So why should you attend British APCO events?
24th Aug 2022
So why should you attend British APCO events?
Following the successful British APCO Conference & Exhibition in March 2022, we sent out a survey across all our membership base to understand the good, the bad and the ugly.
Can we first say a huge thank you to those who responded – we had an excellent response rate which has allowed us to share some meaningful insights, insights that will help shape our upcoming events and allow suppliers and users alike to understand why supporting British APCO makes sense.
Our diverse membership is one of our core strengths – and the makeup of respondents underlines this.
Its also important to understand where in the public safety space the attendees of our events work or provide services – we asked everyone to identify those sectors where they mainly operate, with no limit on how many they could choose.
British APCO covers more than just Police, Fire and Ambulance – and we need to be cognisant of the broader sector base that our members and event attendees operate in.
Across the sector base, there are several recurring technology or communications challenges highlighted in Figure 3 – lack of sufficient funding is one that crosses all areas but it’s interesting to note the significant challenge of being able to migrate to new solutions from existing equipment is vexing a very high proportion of respondents; and even those who can identify the challenge of adapting operations to new technologies. Both are areas that will need to be addressed if new technology is to be implemented successfully, and operations not compromised.
A separate question looking at obstacles to overcoming the technology or communications challenges for users identified in Figure 3 above boiled down to three key areas – a massive 76% of respondents unsurprisingly identified challenges with budget & resources; 44% said undertaking procurement was an issue; and 35% highlighted that their current systems will not support pathways for upgrade or migration. Some interesting food for thought across the piece here.
Where there’s a will there’s usually a way – and users are all the time on the look out for more information about communications technology. And Figure 4 provides a clear message of those areas that users are looking to increase their knowledge and understanding.
British APCO is always on the lookout for feedback to make our conference sessions, workshops and webinars focussed on our members’ needs – Figure 4 gives insight into what members want to hear about and Figure 5 how that information is best shared/imparted. All of this is helping to pull together our Newcastle event in November and the major event in Coventry in March. Our call for papers is looking for presentations that are more interactive – including product & technology demonstrations where practical – and which can bring real life scenarios into focus as to the situation being faced, what went well in handling the scenario and, as always, where could improvements be made from the lessons identified.
It's important that British APCO remains relevant – and delivers what our members need and want. Answering our survey has really helped in both regards – but we know the proof will be in continuing to deliver value added services. Thankfully, those answering the survey who were unable to make Coventry in March 2022 were largely unable to attend due to time pressures – hence our reintroducing our Webinar series where we are genuinely looking for suppliers and users alike to step forward to help shape the events, we deliver for you.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Monday October 24th at 3.30pm:
Webinar Briefing - Critical Data to Enhance Emergency Call Response. With presentations from RapidSOS, Avon & Somerset Police, Uber and Hexagon
Wednesday October 5th at 10am til 4pm:
Roundtable Workshop in London – Update on Next Generation 999 in the UK
November 9th & 10th
November event in Newcastle at St James’ Park.
March 7th & 8th