The dinner the night before the latest Security TWENTY event, ST17 Scotland, raised £2050 for a good cause. Money donated by diners at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Glasgow for the raffle, and traditional ‘heads and tails’ game, went towards the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. Pictured are centre, Roy Cooper, MD of Professional Security magazine, organisers of the ST series of events, and on either side sons of Mike Tennent, Paul (left) and Phil.
The fund-raising was in memory of Mike Tennent, of Tavcom Training, who died earlier this year. Roy said: “Mike was a very good friend of mine. The least we could do was to try and support Mike’s boys; I am really pleased to have done it.”
Roy also thanked Mike White, the conference chairman, and speakers; and event sponsors, Anixter, Hanwha Techwin, Hikvision, Seagate, CSL and Jacksons Fencing. Each of the ST events seeks to raise money for a good cause particular to someone to do with the show, or the security industry generally; at the next event, ST17 London on Thursday, November 2 at the Park Inn by Radisson Hotel at Heathrow the charity nominated is London’s Air Ambulance.
The heads and tails game came down to a table 11 tussle as the final two still in the game, after guessing correctly the first three straight calls as ‘heads’, before some ‘tails’, were Mark Rowe, editor of Professional Security, and Steve Russell of exhibitor Lochrin Bain, who won. The regular tosser of the coin was Damian Marsh of distributor Anixter, who again used an app rather than an actual coin, as first seen at the previous ST17 event at Harrogate in July. Damian was among the winners in the raffle, of prizes donated by exhibitors and others. As ever the dinner was a chance to catch up with old faces and get to know new ones; something new for ST was that staying at the Hilton was the Malta football team, playing Scotland in a World Cup qualifier at Hampden Park the same evening; they returned to the hotel having lost 2-0. Although the footballers didn’t attend the Tuesday conference and exhibition, those that did attend could hear a speaker with a Scottish flavour, Maxine Fraser of Stirling-based Retailers Against Crime (RAC), whose 20th anniversary conference is in Glasgow on September 12.
Information security and cyber consultant and trainer Mike Gillespie of Advent IM, who chaired the previous ST conference in Harrogate, was a speaker this time, on password security against hacking. Liz France, who chairs the regulator the Security Industry Authority gave an update on the SIA; Rick Mounfield the new chief executive of the Security Institute spoke on ‘pathways to professionalism’; and Paul Grainge, security manager at Middlesbrough-based PD Ports, on Teesport’s recent use of Port Security Regulations 2009 in court against ‘interference’ with security measures at the Middlesbrough port.
For more pictures of the dinner, and the next day’s conference and exhibition, visit the gallery part of the Professional Security website, which also has pictures from previous ST events going back years, indeed to the very beginning in spring 2013.
ST events, the conference and exhibition, are free to attend, whether you’re an installer, security manager, consultant or specifier; you can just turn up on the day, although organisers ask that you register beforehand, to help gauge numbers for catering – tea and coffee in mid-morning and a hot buffet lunch are free. Visit https://professionalsecurity.co.uk/security-events-and-conferences/security-twenty-home/st17-london/.
