The Association of Security Consultants‘ chairman Joe Connell opened CONSEC 2016, thanked the sponsors and exhibitors and welcomed faces old and new to the best attended CONSEC to date. He writes:

I explained the threat comes in all shapes and sizes and so must the responses. ASC is adapting to reflect that broader scope of experience and has expanded over 25 per cent in the last year. All ASC events are aimed at ‘Learning, Sharing and Networking’ with like-minded professionals, but CONSEC is specifically aimed, not just at examining the here and now, but also taking a peep over the horizon at the emerging threat and the future threats; and considering how best we together, as advisers and providers of solutions legal, technical and human, can be best prepared and to provide effective solutions for our wide-ranging base of clients. I referred to the rich selection of speakers drawn from government, industry and academia, the strong representation of technical exhibitors, and the diverse audience all contributing to the value of CONSEC 2016. Quoting Henry Ford that ‘The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability’ I claimed that’s exactly what CONSEC is about: Knowledge, Experience and Ability.

Some of the photos taken at another successful ACS Business event

The Association of Security Consultants (ASC) is 25 years old in 2016, having been formed by a small group of experienced security professionals drawn from security, insurance, military and police backgrounds.

The current ASC chairman, Joe Connell, writes. Just to put the last quarter-century into perspective, ask yourself this question: ‘If, in 1991, you were told that you could save all your operational business information to the cloud, but need to protect yourself from cyber-attack, would you have dismissed the teller as a Sci-Fi fantasist?’ Possibly, but that’s how far we have come in just 25 years.

The 2016 Imbert Award luncheon, held at the Royal Air Force Club on 30 June, again proved a great success in bringing security professionals together. Matthew Fitton (Cranfield University) was the overall winner of the Imbert Academic Prize with his dissertation on British Counter-Terrorism Operations and International Law, tackling the controversial subject of Targeted Killing; Runners-up Claire-Louise Rushton (University of Leicester) researched and compared employed and contracted security personnel in the retail sector, and Kevin Larkin (University of Portsmouth) who research was on ‘The perception and mitigation of industrial and economic espionage on UK SMEs’. In the words of Lord Imbert all three finalists were winners and added the 'The Security Profession is the actual winner'.