ISC East resurgence continues
By Paul Ragusa
Updated Wed December 4, 2019
ISC East 2019, held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City Nov. 20-21, continued to build on the positive momentum and growth it has experienced over the past few years, bringing more than 7,600 security and public safety professionals — up 6 percent from 2018 — together to discuss new trends and solutions, to celebrate industry successes and leaders and better define the roadmap for security moving forward.
The 2019 event welcomed 350 leading security brands, including more than 100 new companies and brands, covering 130 security product categories. Activity on the show floor was brisk with good traffic and networking going on throughout both days and many exhibitors commenting that they were pleased with the quantity — and quality — of security professionals in attendance.
Will Wise, group vice president, Reed Exhibitions, told SSN before and during the conference that he is excited to see all of ISC and SIA's hard work translate into continued growth of the show.
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“We have been working hard the last 4-5 years to really infuse more innovation and continue to drive growth and momentum into ISC East,” Wise told SSN. “ISC East has been on a nice growth trajectory, especially the last few years, even making the Trade Show Executives Fastest 50 Growing Events list the last couple of years.”
He continued, “There has been a lot of good work in regard to better content, growing the exhibitor list, which this year was at approximately 350 exhibitors (up from about 280 in 2018) — a huge uptick versus 3-4 years ago. When you have better content, more exhibitors with an even more diverse number of solutions, those are all add up to a great recipe for success.”
Mary Beth Shaughnessy, event director for ISC Security Events, also noted that ISC East has been on the upswing for the past few years and continues to grow. "This year kicked into a new level of success, with expanded product offerings and content, we've secured the spot as the largest Northeast converged security Show. Education tracks were created to provide attendees with greater opportunity to connect and learn with their cross-functional security & public safety industry peers both on the IT and Physical security side of their organization. Attendees left the Show with the insights and knowledge needed to defend and protect against new and emerging threats.”
Wise pointed out that the show also benefitted from co-locating for the second year with Infosecurity ISACA North America, and from the increased relationship with ASIS NYC Chapter, which officially supported ISC East this year and will continue to expand the partnership next year, he said.
ISC East, in collaboration with Premier Sponsor the Security Industry Association (SIA), also featured a SIA Education@ISC East program with more than 20 complimentary sessions with practical and in-depth content on converged security, cybersecurity, computer vision & AI, physical security and more.
Wise shared with SSN the Top 5 ISC East Breakout Sessions:
• We Sneak Into High Security Buildings and Get Paid For it;
• AI for Video Surveillance: Technology Overview and Future Directions;
• Video Analytics: The Next Advance in Secure Access Control;
• Implementing Converged Security, a Process - Bringing it All Together; and
• Achieving Comprehensive Facility Security
Additionally, the SIA Education@ISC East program offered two prominent female Keynote Speakers for the first time at ISC East — Deanne Criswell, commissioner of the New York City Emergency Management Department, and Angela Stubblefield, chief of staff at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“The 2019 SIA Education@ISC East program was a great success, with enthusiastic attendees taking part in our education sessions, engaging keynotes and hands-on workshops covering cutting-edge topics like the drone security policy landscape, technologies driving smart cities and IoT security at the edge," said SIA CEO Don Erickson. “Additionally, industry leaders gathered at SIA's Return on Security breakfast to learn how solutions providers find business benefits beyond security, and the SIA Women in Security Forum hosted a dynamic breakfast and discussion on achieving true diversity and inclusiveness in the security workforce.”
In addition to the busy expo floor, engaging sessions and keynotes and special events, one of the highlights for ISC East, as it is each year, is SIA Honors Night, where the who's who of the industry gathered to celebrate SIA's 50th anniversary and honor some of the movers and shakers in the industry.
SSN was honored to be in attendance and extends our congratulations to Honors Night award recipients:
• George R. Lippert Memorial Award: Steve Van Till, co-founder, president and CEO, Brivo;
• Jay Hauhn Excellence in Partnerships Award: Andrew Lanning, co-founder, Integrated Security Technologies;
• Insightful Practitioner Award: George Anderson, director of World Trade Center security for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey;
• SIA Progress Award: Maureen Carlo, director of strategic alliances, North America, BCDVideo; and
• Mission 500 Partner Innovation Award: Jeff Gardner, president and CEO, Brinks Home.
SIA also honored Sandra Jones, founder of Sandra Jones and Co. (SJ&Co), who announced her retirement after 45 years in the security industry. Jones has been a pioneering spirit in the industry, serving as a mentor to many and giving back to the industry, most prominently helping lead the Security Industry Association for nearly 40 years.
Overall, ISC East continues its resurgence as the top security show in the Northeast, providing a unique experience that you can't find at ISC West, for example.
“One of the ways that ISC East has been able to differentiate itself from ISC West is taking on characteristics and personality of the NYC-area and overall Northeast market for security and public safety, which as we know, is a massive market with urgencies for security and safety,” Wise said. “Our attendee data shows a less than 10 percent overlap of attendees with East versus West, which is really good, as we are providing a unique audience for exhibitors.”
ISC East 2020 will take place Nov. 18-19, 2020 at its continued home base, New York City's Jacob K. Javits Center.
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