No Comment 20 August 2007
By Louise Marsland in Editor's column, Marketing | 5 comments
Event management has become quite the science these days, particularly from a safety and security perspective. Those of us who have been on show at various expos and conferences know how important security is with rampant theft at events and exhibitions a fact of life. Most sought after: mainly laptops, cellphones, handbags/wallets and other equipment. Bizcommunity.com had a laptop stolen from our stand at a recent industry trade show at one of Gauteng’s upmarket venues. It was our mistake – our promo girls left our stand despite instructions never to leave it unattended – but what was quite unbelievable was the thief’s absolute brazen scoping of our stand and the way he lingered to not only pop the laptop in his bag, but to unplug the power cord! All this happened in front of a stand showcasing the latest in security equipment, including cameras… so the whole thing is on video, thanks to Zunaid Ismail of Frank Street CCTV and digital recording solutions (www.frankstreet.co.za). If you know the dubious character featured in this video clip ‘How to steal a laptop in under 73 seconds!’ let us know – we’d like our laptop back! And for the rest, please learn from our lesson and secure your equipment at any show or conference and event. Click here to view: http://www.zoopy.com/video_2522_Biz_laptop_stolen_in_73_seconds.html.
More security aware!
Louise Marsland, editor@bizcommunity.com.
Marketing news: marketingnews@bizcommunity.com.
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This column originally published 20 August 2007.
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Amanda | Aug 20, 2007 | Reply
And all of this down to the ‘promo’ girls! In future, perhaps you should go ‘one up’ and employ hostesses? Glitter specifically caters for companies who are tired of the typically unreliable ‘promo’ girls and instead offer effective and high end staffing solutions for exhibitions.
Mpendulo | Aug 21, 2007 | Reply
You may use a ‘promo’ girl or guy but at the end of the day if a person has to go or attend to some thing you are likely to have that one person that will try his luck at stealing some thing from your stand. So i say just increase security at these events.
Karen | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
Nobody should just walk off and leave the stand, whether they are promo girls or staff - that’s just irresponsible.
But maybe events should have better security, like searches at exists where people have to provide paperwork for what they’re carrying out.
Werner | Oct 30, 2007 | Reply
Petty theft might be hard to combat, but they could easily have attached the laptop to the stand with one of those cable-locks. It might not be foolproof, but it’ll be much harder to get past than taking out the power cord.