Event organiser Informa reschedules IFSEC International for May 2022

The outbreak of the COVID pandemic in March 2020 inevitably forced the cancellation of the event series originally scheduled to run in London last May. Following extensive consultations with exhibitors and event partners, the events were moved to a proposed September 2020 slot, with the dates of 8-10 of that month subsequently added to the industry’s networking calendar.

However, given the ongoing Coronavirus landscape, Informa had no alternative but to shelve those plans and reschedule for a proposed 2021 series that would run during July, but this has again proven to be impossible due to the ongoing situation in respect of Government restrictions around international travel, etc.

This latest enforced cancellation means that IFSEC International has now not been able to run in its traditional physical format – complete with conference sessions and dedicated sector-focused zones – since 2019 and, by the time May 2022 comes around, it will have been three years since a physical gathering of security industry professionals has occurred at ExCeL.

Networking and learning

Speaking at the time of the cancellation of last September’s scheduled event series, Chris Edwards (Group director at Informa Markets) observed: “We know how important our events are as a forum where our communities come together to learn, network and meet suppliers. 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.”

Edwards continued: “Our focus has been on ensuring that we can provide a safe and secure environment for our visitors, exhibitors and staff and, while 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, these events have strong international participation and this would be severely compromised given the current restrictions.”

With each of the dedicated events’ communities looking to rebuild and recover during the remainder of 2021 as lockdown restrictions hopefully begin to ease, the team at Informa Markets is now working hard to ensure another successful physical event series in 2022.

Commenting on the current situation, Edwards has stated: “Along with our venue and contractor partners, we’ve worked tremendously hard to deliver an event in July that is both safe and successful for all involved, but it has become clear that, with the ongoing international travel disruption and general uncertainty caused by the pandemic, transitioning to an online experience is the right thing to do. We look forward to delivering an in-person series of events in 2022 at a scale our customers are used to seeing.”