We came, we saw, we conga’d the night away (but before anyone could get too salsa’d we honoured all those who have demonstrated true excellence in security 2005) ...

Two tame gorillas... girls dressed IN birds’ feathers ... Carmen Miranda on stilts ... yes, this had to be the Security Excellence Awards!

Continuing our annual quest to give guests a night out to remember, this year we went the South Am-e-e-erican way (via the Hilton, London) to ‘Carnival’.

Once our 650 guests had sipped pre-dinner champagne and put on colourful garlands over their evening wear (as someone said, “got lei’d”) the evening kicked off to a salsa beat of great food, dancing and gambling ... and not forgetting the real reason for the event ... to honour all those who had demonstrated excellence in security during the past year.

Now in their seventh year, the security industry “Oscars” encourage professionalism and excellence in every sector of the industry … from installation to guarding.

Organised by Security Installer and its sister publications SMT and CCTV Today, the event was co-hosted by publisher, Lucie Burgess and my co-editors, Brian Sims (SMT) and Ron Alalouff (CCTV Today).

Providing the entertainment was award-winning funnyman, Armando Iannuchi, co-writer of The Day Today and I’m Alan Partridge.

Our chosen charity this year was the London Bombings Relief Charitable Fund set up by the Mayor of London in association with the Red Cross, and our charity casino raised thousands of pounds towards the fund.

A keynote address was given by the Chief Executive of the Security Industry Authority, John Saunders, who said he was proud that the SIA was associated with the awards.

For the second year running, young apprentices who had competed in the Apprenticeship Skills Challenge, staged at IFSEC, received their trophies in front of an audience of industry VIPs representing all the major organisations in the UK industry.

Glancing around at the faces present left observers in no doubt that anyone who is anyone in security now attends this essential black tie event which goes on getting bigger and better as each year passes.The only question remains ... what will the theme be next year? We’ll have to go a long way to top this one.

Sponsoring the awards

Sponsoring the awards

Our sponsors this year were:

ACPO CPI, managers of the Secured Car Parks project and the national Architectural Liaison Officers Conference.
G4S Security Services (UK) , the largest security company in the UK undertaking more than 31.5 million hours of guarding per year.
Intrepid Security Solutions, provider of integrated loss prevention solutions for retail and non-retail.
Nedap, provider of security for people and property through security management, access control and biometric identification.
Panasonic, the leading supplier of a single source contact for CCTV, EAS and source tagging systems.
Prima Corporate Wear, leading supplier of corporate clothing to the security sector, boasting 29 years in the business.
Security Industry Authority (SIA) , the body set up to manage licensing and regulation of the private security industry as laid down in the Private Security Industry Act 2001.
Southern Monitoring Services (SMS) , market leader in the provision of remote monitoring and associated services, which launched Northern Monitoring Services last year.
T-Mobile (UK) , the UK network of T-Mobile International, one of the three strategic growth areas of Deutsche Telekom AG.

Apprentice Skills Challenge

With the growing awareness of Modern Apprenticeships as a way to tackle the engineering skills shortage, the Apprentice Skills Challenge was staged at IFSEC 2005.

The “skills Olympics” had teams battling it out to see who could deliver the most technically sound system in a limited time. This year 54 apprentices from a variety of age groups undertaking a Modern Apprenticeship took part.

The challenge was to install in 1.5 hours an intruder alarm and complete the documentation based on the new PD6662 EN Standards. Three teams of two made it through to the finals at the NEC in May.
Tom Mullarkey (NSI) sponsored the second prize and Geoff Tate (SSAIB) sponsored third prize. Equipment throughout the contest was sourced by George Mullaly, Krypto Security.

Source

Security Installer