Day 0 ISC West Impressions #ISCW11

The ISC West 2011 show has not started yet, but I’ve already been in Vegas for almost a day and a half, so a daily recap is in order.

Register for a free ISC West exhibit pass courtesy of Firetide

The booth setup went smoothly, apart from a monitor damaged in transit, a video camera that finally gave out, and a shipment that did not arrive (aka the usual). But, the wireless is up and running, so it’s all that matters!

Working with Security Specifiers

On Tuesday, I was able to join one of the ISC West Education sessions: Working with Security Specifiers. The panelist presented a good mix of perspectives: integrators, consultants and end-users. Here are a few take-aways (adopted from my tweets from the session):

• Practitioner perspective: relationship with vendor and support they are able to provide are more important than intricate differentiators between vendors
• Consultant perspective: Include manufacturer into the process, in addition to integrators, consultants, end users [KC: music to our ears!]
• Integrator’s perspective: Goal of an integrator: Mitigate risk; provide compliance; deliver ROI for the project, and most importantly: build a long-term relationship with both the consultant and the end-user for ongoing project success
• How can RFP response stand out? One example: send CEO to the pre-bid meeting!  (And provide your home number so that the end-customer can reach you) – That approach really stood out for one of the panelists.
• How can you compete with a “low-bid integrator” in your RFP response? Define the price in terms of long-term value and project life cycle, vs “bill of materials.” Also, show domain expertise in a particular vertical; without a track record for this particular type of install, the integrator will be learning on the job at the user’s expense.
• Validate claims of your bidders – e.g. visit offices of your prospective integrators (consultants may play this role)
• One of the speakers (an end-user) cautioned against using a consultant who may be a one-man shop. He advised: Don’t be afraid to approach larger consultant firms with a smaller project; they may use junior associates who would work under a senior member’s oversight
• New construction vs retrofit: in former case, harder to get to end user and communicate value. Consultants can be the conduit.
• RFP needs to be written based on an assessment, not cut and paste from industry spec – This was a common concern regarding MEP firms (mechanical, engineering, plumbing).
• When the panel was asked  “how do you handle a situation where a spec is clearly cut and paste?” – the integrator on the panel had an interesting perspective: Don’t just assign blame; use cut-and-paste or old spec as an opportunity to develop a relationship and educate the consultant for *next* project.

Overall, it was an interesting session: it was educational to see the emphasis on relationships and track record (although it’s hardly surprising).

Women’s Security Council

Another highlight of the day was the Women’s Security Council kick-off reception at the V Bar in the Venetian. I got there pretty late (7:30 pm) and was surprised to see the great turnout – most of the bar was dedicated to the event with a good crowd mingling. (Compare that to the conference session above, where I was the only woman among the 80-90 attendees).  I ran into the women I knew before, some who I only exchanged emails with, and met some new people. Thanks to Rhianna Daniels and the entire Council for organizing! Find out more about Women’s Security Council at the organization’s web site: http://wscouncil.com/

The show officially opens today at 10 am. I hope to see you in my session Social Media for Dealers and Integrators (4 to 5 pm Wednesday April 6, Room 202), and on Firetide booth 24083!

Follow @firetide and @kseniacoffman on Twitter for updates from the show. For the ISC West Twitter stream, follow hashtag #ISCW11.

For more ISC West  2011 posts, see:

• Day 2 ISC West Impressions #ISCW11
• Day 1 ISC West Impressions #ISCW11
• Tweetups, Networking, and More Things to Do While at ISC West
• Attending ISC West? Here’s Where to Find Firetide Team at #ISCW11

By Ksenia Coffman – Connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Tweetups, Networking, and More Things to Do While at #ISCW11

Register for a free ISC West exhibit pass courtesy of Firetide

Trade shows and conferences are not just about business meetings and panels. Here are some social and networking opportunities that I have on my radar:

Monday 7:30 pm

Informal ISC West kick-off tweetup at the V Bar at the Venetian.

