This is progress

Our 20 under 40 issue comes out in August, and it's going to be a hum-dinger (actually, it is a hum-dinger already, you just can't see it until it's printed). Working on it, there's been a lot of talk about how we bring not only young people into the industry, but also people from other walks of life (you know, not 55-year-old paunchy white guys).

Then I got the ESX photos in my email box.

I'm sorry, but something about this picture says that the security industry is moving in the right direction.



From left to right, that's Dean Seavers, CEO of GE Security; Cris Carter, Chairman of Carter Bros. (and he's done some other stuff, too); Bud Wulforst, president of the CSAA, and George Gunning, outgoing president of the NBFAA. Cool shot.

Now, if we could just get a woman into that picture...

ESX unveils its "mystery keynote"

So, this new ESX show the NBFAA and CSAA are putting on in Nashville has been running with a "mystery keynote" promotion for the last month or so. Now, however, the cat (or should I say, Viking) is out of the bag: It's Cris Carter.

Good choice, I say. Not only is he one of the five best receivers to ever play professional football, but he's got experience speaking, thanks to his gigs on HBO and ESPN, and he should be pretty entertaining. Plus, oh yeah, he owns a big old security integration firm. That helps, too.

I blogged about him being the most famous guy in the security industry here, and interviewed his brother when they bought GE's fire installation business here.

Why ESX is dropping the "mystery" now, more than a month prior to the event, is an interesting question. With experience trying to land keynotes myself, I'm guessing the keynote was as much a mystery to ESX as it was to us until they landed Carter, probably about three days ago. Nothing wrong with that. I seem to remember ISC having some difficulty finding a keynote for last year's ISC East. It's ain't easy finding a keynoter who will draw attendees, have something interesting to say, and not cost you an arm and a leg.

As a Pats fan, I'm hoping Carter talks about the difficulties working with troublesome employees and mentions his dealings with Randy Moss. Something tells me Carter spent a lot of time wondering how he got stuck mentoring that dude.

Who's the most famous security industry member?

I'm going to nominate Cris Carter for that honor. I'm frankly shocked that this New York Times article references his ownership of Carter Bros., however. It's rare that the sports section acknowledges a player's post-playing career.

Of course, this -

He owns a security company, Carter Brothers, based in Atlanta, and received an award for entrepreneurship from the National Urban League.

- makes it seem like he's running a little old alarm company, or something. But, as you'll see in this story about Carter Bros. buying GE's Edwards installation arm, where I interviewed the other Carter brother, John, it's pretty dang substantial.

I'm thinking for mainstream fame combined with security industry stature, Carter can't be beat. A close runner up might be Thomas McMillen, the former NBA star and congressman who heads Homeland Security Capital Corp., but a: his company is still smaller than Carter's, and b: Carter is on HBO.