Normal business resumed yesterday for the UK security industry event series ST, when ST21 Birmingham ran at The Belfry on the outskirts of the city. It was the first Security TWENTY event since ST20 Birmingham in February 2020.
Roy Cooper, MD of the organisers Professional Security Magazine said: “We’re back. The event went very, very well. Lots of people came out, and lots were networking. Everybody seemed pleased to see everybody else, and lots of positive things on social media. A great shame I couldn’t be there, but I managed to be in and out on Zoom.
“I think it was a great success, and we are looking forward to the next one, at Manchester.” As Roy added, if all goes to plan, ST21 Manchester on Tuesday, July 20 will be the ideal place to celebrate the lifting of UK coronavirus restrictions, as will the networking dinner the evening before. Roy thanked all the exhibitors and visitors for keeping to the covid safety rules at the venue, for the evening meal in a marquee and the exhibition proper from 8.30am.
Sponsors were Seagate; Cloudview, of the evening drinks; IFSEC for the meal and the ‘Ifsecco’ drinks; and Hikvision, for the reception and the much-appreciated piece of kit at the door for counting people in and out; CSL for the tea and coffee, served outside; and BT for visitor lanyards. Roy also thanked Mike White, who’s been a regular friend to ST before the pandemic, as chairman of the conference; Mark Wall, and Bob Groom, for their volunteer help around the event.
To meet government rules the number of people at the event had to be capped at 250, hence the use of the counting product; while the count hovered in the 200s and 210s by late morning (pictured, with the Winsted stand in the background), and over lunchtime, that proved to be the peak, after a steady arrival of visitors over the morning, particularly after 9am; much as it tended to be in pre-pandemic years.
While visitors well used to face mask wearing and respecting social distancing went about their business without trouble, covid did make for a different ST experience; there were no copies of the magazine handed out, no ‘goody bags’ from exhibitors, and no conference; and lunch came in a paper bag rather than the pre-pandemic hot buffet lunch. For all that, a good many familiar faces were there and relationships renewed after 15 months since the last ST. There was one non-human visitor; Cash the NSI owl, on the National Security Inspectorate stand, who as ever drew plenty of interest and was good as gold all day.
For more photos of ST21 Birmingham visit the gallery page.
ST is free to attend and is aimed at end users, purchasers and those who specify security products, and anyone interested in seeing and hearing the latest in security products and services. We do ask that you register to attend; via the website or by emailing organiser Liz Lloyd at [email protected].
ST resumes after midsummer with the Belfast-Dublin pair of shows in September, Glasgow in October, and London in November (note that due to the pre-pandemic ST venue outside Heathrow being in use for quarantining of red list country travellers, ST21 London will have a new venue).
More in the August 2021 print edition of Professional Security Magazine.