Tuesday 6 to 8 pm

Women’s Security Council kick off reception at the V Bar at the Venetian (this event probably excludes 80 percent of ISC West attendees, but oh well). RSVP at http://wscouncil.com/

Thursday 7:30 am to 8:30 am

Security 5K race – good for your body, good for your mind! I’m not a runner, but have aspirations to walk it (maybe). Register at http://www.security5k.com/

Thursday 4 to 7 pm

ONVIF interoperability demonstration and reception at the Venetian in Galileo Meeting Rooms 1002 & 1003. Probably who’s who of IP video will be there, so it’s a good networking opportunity. Free registration.

Thursday 9:30 pm

Tweetup with SSN and SDN at the Treasure Island Bar. This is getting late in the day and late in the week, but if you have the energy, should be a fun time.

Dining off the beaten path

If hotel dining and the whole casino scene do not appeal to you, here are a couple of places you might want to check out:

Indian: Origin India
http://www.originindiarestaurant.com/

4480 Paradise Road #1200 Las Vegas, NV Phone: 702.73.INDIA

I discovered this place while staying at the Hard Rock. The restaurant is tucked in a shopping center next to CVS pharmacy, but inside it is a whole different experience: nice dining room and an elegant wine bar; a pleasant respite from non-stop rock music of the hotel. The food is artfully presented, and tastes great.

Sushi: Osaka Japanese Bistro

http://www.lasvegas-sushi.com/

4205 West Sahara Ave. Las Vegas, NV 89102 Phone: (702) 876-4988

Excellent place, and comes highly recommended from several physical security colleagues as well. I’ve only been to the Sahara location, so cannot vouch for the other one. If you want sushi in landlocked Nevada, this is the place to go.

For the “official” Firetide ISC West program, see my post: Attending ISC West? Here’s Where to Find Firetide Team at #ISCW11

Attending ISC West? Here’s Where to Find Firetide Team at #ISCW11

Attending ISC West? Be sure to connect with the Firetide team. Here’s where to find us:

Register for a free ISC West exhibit pass courtesy of Firetide

On the Show Floor

Visit our booth #24083 to learn why Firetide wireless infrastructure is faster to deploy, costs less, and offers greater flexibility – and delivers HD/megapixel video equal in quality to wired. Explore the latest trends in wireless infrastructure and see Firetide products in action.

We will be demoing:

• Wireless mesh: 300 Mbps outdoor performance and proprietary routing for HD/megapixel video
• Point-to-point bridges: cost-effective solution for remote connectivity
• Access points: hot spots for remote viewing of video
• Mobility controller: true infrastructure mobility for transit and mobile video applications

Drop by our booth #24083 or schedule a meeting with the Firetide team by emailing us at partners(at)firetide.com.

For a Free Exhibits Pass, click on the ISC West logo above or visit http://www.iscwest.com/DP197

At the Conference

I will be part of these ISC West conference sessions:

• Web and Social Media Marketing for Dealers and Integrators – April 6, 4 pm, Room 202
  Examine best practices in online marketing, how to develop a social media presence, and how your online presence affects customer relations.
• Muni Surveillance: Wireless Infrastructure – April 7, 10:15 am, Room 204
  Explore real case studies of wireless municipal video surveillance and learn critical steps to a wireless infrastructure project roadmap.

At Vendor Solutions Session

Firetide is presenting in Anixter’s Integrated Physical Security Seminar taking place as part of ISC West’s free Vendor Solutions sessions on April 6. We will discuss prerequisites for a wireless-enabled campus in this case study of a university transitioning to IP-based security.

• Integrated Physical Security Seminar – April 6, 12:45 pm – 2:45pm, Room 704
  Learn about IP-based applications through a real-world scenario of a university’s transition to an open-architecture IP access control and video surveillance solution. Learn how an IP security system is built from the ground up!

The session is free for all ISC West attendees, but you must reserve your seat during the registration process. (This session is a condensed version of Anixter’s full-day Integrated Physical Security Seminar which I covered on this blog; see: Notes from Anixter Integrated Physical Security Seminar)

Virtually

Follow @firetide and @kseniacoffman on Twitter for updates from the show. For the ISC West Twitter stream, follow hashtag #ISCW11.

Look forward to seeing you at ISC West 2011!

