NSI Chief Executive Richard Jenkins
After three years at the National Motorcycle Museum the NSI Summit is moving to a new, bigger home. But that’s not all that’s new for 2017…
This year the NSI Installer Summit is taking place on 30th March at the Vox Conference Centre in Birmingham. To find out what we can expect from the 2017 event and why the show is moving, PSI sat down with NSI Chief Executive Richard Jenkins:
How are the preparations going for this year’s Summit?
We’re just a few weeks away from the event now, so we’re in the final straight! We’re very excited about this year’s show because we’re upping the stakes and moving venue over to the Vox on the site of the Birmingham NEC. There were three main drivers for that decision but the most important was the central location at the NEC, meaning that visitors can easily travel, by road, rail or air. Free dedicated parking is located just five minutes from the venue, so whether travelling by road or rail the venue is only a short walk away.
Another attraction of the Vox is its being a destination in its own right – with leisure activities right outside the front door of the Summit, all under one roof. The restaurant, cinema, health/leisure spas onsite mean that if installers want to make a day of it and bring some staff for a celebration or friends and family while they attend the event there is plenty for guests to do. Hopefully this will appeal to those who have attended over the last few years and become familiar with the previous model. Another reason for the move is the space; we had a lot of interest from exhibitors over the last couple of years so we are now looking to expand the exhibition side of the day. We will have of the order of 60-plus exhibitors in addition to the headline sponsors Avigilon, IFSEC International, BT Redcare, RISCO, CSL and Texecom.
What have you got in store for the seminars?
As far as the plenary sessions are concerned we’re really trying to focus on sessions that support our goal to raise standards.
Over the previous three years the plenary has been well received, but we have refreshed the approach and taken the view this year that “less is more”. We’ve targeted subjects of specific interest that merit more time, maybe 20-30 minutes each. The focus will still very much be on trends and market insights and there are three main areas we want to cover.
Firstly we’ll address the collaboration between public and private sector with a presentation from expert witness Graeme Dow who will be looking at the Hatton Garden heist, reflecting on how the story unfolded and the lessons learned.
Secondly there will be a focus on the environmental credentials for installers looking to do business with bigger industry players. We all know the environment is more important these days and there are more hurdles in terms of pre-qualification for installers, and gaining supplier approval with buying organisations is becoming even more important, so we’re putting emphasis on that.
The third main area of focus is cyber, specifically the security of clients’ information and the risks of attack. A senior speaker from the Government’s own cyber department, ‘Cyber Security Europe, Data, Digital and Security Directorate’, will give some insight on that topic, including an overview of the recently launched Cyber Security Centre.
Finally we will have a case study presentation from the in-house security team of a global manufacturer – a household name well known to everyone – Jaguar Land Rover. They will present their view about security management, how it applies in the widest sense within their business, demonstrate their belief in significance of security management for all employees in the business, and how they approach the 3 main topics if the day, namely Collaboration, Environmental and Cyber within security management, and work with security providers.
We’re certain this will be an interesting and dynamic round-up to a series of fascinating speakers.
Read the full interview in the March 2017 edition of PSI magazine
