ASIS Round-Up: Record Attendance or Not?

ORLANDO, Fla.

September 20, 2005 SSI Staff

The numbers may have not told the whole story at the 51st Annual ASIS Int’l Seminar and Exhibits in Orlando, Fla. Officially, ASIS officials say there were more attendees at this year’s ASIS Expo than any that proceeded it. However, that differed with the assessment of a majority of exhibitors and attendees to Security Sales & Integration, who expressed that this year’s event from Sept. 12-15 at the Orange County Convention Center seemed lighter than years past.

ASIS officials say a record 19,600 security professionals attended the 2005 expo perusing the wares of 860 exhibitors. But like attendance at many sporting events these days – where the paid attendance is announced and not the actual number of people who showed up – even if ASIS’ number was accurate, there were likely some no-shows. In addition, the attendance in Orlando still falls short of the 21,619 that attended last April’s ISC West in Las Vegas.

Many attendees polled by SSI expressed how easy it seemed to be able to talk with exhibitors without the usual hassle of having to wait behind a line of other attendees. With some exceptions, exhibitors mostly said that their traffic was lighter this year.

Ed Davis, vice president of marketing for installation aid manufacturer American Fibertek, said there very well may have been a record crowd at the show, but they also had plenty to do away from the exhibit floor with the multitude of educational seminars and other outside events.

“The show has gotten so large that it’s hard to go to the seminars and then see the exhibits in one day,” Davis said, though he added that attendees may have benefited from a sparser show floor by getting more time with exhibitors. “It was a case of quality vs. quantity.”

Theories abounded for how registered attendance could be high while the actual foot traffic seemed to go down. Some cited the multitude of things to do in Orlando, saying some attendees may have spent one day at the convention center and the rest at Walt Disney World or Universal Studios. Others blamed Hurricane Katrina, though New Orleans-area distributor CCTV Imports still managed to make a showing at the show.

On the other hand, the Orange County Convention Center was much more spacious in both the lobby and show floor areas than last year’s site at the Dallas Convention Center, which could have contributed to a sense of a smaller showing of attendees.

No matter the number of attendees, there was definitely plenty for those at the show to take in.

Security system design consultant Roy Bordes, president and CEO of The Bordes Group Inc., said the big trend he saw at this year’s show was the number of exhibitors showing video tracking products. Among those exhibitors, GVI Samsung Security Inc. placed a large emphasis on that technology in its booth. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics gave a preview of a video tracking product it plans to debut at April’s ISC West in Las Vegas.

Bordes said while the smaller companies have been developing video tracking during the past few years, it will be the bigger players that will move it forward. “It’s like anything else in this industry, Small companies develop it and the big guys take it and advance it,” Bordes says.

On the video side, Bordes said he was also impressed by Verint’s video management system for public transport vehicles andwowed by Pelco’s Endura network video system.

“Endura is one of the front-runners in network video management,” Bordes says. “It’s a really cool piece of equipment.”

In a show not traditionally known for new product introductions, access control manufacturer HID Corp. had a few. Among them was the RP40 multiclass reader, which reads both iClass and proximity cards. “What can I say about HID,” Bordes said. “RP40 is even more exciting than Vertex [network-driven access control product].”

Next year’s ASIS show switches coasts to San Diego from Sept. 25-28, 2006, and 80 percent of the booths are already booked. That includes Security Sales & Integration, which is slated for Booth No. 2646.

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