For my coverage of ISC West 2010, please see:

• ISC West 2010 Daily Recaps; ISC West vs ASIS
• Day 3 ISC West 2010 Impressions
• Day 2 ISC West 2010 Impressions
• Day 1 ISC West 2010 Impressions

By Ksenia Coffman – Connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

ISC West 2010 Daily Recaps; ISC West vs ASIS

It’s been a whirlwind of activity at ISC West in Vegas, so I’m glad I took the time to post daily impressions from the show.

• Day 1 ISC West Impressions: booth traffic, new point-to-point product, IMS Research briefing, ISC East
• Day 2 ISC West Impressions: ‘piece of cake,’ cost savings with wireless & ‘does mesh have a problem with video?’
• Day 3 ISC West Impressions and Recap: security network design, missed tweetup, & how shows save you money
• Are Security Trade Shows Still Relevant? – ‘Coming-up-to-ISC-West’ guest post

My main takeaway: ISC West will continue as a major, if not the main, trade show for the North American physical security market. Not so sure about ISC Solutions or ASIS though.

ASIS, as primarily an end-user show, was hardest hit when the economy went down, taking the end-user travel budgets with it. Furthermore, ASIS’s conference programming looks much stronger than that of ISC West. This is good for conference attendees, but bad for exhibitors, as people have more reason to stay out of the exhibit hall.

Still, ASIS could do more to draw traffic to the exhibits; when I compare ASIS with BICSI (also featuring a strong conference component), BICSI does a much better job of getting conference attendees into the exhibits, by scheduling a welcome reception, conference lunches, and other activities there. The drop in booth traffic at ASIS 2009 in Anaheim made us reduce our 20X20 booth size that we’d had for 3 years and go with 10X20 island space.

We’ll see how ASIS 2010 will turn out in Dallas; it’s a good spot for us, since there’s a long-standing wireless video surveillance system there for Dallas PD (now at 125+ cameras, 100% on wireless), so it will be nice to reference it.

See Dallas PD case study on Firetide’s web site; solution partners were: Sony Electronics (video cameras), BridgeWave Wireless (point-to-point wireless backhaul), OnSSI (video management); the system designed and implemented by Bearcom, a Dallas-based wireless solution provider.

What are your thoughts on ISC West vs ASIS?

Day 3 ISC West 2010 Impressions and Wrap-up

It’s good to be home after three busy days in Vegas. Lots of follow-up to do in the coming week. Our booth traffic was 15% better than a year before: back to 2008 numbers, after a dip in 2009. Visitors were solid, and feedback on our new point-to-point product was excellent. I heard reports of people placing orders on the spot; we will be shipping the point-to-point bridges in April. Even for what we consider a ‘low-end’ product, we are delivering 35 Mbps UDP/25 Mbps TCP; plus, our MIMO-based point-to-point product is coming out later this year – with much higher throughput.

Here are the interesting points from the last day:

• Dinner the night before with our systems integrator – Valley Ag. They are an ERP/IT/networking shop focused on the dairy industry in California’s Central Valley. They got into video surveillance and access control as an extension of their IT business, and have done numerous projects – both wired and wireless – for physical security, facility management and liability protection. Valley Ag is the proverbial IT integrator getting into security because of customer demand; they are an Axis Communications Gold Partner, so no beginners in physical security. Earlier on Thursday they were interviewed on video by Sam Pfeifle of Security Systems News (which they had not heard of prior to the show – goes to show), and the conversation went something like this: Sam: “How do you build a security system from the edge”? Them: “Why would you start at the edge? You need a strong networking core first.” It will be interesting to see how the video interview comes out.
• I did not have the mental energy to make my way to the tweetup at Treasure Island, which I regret missing, but there’s only so much casino scene one can take late in the day and late into the show. Perhaps, for the next show someone can organize a tweetup on Day 1 or the day prior to exhibits opening? Went to the gym instead.
• Day 3 is typically the slowest at a trade shows, but I started the day with a breakfast meeting for a roadshow we are planning with key partners. I regretted having scheduled it for 8 am, but the objective for an in-person kick-off was to avoid the time and expense of a separate meeting down the road. So here’s another advantage of the big shows – everyone you need to talk to is there. There were 10 people in the meeting, so collectively we saved $10-15K in travel costs and time out of the office, if not more.
• Also had some time to visit partner’s booths and connect with people on a personal level. Many East Coasters were getting out on red-eye flights (ouch!). Even though I’m not a fan of Vegas, this is a great place for us West Coasters – only 1.5 hr flight to California.

