Integrators Impressed With ISC West’s 10% Attendance Growth
LAS VEGAS — With a 10-percent increase in attendance compared to last year’s event, ISC West ended on a high note for show organizer Reed Exhibitions. The three-day show also saw a 7-percent increase in end-user attendance compared to the previous year, according to Reed.
The strong turnout was not lost on attendees and exhibitors alike. “The aisles are pretty full right now,” Columbus, Ohio-based Acree Daily Systems President Tom Clancy told SSI on the show floor on opening day. “We’ve been coming here for several years and there were some down years in the past.”
Held April 5-8 at the Sands Expo & Convention Center, ISC West provides business opportunities for security dealers, systems integrators, manufacturers and other service providers. Considered the largest security exhibition hall in the United States, the show’s exhibit floor was 15,000-square-feet larger than last year’s. It featured more than 10,000 products from 900-plus companies.
“I come to the show to keep in tune with the latest developments in security products,” Fishkill, N.Y.-based CIA Security President John Lombardi told SSI. “I have the opportunity to network and ask vendors specific questions. Although no particular technology has knocked my socks off, I think the show producers are doing a good job keeping ISC West interesting and stimulating.”
Clancy agreed, expressing that he was impressed with video management solutions technology. Clancy’s team viewed higher-end megapixel technology with one of its clients. The integrator marveled at Pelco’s backlight adjustment, as well as Verint’s recently announced physical security information management (PSIM) platform.
“I think it will probably take another year or two for Verint’s PSIM application to mature, but it seems to be getting some good legs,” said Clancy. “In our business, getting those underlying systems to a level where they can be integrated by one of those PSIM systems, we’ll probably get some leverage out of that.”
Maneuvering around the show floor also proved to be easier for some show-goers, thanks to the newly launched ISC West mobile app. “I think locating the vendors has been fairly easy,” Acree Daily CEO Dan Blend told SSI. “I think it’s pretty friendly the way [the show is set up].”
For the first time, show organizers divided the ISC Premier Education Series into tracks to help attendees choose sessions that would provide the best values. The various sessions featured hot topics such as cloud-based technologies and services, video analytics, high definition cameras, analog versus digital, hosted security, standards and more. On the last day of the series, SSI Editor-in-Chief Scott Goldfine moderated the “Video Analytics and Content Analysis: Use Cases Explored, RFPs Developed” panel, which was part of the SSI-endorsed Video Technology track.
Other conference highlights included the standing-room-only State of the Industry presentation, which discussed the growing influence of technology, value-added services and customer needs.
With such a jam-packed show, is there anything that attendees would change?
For Lancaster, Pa.-based Select Security President Patrick Egan, not much needs to be changed, although he did offer a suggestion for vendors. “At certain booths, you really want to get one-on-one time,” he told SSI. “Not all the vendors have a private space to have a one-on-one. Sometimes you’re having a conversation with a vendor and you can get interrupted.”
Ashley Willis is associate editor for SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION. She can be reached at (310) 533-2419.
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