Today marked the beginning of the biggest security conference and trade show in the Americas – ASIS International 2010. As we have been for many, many years now, our company is exhibiting once again. We’re in booth #815 in case you’re reading this while in Dallas. Many of our employees are present and we’d love to meet you.
We’re showcasing our Fastlane entrance control products, including our new Door Detective for protecting important doors from intruders. Also on display and to follow-up on our webinar last week, we have our newest turnstile, GlassGate 250, with an Otis elevator destination display built into it. For high-rise buildings, elevator destination control is the way to go. It doesn’t matter what brand of elevators are in the building, all the makers offer some form of this technology, and the traffic speed and security improvements you can achieve by integrating this with access control are compelling. If curious, I invite you to listen to a replay of our webinar.
After an attendance downturn year at ASIS in Anaheim in the economic debacle year of 2009, we were hoping this year’s show would turn around. While our day one booth traffic was even with last year’s, reports from the floor and early views of traffic in the aisles indicate this will be another year of lower attendance. That hasn’t stopped the vendors from coming out in huge numbers, showcasing cool new products, and having fun.
While at the show today, I had to send something out via UPS. The closest drop box I found was in a Federal Building next to the Dallas Convention Center. It was not easy to physically access the UPS drop box in the building. First I encountered a guard as I attempted to enter the wrong door. Then he said my package had to be scanned…I couldn’t just leave an unknown box in the building. That makes sense. He escorted me to the front of the building and my UPS box went through an airport-like scanner while I walked through a metal detector. The security officer asked to see my I.D. and business card to verify I was related to the ship-from address on the UPS label. He saw our business name and said, “You know what this is all about.”
And yes, I do. I know that our world is a more dangerous place. I know that our governments and private organizations are forced to spend billions to provide security that we used to take for granted and pay little for. And I know after seeing another ASIS that there are a lot of sharp people working on the side of the good guys and coming up with evermore innovative ways to detect and protect. It’s a fun time to be in the industry for sure.