Now in its fifth year, The Security Event returns to the Birmingham NEC from 30 April – 2 May 2024, reuniting manufacturers, distributors, installers, integrators, consultants and end users. SJUK sat down with Tristan Norman, Group Director, 19 Group to find out more.

Can you share the inspiration behind organising The Security Event?  

The Security Event really was born out of the needs of the security industry in the UK.

A lot of our founding partners and premier partners and companies that have been with us since day one felt they were underserved by the landscape of security events within the UK and Europe.

After various discussions, we sat down with a blank sheet of paper and designed an event that was fit for purpose – location, key topics, key themes, the way we approach the market, the networking aspects, the size of stands etc.

From the outset our strapline has always been “designed by the industry for the industry” and we still feel like we live and breathe that today.

We’re not the security experts our exhibitors and our visitors are, as 19 Group we merely create the platform for the industry to shine.  

Our mission is to become one of the world’s leading trade shows for the security sector. We are in our fifth edition now, with over 400 companies represented.

This is our biggest and best edition ever. We’re now up there as one of the world’s largest security trade shows; we want to be seen as not necessarily the biggest, but the best and the one that supports its communities the most.  

What key trends in security can attendees expect to explore at this year’s event? 

I think the security landscape is ever changing; the integration and the vulnerabilities to physical security from cybersecurity threats are increasing on a day-to-day basis.

The National Cybersecurity show is there to help the security professionals understand that cyber threat more and safeguard their businesses and property and assets.

Increasingly the world of security now is in the cloud, so IoT and cloud security and the impact of that on traditional security systems and integrated systems is going to be a key trend.  

It would probably be remiss of me to not bring AI into this conversation.

AI is and will have a huge impact on our sector over the coming years so a huge amount of that will be on show.  

I know there are a lot of product launches that have been rubber stamped for our event in April and we can’t wait to showcase the latest innovations within the security sector.  

Can you highlight some key speakers or sessions that attendees should look forward to? 

We’ve really taken our content to a new level.

We have our Security Leaders’ Summit on site for the three days, so that’s a much higher level of engagement than we’ve ever had before.

That’s sponsored by Aramco – we’re delighted to have them onboard for the first year.

We will have keynote sessions delivered by Saudi Aramco and their partners on each day bringing their incredible innovation and solutions that they’re putting into practice out in Saudi Arabia to the forefront of the European markets.  

We’ve also got some fantastic sessions from the likes of BRE around the latest trends in forced entry, and on ED&I from the likes of Satia Rai who’s got both her IPSA hat and her Head of Belonging for Securitas UK hat on. 

We also have the latest updates from the SIA and The Security Institute.

Nick Aldworth has been right at the forefront of Martyn’s Law alongside Figen Murray since the very beginning, so he’ll be delivering his latest assessment on where we are with everything.  

In what ways does the security event foster collaboration and networking within the security industry? 

A true networking opportunity for the entire industry is what The Security Event represents.

We have more than 15,000 people over three days and we truly do believe it is the number one networking event for our industry, not just in the UK but now in Europe as well.

The significant increase in international traffic and visitors to our event is very prevalent from our pre-registrations.

We look forward to welcoming all our global visitors and putting our flag in the ground in the UK and making sure that when it comes to networking and collaboration, we are that shining light within the UK in Europe. 

How has the event adapted to the changing needs of the security industry, especially in the face of emerging threats? 

If you compare our first event in year one, we had some good manufacturers on board, but they were probably in the in the minority.

We had a lot of distribution partners who are still with us today.

The event itself was primarily for the UK trade audience, the security installers and integrators were the mainstay, and they are the backbone of the industry today – we’re certainly not moving away from that, if anything, we’re just adding to it. 

As the threats have evolved and our show has evolved, new elements have been introduced, for example, the National Cybersecurity Show that I mentioned earlier is now a well-established event in its third year.  

Last year we launched Professional Security Officer Live; we’re delighted to have the professional security officer community represented and some fantastic speakers on there as well.  

We have a large physical security element to the show this year spearheaded by the LPCB and their physical attack testing lab, with live demonstrations throughout the three days.

From cybersecurity to physical security, integrated security solutions and everything in between, we now feel like we’re covering the entire spectrum of the security industry and launching different areas and content sessions and live demonstrators to meet the emerging threats of tomorrow and give our visitors the opportunity to see the solutions that they need to be putting into place for their businesses. 

As we grow and as we have more diversity in terms of our exhibiting community.

We have a fantastic forum being put on by the Access Control Briefing Executives, which will really shine a light on the access control solutions of tomorrow, rather than what’s on what’s on display today.

So those are the sorts of things that are really starting to move the needle with our end user community. But the mainstay of our event and the thing that makes us as successful as we are today are the installers, integrators, consultants who loyally support our show as the place to meet their distribution partners and manufacturing partners for the next 12 months. 

I think my key messaging this year for the industry is that it really is going to be something not to be missed.

We have some phenomenal exhibitors this year.

You could come up with a list of 20 companies you’d like to see, and I’d probably place a bet that we’ve got all of them.

It is really well represented event in terms of our manufacturers and exhibitors and the excitement in the industry is palpable. 

This article was originally published in the March Edition of Security Journal United Kingdom. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.