CERTALARM, the pan European third party certification scheme, received significant exposure in the UK fire protection arena recently as a joint sponsor of one of the major events in the UK fire industry calendar.
Some 300 Fire Industry Association (FIA) members and their guests attended the second AGM and annual lunch of the FIA at the Brewery in London on 11 November. CERTALARM was one of the event sponsors and as such had a display which attracted much interest from attendees who included the foremost manufacturers and service providers in fire protection systems and equipment, along with senior representatives from the general fire protection community.
CERTALARM was registered in Brussels as a not-for-profit Association (Association international sans but lucratif AISBL) earlier in year to operate a pan-European certification scheme overseen by an open and independent allstakeholder body. It will offer a unique European quality mark based on third party one-stop test and certification, removing the costly and time consuming multiple testing currently required for products and services to be accepted in different EU member states.
Derek Harrington, a Director of the AISBL responsible for CERTALARM, added: "This is a vitally important event in the UK fire industry so it was an ideal opportunity to increase awareness of the scheme. Having officially launched CERTALARM at the Security Essen 2008 exhibition in October, the FIA AGM and annual lunch allowed us to spread the word and update the FIA's members on its progress.
From the comments I received, there is a real commitment from manufacturers and service providers alike to see this scheme work as it not only offers the potential for significant cost savings, but also speeds up the all important timeframe for getting products and services to market."
