News
A more democratic industry?

At the ISC West show in Las Vegas in March, an announcement was made about the future of the ISC East expo, normally held in New York City every fall. This expo has suffered in recent years from reduced attendance and lack support from the exhibitors.

The show will continue moving forward but under the new banner of “ISC Solutions.”  This new concept will essentially continue to serve traditional security installation companies looking to learn about new products. But it will also focus on vertical markets, such as education and health care, with the intent to appeal to more end-users.

May 18, 2010  By JF Champagne

It makes me wonder: is this a sign that our industry is maturing and  becoming more open and democratic so that manufacturers, distributors, security providers, integrators and end-users can co-habit on the show floor? I believe the answer is yes.

This is a good thing, because better communication between all the stakeholders in the security field can only be healthy for the whole industry. I applaud the efforts around the ISC Solutions initiative.

What does this announcement mean for Canada and the Security Canada expos? It means that we are on the right track because we continue to see a growing number of end-users involved in Security Canada. For many years, we have offered conference tracks hosted by the Toronto Chapter of ASIS International and CSIS Inc.,  whose audiences are mainly composed of end-users.

Did you know that more than 10 per cent of attendees at Security Canada Central last October identified themselves as end-users? Our latest addition, Security Canada Alberta, attracted about 50 per cent of the audience from the end-user community through our partnership with the Tri-lateral conference.

During Security Canada East, I spent time speaking with representatives from the security division at a prominent university. They came to our show and were happy to see the quality of what we had to offer. Even more interesting was a director for a large property manager who came to meet with an integrator. Together, they were able to see new products and offerings and discuss particular challenges directly with manufacturers.

This new reality has an effect on the vendor community as well. While our industry remains highly competitive, we are seeing better relationships between manufacturers, distributors and representatives.
I like to think it has something to do with the “democratization” of the industry but also its consolidation, which has brought a more corporate approach to business — and the fact that many of today’s competitors are yesterday’s co-workers probably helps too.

The end result of better and greater collaboration across all layers and segments of the industry is the development of better products and solutions. It is also the development of more open systems and common standards, which is what the market has been demanding for a long time.

JF Champagne is the Executive Director of CANASA. He can be reached at jfchampagne@canasa.org, or (800) 538-9919