Informa Markets, the company responsible for organizing and hosting IFSEC International and its co-located shows, recently announced that the event, which was originally scheduled to take place in September 2020, will now take place July 12-14, 2021, at ExCel London due to ongoing concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a statement, the postponement and rescheduling covers the following events:
- IFSEC International
- FIREX International
- Safety & Health Expo
- Facilities Show
- Intelligent Building Europe
- Workplace Wellbeing Show
- Counter Terror Expo, Ambition, Forensics Expo Europe, and World Counter Terror Congress (organized by Clarion)
“We know how important our events are as a forum where our communities come together to learn, network and meet suppliers. We have a proud track record of hosting the largest gatherings of any event in our industry in the UK, and often beyond, and no one is more disappointed in this decision than us, but after much deliberation we are sure that this is absolutely the right thing to do in the circumstances,” said Chris Edwards, Group Directors for IFSEC International. “Our focus over the last three months has been on ensuring that we can provide a safe and secure environment for our visitors, exhibitors and staff and whilst we felt confident of achieving this we also have a duty to our customers to provide an event that matches the standards they expect of us. Additionally, as you know these events have strong international participation and this would be severely compromised given the current restrictions.
“After carefully considering the options and following discussions with exhibitors and event partners it became clear that postponement is the most sensible option,” Edwards continued. “We welcomed many thousands of industry colleagues during our Digital Week in May and we continue to develop our online platforms to offer additional ways of connecting with the wider industry. We will continue to work with our customers to help them connect with audiences online using both our existing platforms and several new initiatives due to launch later this year.”
David Townsend, Event Director, CTX, Clarion Defence and Security, said: “CTX is an important milestone for security professionals from industry, infrastructure, government and policing to network and do business. So, while we are of course disappointed not to be holding the event this year, the decision is in the best interests of our customers, attendees, and suppliers. In addition, as a strategic counter-terror event with a global audience, a significant proportion of this audience typically travel from overseas. Given that governments around the world are continuing to advise against international travel at this time, we believe the most prudent course of action is to focus on bringing the community back together at CTX in May 2021. We will be working closely with our exhibitors and industry partners to shape a reunion to remember”.
