Reed opens new conference at ISC West

LAS VEGAS—Reed Exhibitions is debuting a new conference alongside ISC West, April 6-8, to focus on IT and cyber concerns in physical security: the Connected Security Expo @ ISC West, complete with its own exhibits, educational tracks and keynotes.

“The fact is that more and more cybersecurity practitioners have become responsible for the entire security picture, meaning that they now have to worry about the physical as well as the logical,” Ed Several, senior vice president and GM for Reed Exhibitions, told Security Systems News.

Christian Merhy, executive advisor on security practice at Reed Exhibitions, told SSN that “the target audience here is really the chief information security officer and the cybersecurity team.” Several said there was a rise in attendance from chief information security officers in recent years at ISC West.

Merhy said the event will cover a variety of topics, such as “physical security from an IT lens, topics around CISOs and the evolving role of CISOs—so it's as much about people and processes as it is about technology, � [and] the notion of closing the security gap around IoT.” He also identified cloud as a concern between both physical- and IT-security professionals.

Several said there have been more IoT businesses on the ISC West show floor in the last couple of years.

“The show will actually be co-located. It will be in the lower hall, connected by an escalator. So, you'll have ISC West on one floor, the escalator down [brings you] right into the center of Connected Security Expo, on the same days as ISC West,” Several said. A badge for either event will be accepted at both.

Connected Security Expo @ ISC West will be an annual event, Several said. The conference is sponsored by SIA, and PSA-TEC will be programing some of the educational sessions.