News Poll: Respondents positive on ISC West 2017

YARMOUTH, Maine—On this year's ISC West Show Floor, and in speaking with Reed Exhibitions staff afterward, Security Systems News' editors heard the show had great attendance. In SSN's latest News Poll, respondents largely agreed.

Following the show, Sherida Sessa, industry vice president for ISC Events, said ISC West 2017 had more than 30,000 attendees—a 3 percent increase from previous years and a new milestone for the show—and 200 new exhibitors.

“I have been attending ISC West for 6 consecutive years. This was the first year as an exhibitor and not an attendee,” said Nicole Swartwout, SSN “20 under 40” award winner Class of 2015 and I-View Now's administrative assistant, platform integrations.

“Even with a conservative 5x10 booth in the back of the hall, our traffic was incredible. More importantly, with qualified attendees. A lot contributed to this, mainly, our team at I-View Now put a tremendous amount of work in before pre-setting appointments. … I was very impressed with the show,” Swartwout added.

Seventy-three percent of attendees said the show was good and traffic seemed up from previous years.

“The show was outstanding. The traffic seemed way up. Our booth (Bosch) was packed every day and all day. There was a lot of interest in analytics and integration between video, intrusion, and access,” Ed Pedersen, Bosch Security System's vice president of integrator and distribution sales, wrote in.

Twenty-seven percent said that 2017's ISC West was not significantly better or worse than in the past. “The show seemed slower with less people, but the quality of meetings was excellent,” one reader said.

“Traffic seemed up especially on Wed. afternoon and all day Thursday. Wed. morning and all day Friday seemed much slower than last year,” another respondent wrote in.

Zero respondents indicated that their company had a negative experience at this year's show.

When asked about the biggest benefit of the show, 80 percent of respondents pointed to networking and meeting new companies. Eighteen percent liked seeing the new offerings on the show floor. Two percent said the educational sessions benefited them the most.

This year's show brought interesting new technologies. Many respondents—45 percent—said that drones and robotics made the biggest impression on them. Thirty-nine percent said AI/deep learning was a prominent new technology. Sixteen percent were most interested by biometrics.

One reader highlighted video verification, while another pointed to video in general.

“I will be there next year. Need more time with the AI and drone vendors. Neat how these will be utilized in future security systems. I see a lot of efficiencies by their use,” one respondent said.