It was hot outside in Harrogate, and hot inside the Majestic Hotel yesterday for the latest event in the Security TWENTY series of conference-exhibitions, ST18 North, yesterday. The evening before was also hot, but at least under the chandeliers the heads and tails game during the networking dinner wasn’t that strenuous. From questions prepared by Professional Security Magazine sales manager Ryan Lunn, Magazine MD Roy Cooper as compere asked diners to guess whether distances between places around the UK were higher or lower. The last two still standing were Shaune Pates of exhibitor Silvernet; and one of the ST18 North speakers, the consultant Simon Whitehouse of SGW Consulting Group, one of the speakers at the ST18 North conference in the same room, the next morning. Simon’s sense of distance pipped Shaune’s, and the two men shook hands.
As ever that heads and tails game and the raffle raised cash for a local good cause, in Harrogate’s case The Rainbow Fund, mums and a dad in the Yorkshire spa town that have been affected in some way by illness and life-limiting conditions in their children, as a charity raising money for equipment. Pictured are Caroline Carter, a Rainbow trustee, and Roy Cooper outside the Majestic.
While a conference heard from speakers including Liz France, the chair of the Security Industry Authority (SIA), some 75 exhibitors, manufacturers, distributors and industry associations ASIS UK, the Security Institute and the Association of Security Consultants (ASC), were open for business.
Next stop for ST18 is in Dublin, on Wednesday, September 5 at the same venue as in the Republic of Ireland in previous years, the Red Cow Moran Hotel on the outskirts of the city. It’s free to visit the conference and exhibition. You are free to turn up on the day, but organisers ask that you register beforehand, to help gauge numbers for catering, as the day includes bacon butties for early arrivals (from about 8.30am when the exhibition doors open, while the conference opens at 10am and runs until lunch). You can also enjoy mid-morning tea and coffee and biscuits, and a hot buffet lunch. Doors close at about 4pm.
More words and pictures in the August 2018 print issue of Professional Security magazine; also see the gallery on our website.
For the rest of the dates and venues covering the UK and Ireland over the year, and more on ST events into 2019, visit https://professionalsecurity.co.uk/security-events-and-conferences/security-twenty-home/. One change for your diary; the first ST event of 2019, ST19 Midlands, will not be in Nottingham but in Birmingham, where the very first ST event was held.
