Report: AEV Security Working Group, May 3 2017

The AEV Security Working Group held its first meeting of the year on Wednesday May 3, 2017 at Olympia London, with Andy Coulson of Farnborough International in the Chair.

Coulson welcomed the attendees and thanked Olympia London for hosting the meeting, before proceeding through the formalities of approving the minutes of the last meeting, round-table introductions for the benefit of new members, and the reading of the apologies.

Formalities duly concluded, Coulson introduced the first guest speaker to the group, Simon Ancliffe of Movement Strategies, who gave a thought provoking presentation on many aspects of venue security, including crowd behaviour in emergencies, security screening, and movement tracking technologies. Thanking Ancliffe, Coulson added that a copy of Ancliffe's presentation would be circulated after the meeting.

The next speaker introduced by Coulson was Daniel Lawrence, from the National Cyber Security Centre talking about the Cyber-security Information Sharing Partnerships (CiSP). CiSP is “a joint industry and government initiative set up to exchange cyber threat information in real time, in a secure, confidential and dynamic environment, increasing situational awareness and reducing the impact on UK business.”

Lawrence, having addressed the group before on the subject of cyber threats, explained the advantages of CiSP membership for AEV member venues. He added that CiSP is a sharing platform for sharing information about cyber threats and incidents with free membership. Lawrence said the CiSP website is full of cyber security advice, threat intelligence, help and guidance, and that CiSP had already set up an AEV space on the site for members. Lawrence concluded by asking members to join the platform and start contributing, and that he would post any additional information to the AEV space that members felt they needed.

The group then moved to the day's discussion topics, including an update from NaCTSO on the current terrorism threat, and a review of earlier discussions about standardising emergency code words. It was noted that standardised emergency code words across venues would be a benefit to security contractors who work across different venues. The whole group agreed to examine whether their companies would be willing to agree a set of standardised emergency code words.

Further discussion topics included an update from the chair on the last two CPIE meetings and a discussion of the status of weapons and replica weapons in the eGuide in light of the growing number of  ‘cosplay' events where many visitors are wearing costumes and carrying props.

Due to time constraints, round table news and general venue updates were not discussed, and the group was asked to table agenda items for the next meeting with AEV via email.

Lastly, the group set the date and venue for the next meeting as Wednesday October 25 at Goodwood, before Coulson thanked the assembled members for their time and contributions, and closed the meeting.