Better connected, better protected
Boon Edam reflects on a global security event season
September 2026
A run of international security events has taken our teams from Malaysia and Australia to Germany, Singapore and the US in recent months, with partnership and technology integration playing a central role throughout.
We’ve joined Northland Controls and other security partners in Malaysia, exhibited alongside Convergint in Australia and Singapore, attended Security Essen in Germany and demonstrated a range of third-party technology integrations at GSX 2026 in Atlanta.
Next on the calendar is SKYDD in Sweden.
Different markets bring different security challenges, but one theme has been consistent: secured entry is increasingly being considered as part of a wider security environment rather than as a standalone solution.
That shift matters because security is ultimately about more than protecting a building. It is about protecting what happens inside it and what that environment makes possible: the people who use it, the operations that depend on it and, in critical environments, the services that wider society relies on.
Across this global security event season, we’ve seen more conversations moving in the same direction: away from individual security products and towards understanding how people, technology and expertise can work together more effectively.
“One thing these conversations reinforce is that there isn’t one security approach that works everywhere,” said Group Business Development Manager Kurt Meesom.
“A data centre, healthcare facility, energy site or transport environment will all have different priorities and different requirements,” he said.
“That’s why we need to start by understanding the environment: what needs protecting, what needs to keep operating and how people need to move through it. The technology should follow from that, not the other way around.”
Partnership on the ground
That collaborative approach was particularly visible in Malaysia, where Boon Edam joined Northland Controls and other partners at an event organised by ASIS Malaysia.
From there, our teams in Australia joined Convergint at the Security Exhibition & Conference. The two companies came together again at Data Centre World Singapore, where the conversation centred on environments where physical protection is part of a much wider requirement for operational resilience.
Data centres make that connection particularly clear. Protecting the physical environment also means protecting the technology, information, operations and services inside it and, ultimately, the people and organisations that depend on those services.
Working alongside integrators at these events gives us the opportunity to consider secured entry in the context in which it will actually operate.
A speed gate or security portal may need to interact with access control, identity and biometric technologies, but the starting point is the environment itself: who needs to move through it, what needs protecting and what needs to keep operating.
That wider view helps us consider security and authorised movement together, rather than treating the entrance as an isolated measure.
Integration takes centre stage at GSX
At GSX 2026 in Atlanta, the focus moved from conversations about integration to demonstrating it in practice.
Our Boon Edam US team showcased secured entry solutions with a number of biometric and access control technologies, including IDEMIA MorphoWave, Alcatraz Rock and Rock X, Iris ID and Aware technologies.
The demonstrations showed how identification, access technology and the physical entrance can work together at the point where people move into and through protected spaces.
That flexibility is increasingly important as organisations adapt their security environments over time and bring new technologies into existing systems.
Different markets, familiar questions
Security Essen in Germany provided another opportunity to meet security professionals from across the international market and hear how organisations are responding to changing security requirements.
What we heard reflected many of the themes we’ve encountered throughout this event season - from understanding what needs protecting and what needs to keep moving, to considering how security should respond when conditions change.
While the environments discussed across Malaysia, Australia, Germany, Singapore and the US varied considerably, the underlying challenges were often familiar.
The way organisations respond is evolving too, with greater attention being paid to how physical security fits alongside technology, operations and the changing needs of the environment.
From Atlanta to Stockholm
With five international stops behind our team, attention now turns to SKYDD in Sweden.
The locations may change, but the direction of the conversation is increasingly clear.
Security is becoming more connected because the environments we protect are connected too.
People depend on buildings to work, move, connect and access the services they need. Operations depend on people and technology. Organisations depend on their partners. And, in many environments, communities depend on the services those organisations provide.
That is why the value of security extends far beyond the entrance — and why bringing together the right people, expertise and technology matters.
Better connected. Better protected.
Malaysia → Australia → Germany → Singapore → Atlanta.
Next stop: SKYDD, Sweden.