow was supposed to run on April 22; that’s now moved to November 24, and let us hope the early Scottish winter will be kind to us there! Because IFSEC moved to early September – and in any case the Excel Centre has become a Nightingale hospital – we have had to move our Irish pair of events that were also early September. Belfast is now running on Tuesday, September 29, and Dublin is on the Thursday, October 1, giving us time to head down the M1 – the Irish M1 that is – and set up in good time. Likewise after a negotiation with the Celtic Manor resort in South Wales our ‘speed dating’ event STS has moved to October. We will confirm the exact date as soon as we can. As I write we are still booked in for ST being next in Manchester (pictured, ST19 exhibition) on Tuesday, July 14. Will we have to move it? Or will this be the first security event once lockdown is lifted? That my friends I can’t answer yet, much as I would dearly like to.
But there is some gossip. Firstly, Pauline Norstrom. You may have known that Pauline has set up her own consulting company called Anekanta ltd. And as a result is working together with a company called GT Digital ltd to progress their patent pending, cognitive intelligence platform MediaMaestro. Through its military grade proprietary algorithms, MediaMaestro can automatically predict emerging threats before they happen, enable mitigating action and provide continuous updates to a rapidly evolving scenario. She told me: “My interest in artificial intelligence in the security domain, is rooted in putting technology to good use in order to benefit society as a whole. GT Digital Ltd’s innovative cognitive intelligence platform aims to do exactly that by preventing acts of disruption before they happen. I am delighted to be working with Gary Olson, Len Fertig and the team to help them develop the proposition and move the business forward to the next stage.”
The Bradbury Group has appointed a new Group Managing Director. Richard Butler has been appointed as MD and of its four subsidiaries: Bradbury Security, Newton Security Doors, Martin Roberts, and Liddle Doors.
Mayflex has appointed a new account manager, Matthew Farthing to manage and develop accounts in the Midlands and surrounding areas, with a specific focus on the security product portfolio as part of the distributor’s converged (networked and physical security) solution. Matthew joined at the end of March and comes to the Birmingham firm from a security installer background, so is familiar with the type of customer Mayflex works with. Having worked in a general sales and national account management role, Matthew is undergoing a full induction, albeit remotely, to prepare himself for when he can get on the road to visit his customer base.
I see that Bosch are ending their agreement to distribute the Sony branded products and that Sony will cease to take orders of CCTV camera as of September 18, the last deliveries being sent out in December; so that would appear to be another Japanese manufacturer gone. Wow not sure what that means re chipsets these days as Sony was one of only two that used to manufacture chip sets.
And talking of Bosch, I read that in six weeks they came up with an automated rapid test for COVID-19. The molecular diagnostic test runs on the Vivalytic analysis device from Bosch Healthcare Solutions. A lot of people are hard at work in that field.
Anyway that’s it for now, stay safe, stay indoors and take care, we will come out of this stronger and I feel with a different attitude.