To make a tally of my ISC West meetings:

• 5 press meetings
• 2 analyst meetings
• 1 analyst customer briefing (IMS Research, see notes in Day 1 post)
• 1 end-customer video interview by a publication (set up on the spot)
• 4 solution partner meetings
• 2 potential partner meetings
• 2 integrator meetings
• 1 integrator dinner
• 2 distributor meetings
• 1 roadshow kickoff meeting
• 2 individual ‘tweetups’ with industry people I met on Twitter (one was with a product manager from a big and important company – she brought their partner manager who I’d targeted for a ‘potential partner’ meeting but was not able to connect with. So yay, the power of social media!)
• 3 meetings with marketing counterparts at Firetide’s solution partner companies, which will help move forward joint marketing projects
• 1 Firetide employees’ meeting/Happy Hour at our suite to recap the first two days of the show and compare notes.

Where else in the industry can you meet with that many people in one spot? You can gather feedback on your products from a wide range of audiences: from enthusiasts to detractors, from people well versed in our technology to people still uncomfortable with the idea of wireless. Don’t know if you need to pay $.48 per square foot (plus numerous other costs) to accomplish the same, but if you don’t have an exhibit what is the reason for people to come? So the ‘big security trade show’ model still works, at least at ISC West.

Oh, one more appointment – with ISC Events sales staff to pick up booth space for next year: same size, same location, even the same booth number – 24083. See you there next year!

Also see:

Day 1 ISC West Impressions: booth traffic, new product, IMS Research briefing, ISC East

Day 2 ISC West Impressions: ‘piece of cake,’ cost savings with wireless & ‘does mesh have a problem with video?’

Day 2 ISC West 2010 Impressions

Again, a great day at ISC West – the show continues to be very busy, and the booth team was stretched at times in their ability to handle all the traffic. Not knowing what to expect, we had a rather lean team on the show floor. But we managed.

I was able to walk the floor a bit, and visited some of the distributors’ and partners’ booths. The overall sentiment was that it was busier than last year. (By the way, “Video Surveillance Pavilion,” where one of our distributors was, is a scam to get people to take up booths at the back of the show floor. Most of the show is ‘video surveillance,’ so no reason to be stuck there.) On this note, we picked the same booth for next year, so barring any booth re-ordering we’ll even be at the same booth number – 24083.

Interesting tidbits from Day 2 meetings:

• Discussion with a telecom analyst who was just at CTIA, and now’s headed over to ISC West for vertical insights. According to the analyst, “once you do video [over wireless], everything else [data, VoIP] is a piece of cake.” However, doing high-capacity wireless infrastructure for video surveillance only, for example in transportation, can be very expensive, and “other applications, such as Wi-Fi for passengers, or streaming ad messages can remove part of the cost.” The “everything else after video is a piece of cake” message rang true to me – the problem with wireless is that many vendors are trying to shape their offerings into a “video solution” while their gear was built from the ground up to support Wi-Fi data, with a completely different set of requirements for latency, jitter, QoS, and ability to handle multicast traffic. But it’s encouraging that after 15 min of conversation the analyst was able to see how we are different.

• Got together with our integrator to touch base (and meet in person for the first time) after we’ve worked together to publicize their public safety deployment using Firetide gear. Interesting factoid: a local transit authority priced out a fiber deployment along the right of way (trackside infrastructure): $8 mil. To provide similar connectivity with Firetide’s linear mesh: 1/10^th of that. Based on the wireless estimate, the authority is applying for grant funding. Moral of the story: it’ll be much easier to get a grant when you use wireless mesh as your backbone.

• Introductory meeting with a potential partner – they reached out to us to set it up, so I was intrigued about what they were looking for. I knew they had a wireless component as part of their offering, since at least one of their wireless installs was featured in the press (i.e. it helps to read security media). After I gave a 3-slide spiel on Firetide as an intro, the first comment from them was: “We hear that wireless mesh has problems with video.” “Aha!” I said, “You must be talking about Wi-Fi mesh, or mesh access points.” (This is the topic I covered in an earlier post, so I’ll just link to it here: The Many Interpretations of Wireless Mesh.) It will be interesting to see how this discussion progresses.

