Euralarm: speaker line-up at Euralarm Symposium 2018

The Euralarm Symposium has established itself, in the course of five years, as the most important event on significant market developments of innovative, legislative, regulatory and standardisation nature, impacting one of the most successful Industries in Europe: electronic security and fire safety. The speakers at the Euralarm Symposium 2018 have now been announced, with only a few additions still to be confirmed.

The event will take place in Bucharest, Romania, on June 4th. Fire and security professionals, installers, manufacturers, end users, building managers and certifiers will gather in the Romanian capital to discuss the latest trends and developments in the fire safety and security Industry.

This year, the Symposium will consider the latest developments in both the digitisation and regulatory landscapes, and how they continue to impact the fire safety and electronic security Industry. During the Symposium, the renewed importance of qualification and the evolving skill set of fire safety and security technicians, as well as keeping systems secure, and finally the EU’s Construction Product Regulation, will be discussed in three separate sessions.

Speakers from Romania will give an interesting colour to the usually western-dominated line-up, offering new perspectives and ideas from a dynamic and creative market with traditionally strong ICT players.

The first part of the Euralarm Symposium will be titled ‘You have to qualify to compete’. The Euralarm-supported EN 16763 services standard, one of the first pan-European standard impacting the tertiary sector, was only a stepping stone. National players must now outline training programmes that will support the continuous development of skills and knowledge within the fire safety and security Industries, and define schemes to measure qualifications. Speakers on these topics will be Jon Könz (moderator), Head of Enterprise Services at Siemens Building Technologies, Alexandru Mateiciuc, Head of Schrack Seconet, a leader in high-tech security systems and Member of ARTS, Valentin Negoita, APTEDIC, Romanian Association of Manufacturers and Distributors of Equipment for Information and Communication Technology, Robert Yates, Technical Manager at the UK Fire Industry Association, FIA and the association’s Delegate to the Euralarm Fire Section.

The second part of the Euralarm Symposium: ‘Keeping security secure and data compliant’, touches upon the ever evolving risks for fire safety and security systems. While Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has opened new integration possibilities, these new threats demand that additional measures are implemented to protect systems against cyberattacks and data theft. Topics to be discussed during this part of the Symposium are security solutions, cybersecurity, data storage as well as product security.

Among the speakers are Enzo Peduzzi (moderator), Euralarm President of the Board, Toma Cimpeanu, CEO of the Romanian National Association for Information Systems Security ANSSI, Marc Chenevoy, European Technical Manager at Euralarm, Viorel Petcu, General Manager at SC ONEST SOLUTIONS, a cutting-edge technological company notably active in physical security risk assessment, Member of ARTS and Michael Scharnowsky, Hekatron, part of the Securitas Group, delegate to Euralarm.

The third and last part of the Symposium, ‘7 Years Construction Products Regulation and now what?’ focuses on the European regulation on construction products, the CPR. The regulation lays down harmonised rules for the marketing of construction products in the EU. The implementation has however hindered the publication of harmonised EN’s from the CEN Technical Committees 72 and 191, resulting in a complicated blockade. This part of the Symposium will focus on the impact of the CPR and challenge its value. Topics to be discussed are the challenges in harmonised standards development and their publication, the Euralarm position on the CPR, and an outlook based on Euralarm’s White Paper on the topic.

Among the speakers are Lance Rütimann (moderator), Senior Manager Industry Affairs at Siemens and Euralarm Advocacy Committee Chairman, Frédéric Chateau, Certification Manager and responsible for partnerships at COFLEC, groupe DEF and Chairman of Euralarm's Technical Group Fire Standards, Luliana Chilea, Director General ASRO, the Romanian Standardisation Body, Peter Massingberd-Mundy, Technology and Expert Practices Manager at Xtralis and Chairman CEN/TC 72, Dominique Taudin, Senior Director, Codes and Standards at UTC and Chairman of the Euralarm Fire Section as well as Robert Thilthorpe, Chairman CEN/TC 191, Technical Manager of the UK Fire Industry Association (FIA) and Chairman Euralarm Technical Committee on Horizontal Compliance.