Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee & Delivery and Legacy.
Under the patronage and in the presence of Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, the ‘1st Major Event Safety and Security Conference and the Exhibition’ organised by the Security Committee of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) in association with Interpol will begin today at St Regis hotel in Doha.
Representatives of several 192 Interpol member countries and international organisations, high ranking officials and participants from 65 countries will attend the two-day event.
The Secretary-General of Interpol, Jürgen Stock, and the Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee & Delivery and Legacy, Hassan Al Thawadi, will deliver the keynote speeches on the opening day, while Capt. Falah Al Dosari, Senior Manager of Project Stadia, will introduce Project Stadia on the first day that will host leading security experts from different parts of the world.
From left: Secretary-General of Interpol Jürgen Stock, Ziad Khoury, Commander Geoff Smith, Brigadier Ibrahim Al Muhannadi and Filipo Dispenza
On his part, The Secretary-General of Interpol, Jürgen Stock said that the organising of the first major event safety and security conference in cooperation between Interpol and Qatar is matter of pride as Qatar is organising this conference in the context of its preparations for World Cup 2022.
“This conference is a best occasion to gather experts from various organisations and countries around the world for discussing the importance of strengthening creative cooperation in the field of organising major events which is considered as a real challenge for the countries that will host major events in the future, whether they are sports or other fields,” added Jürgen Stock.
On the other side, Al Thawadi expressed his happiness in organising the first major event safety and security conference in Doha in partnership with Interpol and he added that the relationship of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy with Interpol started since last 5 years from the general assembly of Interpol held in Rome. “Ahead of us, we have only five years to host the first world cup in the Middle East and during this period, we will be signing cooperation agreements with Interpol in order to carry out our activities and the operation in a good way for ensuring the organisation of the unprecedented World Cup in 2022,” he said.
During the first session of the conference on “Current security threat environment and implications for major events”, Director of National Security and Resilience Studies at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies (RUSI), London, Andrew Glazzard will speak on the subject “Current security threat environment in the UK, the need for a step-change in approach when one considers preparation for major events”.
In the same session, Filipo Dispenza, Director-General of Public Security, Prefect of the Police of Cagliari, Italy, will present a paper titled “European perspective on the major event security threat environment”. Filipo has 41 years of experience in the police force and has served as director of major Italian police offices across the country.
In addition, Dr Jolene Jerard, Deputy Head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, will speak on the subject “Current and emerging IS-centric threat landscape and its impact on major events”.
From the Qatari side, Major General Hazza bin Mubarak Al Hajrey, Assistant Secretary-General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf for Security Affairs will address the audience on the topic “GCC perspective on current security threat environment”, and Brigadier Ibrahim Al Mohannadi, senior member of the National Counter Terrorism Committee and Head of Consultancy Unit, Security Committee for 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar will present a paper titled “Focus on preparations Qatar is making to understand, build out and mitigate threat” in the same session.
Meanwhile, Commander Geoff Smith from the Tasmanian Police of Australia also will deliver a speech on “Australia’s new strategy for protecting crowded spaces from terrorism and its applicability to future major events” in this session. Commander Geoff is presently the counter-terrorism senior adviser to the Tasmania police commissioner and Deputy Commissioner.
In the first session of the second day of the conference, on the theme “Responding to Evolving Threat Environment”, former Head of Safety and Security of Euro 2016, Ziad Khoury will present a paper on the subject “Case study from Euro 2016”.
The speaker will focus on planning and delivery of safety and security during a period of significant change in the threat environment, while the head of Sports Conventions Unit at Council of Europe, Sergey Khrychikov, will deliver a speech on “Overview of the Council of Europe Convention on an integrated safety, security and service approach at football matches and other sports events and how it can assist in managing the evolving threat environment”.