Overall, ISC West is delivering a great mix of steady booth traffic and productive meetings with our customers, solution partners, distributors, press and analysts. Has the ‘death of the tradeshow’ been exaggerated?

Also see:

Are Security Trade Shows Still Relevant? – ‘Coming-up-to-ISC-West’ guest post

Day 1 ISC West 2010 Impressions: booth traffic, new product, IMS Research briefing, ISC East

Day 3 ISC West 2010 Impressions and Recap: security network design, missed tweetup, & how shows save you money

Are Security Trade Shows Still Relevant?

Oct. 2010 update: This post was written around ISC West 2010, but the discussion is still applicable to ASIS 2010.  If you are on twitter, follow @firetide and @kseniacoffman for updates from the show. I will also be attending the ASIS tour of the Dallas Police Department wireless surveillance system and monitoring center (Monday October 10), so look for my updates on that as well. Firetide will be at ASIS in booth 3824).

Below commentary is a guest post by Severin Sorensen, President and CEO at Sikyur LLC, reprinted with permission from his comments on IP Video Market Info LinkedIn group’s discussion on the upcoming ISC West trade show in Las Vegas. (And of course Firetide will be exhibiting at ISC West – our 5th year.)

Severin offers excellent commentary on the state of the security industry, and his insights are especially valuable since, as a security consultant, he is involved with the projects at the very beginning. Here’s his take:

“Conventions and trade shows have been hard hit during this downturn, and ISC West is no exception. From the map, you can clearly see how much trade show space open at this late hour — and this was surely not the case in 2007 when they were filled early upstairs, and also filled a huge downstairs section with booths nearest the registration area. The trade show was also noticeably impacted last year (the 2009 show) coming some six months after the September 2008 economic market crash, however the impact of the economic crash on the trade show floor exhibit space was muted as many companies had pre-booked their exhibits a year in advance and their sunk costs were non-refundable, so this surely lessened the financial blow to the organization in 2009.

So what does lower expected booth sales and attendance at ISC West this year mean to the industry? Continued tight economic times. Many consultants idle. New construction starts of security projects slow to be released. CFOs and CEOs making incremental quarterly go/no-go decisions, not annually as before the crash. And for the security industry investor — an amazing market consolidation opportunity to purchase for fractions of company worth companies that are under-capitalized, picking apart and purchasing companies among the living dead at low multiples on actual 2009 earnings — which should have the vulture capitalists salivating — what an opportunity. Thucydides said it best — “The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must.” We are headed into a consolidation boom as there is much private equity capital waiting in the wings for just such an opportunity. My own market forecast calls for 2-3 more years of difficult times in the broader market, and perhaps another year for the security market, but down the market will go yet again. January 2010 was absolute murder for the integrators and suppliers — a near market seizure — wait for the results to be reported and you will see. We are all part of a bigger market event going on.

So what does this all mean to me? ISC West is still one of the two most important security shows in the USA held annually (the other being ASIS), and it is a must attend for me. Indeed, it is more important than ever before for me as a security advisor and management consultant, to lay eyes on the companies that remain in business, to take a snap shot and review of the industry, in order to make sensible recommendations to my clients and design projects on who will remain on my spec list for equipment and services in the future. The networking, off-floor hotel meetings, strategic partnership opportunities, private equity meetings, will be better this year than has been seen in many years. So yes, there will be fewer exhibiting vendors, but the show and the total event is more important this year as it is a “survivors” photo opportunity, and chance to network and make better plans to navigate the choppy waters of this economic environment.”

About the post author: Severin Sorensen, CPP is President and CEO at Sikyur LLC and is also Chairman of the Physical Security Council of ASIS International, the world’s largest security manager association with 35,000 members. Sorensen, in his private security management consulting practice since 1987, helps senior level-security professionals, and in particular, the Chief Security Officers and their direct-reports, adapt to changing environments of risk, regulation, and information technology convergence that are rapidly reshaping the security field. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

See also:

• #ASIS10 Giveaway: Firetide Devil Duckie Is Retiring!

By: Ksenia Coffman – Connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn.