Day one at Intersec 2026 set a confident tone for the week ahead. From the moment the doors opened, the exhibition floor maintained a consistent level of activity, with strong international footfall and a clear appetite for practical, deployable security technologies rather than conceptual showcases.
The show officially opened, with His Highness Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, by reinforcing Intersec’s position as a global platform for security, safety, and emergency response. That message was reflected not only in the scale of participation, but also in the substance of conversations across the halls. Integration, operational resilience, and the realities of deploying advanced technology in live environments shaped most discussions.
Our time on the show floor focused on innovation across surveillance, perimeter protection, access control, analytics, and cloud platforms. Conversations ranged from thermal imaging and video analytics to how AI driven detection is being applied beyond traditional security use cases, supporting safety compliance, risk mitigation, and operational monitoring across complex sites.
The Security Buyer team conducted an Innovator interview with FLIR, speaking with Michael Deruytter, Senior Director of Product Management, exploring current thermal and analytics developments. We also recorded an interview with Ross Chapman, International Business Development Manager at Synectics, examining how video analytics and thermal solutions are being deployed in demanding environments such as oil and gas, with clear crossover into wider safety and compliance applications. Access control and cloud integration were central themes in a separate discussion with Ward Platzbeecker, of Brivo focusing on integration challenges and the continuing convergence of VMS, access, and surveillance platforms.
The conference programme echoed these themes in a more formal setting. Mike O’Neill, Director at The Security Institute, framed security as a business essential that must be embedded across the project lifecycle. A board level panel, moderated by Dr. Jorge J. Roman, challenged the idea of security as a cost centre, with contributors including Jake Phillips of IHS Towers and Saleh AlHawas of Red Sea International Airport, alongside regional government and infrastructure leaders. Operational readiness was addressed in The Incident Commander’s Playbook, moderated by Eitan Charnoff, featuring Prof. Ahed Al Najjar, while aviation risk and hybrid conflict were explored in a session moderated by Mark Nuttall, with Dr. John Harrison of Rabdan Academy.
With a full schedule already underway, Intersec 2026 has opened with clarity, purpose, and a strong focus on real world security delivery.
