ISC West growth good economic sign

LAS VEGAS—It's a good economic indicator for the security industry that show floor space for ISC West, which takes place here this year April 6-8, is 95 percent sold out, according to Ed Nichols, VP, strategic accounts, ISC.

Nichols expects all 300,000 square feet of the show's available exhibit space at the Sands Expo & Convention Center to be totally sold out when the show starts. That means that ISC will be the same size that it was before the economic downturn, a good sign for the industry, Nichols said.

“What we're encouraged about is being at 2007 square-footage levels, pre-recession, and that really is the message we want to get out there,” Nichols told Security Systems News. “We're very fortunate to be recognized as one of the leading indicators of the health of the security industry, both domestically and internationally. So what we feel this success means for the industry is a positive outlook in 2011.”

At the height of the recession, in 2009, exhibit square footage space was about 25 percent lower than this year, Nichols said.

More than 1,000 companies will be represented at the show, of which the Security Industry Association is the sole sponsor.

Attendees are optimistic this year, Nichols said.

“We're hearing our customers, hearing our integrators say there's an increase in the number of opportunities that they get to bid on,” Nichols said. “We're hearing from the security end users, the security directors and CSO's that budgets are rebounding. In fact better than half of those we spoke to in the past year anticipated having larger budgets in 2011 than they did in 2010.”

Richard Chace, CEO of SIA, made similar  comments in a statement.

“This growth is a result of the resilience and innovation of members of the security industry in weathering a couple of tough economic years, and the hard work of everybody involved in putting on ISC West,” Chace said. “Business is on the upswing again, and we are looking forward to having a fantastic show in April.”

The show's educational component includes numerous highlights this year, Nichols said.

“We're going to repeat our successful 'state of the industry' panel,” he said. The panel discussion, which he said packed the room last year, will feature representatives from each channel component of the industry, ranging from manufacturers to end users.