About Us

Shaping the Future of Events and Marketing with Innovation

Bridge Publishing — Who we are

Shaping the Future of Events and Marketing with Innovation

Bridge Publishing was founded in August 1998 as publisher of Security Electronics Magazine by John Adams and Monique Keatinge, who held roles as editor and sales manager of Security Australia Magazine from 1991.

Adams and Keatinge saw a niche in electronic security just as the first digital security solutions began to make a serious impact on the market and after a late-night conversation at the Bridge Hotel in Balmain (that explains the business name), they decided to go out on their own.

Physical publishing in the days of graphic design, film, print and post was an expensive business – there were plenty of nerves at the start. But after signing up around 1000 paying subscribers in the first few weeks after publication, it was no surprise Security Electronics Magazine quickly became the ANZ electronic security industry’s go-to source for news, new products, product reviews, case studies and analysis.

An unquenchable entrepreneurial spirit at Bridge Publishing was evident from the start.

In November 1999, a year after Security Electronics Magazine was first published, the team launched a bi-monthly, iSecurity Magazine, to cover the fast-growing IT security industry.

Innovation and Entrepreneurial Spirit

Bridge Publishing was founded in 1998 as publisher of Security Electronics Magazine.

While the shift from appliance-based cyber security solutions to software apps in the early noughties ultimately made iSecurity Magazine unviable as a business unit, the Bridge team kept an eye on digital as networking and security electronics converged.

In the second half of 1999 Bridge Publishing saw another niche in the market and started planning and organising Security Electronics Exhibition, with the inaugural event opening with 80 exhibitors at Sydney’s biggest exhibition venue, Darling Harbour Exhibition Centre, in March 2000. Security Electronics Exhibition ran for 5 consecutive years.

Held in partnership with ASIS NSW and incorporating the Annual Apprenticeship Awards as part of its gala dinner, the 3-day event made an immediate mark as a hands-on expo dedicated to the latest and greatest electronic security technologies and the people who install and operate them. The event’s tech-focused DNA lives on in SecTech Roadshow.

Towards the end of 2000, Bridge Publishing acquired the assets and IP of Security Australia Magazine from Reed Business Publishing and merged Australia’s oldest monthly security publication with Security Electronics Magazine. The buyout significantly enhanced Bridge Publishing’s database, as well as extending the heritage of Security Electronics Magazine all the way back to Security Australia’s first month of publication, February 1981.

In 2003, Bridge Publishing decided to change the name of its flagship publication — Security Electronics Magazine, became Security Electronics & Networks (SEN). The change recognised the fundamental changes sweeping the electronic security industry, but the team also believed the security industry’s utterly dependable solid-state sensing and control technology would remain vital to security solutions far into the future. It was a hybrid masthead for a hybrid future.

In late 2003 Bridge Publishing began planning an online e-newsletter linked to a comparatively clunky and expensive Drupal website that showcased the magazine’s latest content with minimal imagery. Securitynewsweekly.com was one of the first security EDM’s launched anywhere in the world, kicking off in March 2004.

SNW was re-born in February 2010 as SEN Newsletter, a weekly compilation of news, reviews, case studies, tenders, new products, analysis and more. With a weekly readership of 12,500 every Friday, SEN Newsletter has just published its 607th issue.

Innovation and Entrepreneurial Spirit

Bridge Publishing was founded in 1998 as publisher of Security Electronics Magazine.

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After years tossing the idea of a national expo around in-house, Bridge Publishing took the plunge and launched SecTech Roadshow in May 2015. SecTech Roadshow is a pop-up expo that takes 35 companies (it’s limited by what can fit into 3 semi-trailers) around 5 state capitals – Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, and Brisbane. Now in its 10th year, SecTech Roadshow is the second-largest event on the Australian security calendar, and Australia’s only national exhibition.

A year later in November 2016, Bridge Publishing launched Security & Government Expo (SAGE) in partnership with ASIS ACT. Held at the Realm Hotel in Canberra, SAGE is a highly successful 1-day pop-up event, which includes ASIS seminars, training and the ASIS ACT Annual dinner. Growing year-on-year for 9 years, SAGE has proved itself to be the pre-eminent government security event in Australia.

In 2020, it became clear that there was far too much content to squeeze into a single electronic newsletter every week and Bridge Publishing launched SENAAA (Alarms, Access Control, Automation) – SENAAA issue 205 has just been published.

In 2021 SEN ceased print publishing of SEN to focus on its re-launched SEN website, with more features, enhanced advertising and reporting functionality and significantly enhanced SEO.