EDIT Interview psi feb22_PSI_mar15 25/01/2022 08:54 Page 2
INTERVIEW
The big show returns! This month we talk to Gerry Dunphy, Event Director Fire & Security at Informa, about what will be in store at IFSEC this year when the industry can finally get together again at Excel in London for the first time since 2019 How does it feel to finally get a date in the diary for the next IFSEC? Mightily relieved and excited! If you think about it, the last time we hosted IFSEC was June 2019 which now seems to be from another era, given all that has happened in the intervening years. 2021 was particularly frustrating as we were in a constant stop/ start position trying to find a viable gap in the permissible periods to host the show but in the end, the restrictions made the decision for us. The one benefit of that situation was it allowed us to focus on 2022 with total clarity as well as testing loads of ideas and themes. You’ve had a while without an IFSEC to plan for – has this given you time to reassess anything in regard to the direction, aims or make up of the show? The entire period was an opportunity to take a higher level view of the fundamentals of what our shows are all about and what they represent
to the participating markets and industries. We took the opportunity to conduct research with the key installer audience and the major outcomes were around skills and training. There seems to be a genuine appetite for improving skills and learning particularly around new technology as very often anxieties challenges seem to arise when innovations appear. We hosted targeted training sessions online around areas such as fire alarm installation and video analytics with our partners at Skills For Security and it proved to us that bridging the knowledge gap is vital. This has subsequently led us to formulate a plan around IFSEC & FIREX Training at the shows this which will form a major part of our proposition this year for installers in particular. I won’t say anymore as there is a launch schedule in place. On a lighter note we’re very aware that everyone has been apart for so long that the need to engage with friends and colleagues has never been greater, so there will be a much greater emphasis on the social aspects of the show such as networking and the after hours aspects. We’ve already witnessed with the return of the Security & Fire Excellence Awards last November that there is a huge appetite for the security and fire markets to reunite in a social setting.
“There seems to be a genuine appetite for improving skills and learning particularly around new technology as very often anxieties challenges seem to arise when innovations appear”
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