Praise for the Global Security Challenge London event

The Global Security Challenge conference was held in Lodnon last Thursday, capping a year of organizing and promotion on the part of the organizers, a group of MBA students at the London Business School. The conference’s highlight was a contest for the most innovative and promising business plans for homeland security start-ups. The five winners:

* London-based Ingenia Technology

* London-based ScanWalk

* Oxford-based Secerno

* Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based TIRF Technologies

* Alpharetta, Georgia-based Vumii

The top winner, Ingenia Technology, offers document and asset authentication based on the natural physical signatures of items.

The speakers at the conference represented both homeland security companies and venture capital firms investing in the field. A discernible theme running through many of the presentations by European participants was that the U.S. homeland security market was a picture of openness and flexibility compared with the more regulated markets of European Union countries. This does not mean that there are no homeland security business opportunities in Europe: The conference offered an opportunity for details to be presented about two European technology development programs, the European Security Research Programme and NATO’s Defence against Terrorism program.

In the next week we will offer detailed profiles of the five companies which won recognition, and then offer quarterly updates about them, their technologies, and their marketing success during the next two years.

-read more at the Global Security Challenge Web site

Michael: The text below should be in a blue box

The value of the Global Security Challenge

Christian Beckner, the editor of the Homeland security Watch, spoke at the GSC conference. Back in Washington, he offer these reflections:

The most valuable takeaway from the event for me was witnessing the practical results that a small cohort of MBA students could achieve in putting together an event like this. The homeland security community has perhaps fallen for the fallacy of bigness over the past few years, thinking that we need Marshall Plan-like endeavors to solve our critical challenges. Yes, in some sectors we do need large projects akin to the traditional DOD system integrator model, but other elements of the homeland security R&D system require speed, agility, and openness as key parameters rather than size and scale. This conference demonstrated how you can catalyze the innovation cycle by bringing together technologists and business leaders and cut through many of the bureaucratic hurdles that hinder more effective R&D in the security arena. The students who started this event have created an excellent forum, which hopefully will continue in the years ahead.

-see Beckner’s GSC presentation;