United Business Media Live Division’s desire to energise a Dragons’ Den-style arena in which up-and-coming technologists in the security space can compete for future development funding came to fruition at Birmingham’s NEC when nine finalists battled it out to see who would triumph in the first-ever IFSEC Future of Security Competition.
iOmniscient, OmniPerception, Inquisitive Systems, 2020 Imaging, ScanTech, Whitenoise Labs, Audio Analytics, BRS Labs and BriefCam all pitched their innovative security solutions to a learned Judging Panel, the members of which asked several searching questions as part of a brand new strand to IFSEC conceived alongside the Global Security Challenge and subsequently launched last September.
UBM Live’s Security Portfolio is delighted to announce that this year’s winner is 2020 Imaging, the company directly responsible for the much-discussed TuchControl product.
Only recently the subject of a detailed feature on SMT Online – see the link at the foot of this page to read more – this solution may yet prove to be ‘the game-changer’ when it comes to the future ergonomics of surveillance-based Control Rooms as we know them.
Aside from the Judging Panel’s ‘stamp of approval’, 2020 Imaging wins a cheque for US$10,000.
Seal of approval for new ideas
2020 Imaging managing director Nigel Barrington’s concise yet detailed pitch clearly impressed the judges, who were each asked to score entrants on a scale of one-to-ten (ten being full marks) in accordance with four categories: disruptiveness, cost-effectiveness, pain addressed/media interest and business value/IP.
Speaking about his company’s success, Barrington enthused: “This means a great deal to us. Over the last couple of years we’ve struggled to deliver a unique product in what is a very competitive market. The seal of approval that winning this award gives us means more than anyone can imagine.”
Barrington added: “The prize money will help a great deal, but even more so the very fact that we’ve won this award as an SME gives us additional credibility to be able to work closely with integrators, promote our role in developing new technology and take our solutions even further forward.”
The pre-show online judging scores combined with those from the Live Final realised the following overall marks in what was a closely fought contest:
Chairman of the Judges was Brian Sims, the group content editor of UBM Live’s Security Portfolio and editor of Security Management Today Online (the end user channel within Info4Security.com)
Also on the 2011 Judging Panel were:
‘Next generation’ of security solutions
“In tandem with the Global Security Challenge, all of us within UBM Live’s Security Portfolio harbour a burning desire to unearth the ‘next generation’ of security solutions,” commented Brian Sims.
“We want to challenge the brightest minds throughout the security world to come up with radical new ideas. Once solutions providers have fulfilled their part of the bargain, we then wish to do our duty by assisting them to secure funding, industry partnerships and access to top end customers who will help our industry’s entrepreneurs to progress their goals.”
Over many years, of course, IFSEC has served as the perfect platform for product launches and technological developments that have drastically altered the way in which we ‘do’ security, and very much for the better.
There’s a recognition that the market’s tough just now, especially so for the smaller companies, so there’s an altruistic desire on the part of UBM Live’s Security Portfolio and Raytheon to nurture new ideas.
Indeed, so impressive were the 2011 submissions that Raytheon has already expressed an interest in mentoring several of the companies involved in the IFSEC Future of Security Competition.
Congratulations to 2020 Imaging and, indeed, all of this year’s finalists!
The 2011 IFSEC Future of Security Competition was supported by SITC, Blue Star Capital, ADS, Kingsbury Ventures, Kromek and the Global Security Challenge
UBM Live’s Security Portfolio would like to thank the inaugural IFSEC Future of Security Competition headline sponsor Raytheon and also Global Security Challenge’s Simon Schneider and Greg Eredics for their magnificent support
