Tuesday at CSAA

Well, the party a Turtle Point last night was really boffo or groovy or some other '60s term for good. A 10-piece band entertained CSAA members and spouses while most people took the opportunity to avoid talking business for at least a few hours. Very few hijinks ensued. Sorry, no good gossip. This morning was the real meat of the conference, with presenations that got to the heart of members' concerns. Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp's Alan Pepper gave a sobering presentation on privacy, which, when doubled with Michael Kelly's presentation on insuring against liability in the digital age, sure made me want to go buy a paper shredder. In fact, the day was full of scare tactics, as Gordon Hope from Honeywell presented a chilling picture of the rapid evolution of the communications devices that will be employed by the alarm industry going forward, and John Lombardi (CIA Security), Shane Clary (Bay Alarm), Lou Fiore (AAIC), and Bob Bonifas (Alarm Detection Systems) put forward a call to arms, trying to generate participation in the NFPA standards-creation process. "Where will architects and engineers and code enforcement officers turn for security standards?" Lombardi asked. "To NFPA 731. The NFPA is simply where they go for standards." Now is the time to pay attention. You can track the standard's progress, and that of others vital to the industry, like NFPA 72 and 720, here. The rest of the day was spent golfing and sailing, though I, your dutiful scribe, spent the rest of the day working, of course. Tomorrow I get up on the dais. We'll see what happens.