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Chairman’s Address

After a very hectic few weeks leading up to our Conference, it was a great pleasure to welcome our
members, exhibitors and guests to the Association of University Chief Security Officers (AUCSO)
36 Annual Conference, hosted by the University of Leeds.
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I’m sure that everyone will be aware, our previous two conferences scheduled for 2020 and 2021
were cancelled due to the challenges of the Pandemic. To compensate for those missing years, this
year’s programme was jammed packed with high profile speakers, and captivating subjects relevant
to the tertiary education security sector.

Our Executive Committee put a lot of effort into ensuring that our conference was as engaging and
beneficial as possible. It was encouraging to see our delegates taking the opportunity to participate,
network and derive maximum benefit from our 3-day programme.

This year we had more than double the number of exhibitors than at previous AUCSO Conferences,
for the arrivals night on Tuesday 29 March we hosted a Yorkshire themed welcome evening and
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Exhibitors Fair in the main exhibition hall, where hot meals and drinks were provided. This was the
first time we have done more than just offer a free drink on arrivals night, we felt that a hot meal
would be welcomed by delegates who had been travelling all day. We also wanted to give our
exhibitors better value by ensuring that our delegates could engage with them right at the start of
the event.

When considering our programme of speakers, we were very much aware that COVID-19 has been
the major discussion point over the past two years and we wanted to take a fresh approach and look

ahead. For this conference we focussed on evolving risks and some topical aspects impacting on
our sector across the world. We had a truly engaging line-up of experts in the field of security and
risk presenting at our conference and exhibitors supplying services to our sector, giving our
delegates opportunities to explore new ideas and innovations.

Our social networking event at the Royal Armouries seemed to delight everyone who attended and
was one of the highlights of the Conference, particularly the entertaining jousting session with
knights in full armour battling ‘to the death’.

We finished off our Conference with our Gala Dinner and Awards Event at the prestigious Aspire
venue. Not only did we all enjoy a fantastic dinner and the opportunity to enjoy ourselves, but we
were also able to celebrate the success of our members during our Awards Event.

I personally feel that the AUCSO 36 Annual Conference was an outstanding success and would
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like to extend my gratitude to everyone involved in the behind-the-scenes preparation for the event,
our sponsors and exhibitors for their support, the guest speakers for their time and willingness to
engage with AUCSO, but most of all to our delegates for continuing to participate in our Association
and support its continued growth year on year.
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