How Successful Was ISC West 2016 For Security Industry Exhibitors And Visitors?

ISC West 2016 was a great show! It felt like the busiest ISC West to date especially with all of the vendors and visitors that attended. The common trends I observed while walking the show floor were cloud, cyber and consolidation - topics that I will be sure to keep an eye to in the coming months. Another observation was all of the innovation that is taking place. Video seems more advanced, and many systems seem more scalable than ever before. ISC West 2016 was a great success for Axis Communications overall, and I’m already looking forward to ISC West 2017.

After the ISC West expo was complete and the attendees left the show floor, we held a recap session with our tradeshow staff and field management team. We had a roundtable discussion of how we performed and what actions we should take to make our next show even better. It was unanimous that 2016 ISC West was the best show we have participated in Arecont Vision history! Activity on the first two days was especially strong with Systems Integrators, Dealers, Distributors, End Users, and A&E/Consultants. These people all came to see our new product line and were especially interested to see the product performance improvements and ease of installation and setup. We also had important meetings with our technology partners with whom we build great end-to-end solutions. Arecont Vision received several product awards at the show that made us proud of what we deliver to our customers.

Overall, the show was an extremely successful one for us. Being a small manufacturer, we did not want to invest the big dollars for a booth, and in retrospect, this decision turned out to be good one since many of the smaller booths lacked a lot of foot traffic. Many of our key partners were present, which allowed us to engage with them in meaningful conversations and meetings. While the show's attendance seemed to be good, in my opinion, the products in general were disappointing. I had a chance to peruse the booths of most of the major camera suppliers and did not see any interesting new technologies worth mentioning. More than technology or features, most of these companies were talking about low (and falling) prices. On the plus side, I was honored to present on several panels during the SIA Education@ISC West program. Another huge plus? The free WiFi!

ISC West 2016 was the busiest it has been in many years. I think this is a result of the broader increased concern for security. From an ONVIF point of view, it was gratifying to see that interoperability was one of the most discussed topics at ISC West, both in SIA educational sessions and in general on the show floor, which is a result of systems becoming more and more integrated in response to end user demand. Other trends at the show included discussions of IoT and cyber security and how standards have an important role to play in both.

I believe this was our best ISC West show to date. The booth traffic was as good as we could have hoped for, and the show was extremely well attended. We saw continual meetings, demos and presentations on all three days of the show – which is a change from previous years. Most notable was Friday: Usually, the last day of the show is close to dead, and we're bombarded with other vendors trying to sell us their products. However, we are pleased to note that there was not too much of that this year, and Friday wound up being very productive for our company. Overall, we saw a good attendance at both our booth and our SIA Education@ISC West panel presentation, making this year's show a huge success.

Each year our company exhibits at a few promising industry and vertical trade shows. ISC West is one of the shows we look forward to each year, as we get the booth traffic, the leads and the opportunity to meet with industry colleagues all in one place. The 2016 ISC West show was no exception. The crowds were great. But it’s not just the number of people that’s important; it’s also the quality and mix of the professionals. The decision-makers from industries we serve were there. And so were many of the dealers, integrators, and A&Es that specify, sell and install our products. Overall, ISC West is one show that delivers on its promises.

The volume of attendees and attendee quality were some of the best I’ve seen at any trade show in the last eight years. These were serious buyers with specific requirements, and they were definitely shopping. I was also surprised and impressed by the number of end-users in attendance — suggesting that ASIS faces a serious competitive threat. I believe two factors are contributing to ISC West’s growth: One, confidence in the economy is high with belief in a stable near-term future. And two, probably more the case, corporate security spend has been on hold for eight-plus years, infrastructure in general has grown obsolete, and the economics of “patch and repair” are proving costlier than going new. During this period, product prices have dropped significantly while capabilities and performance have grown. This all suggests there is more value in going new. ISC West was a strong indicator of growth on the horizon.

While this was my first ISC West, I wasn't quite sure what to expect by way of results from such a targeted show. I will report, however, I was pleasantly surprised by the level of excitement that our company received from members of the media, end users and the dealer and integrator space, particularly for our latest product offerings and updates to existing products in our portfolio. Additionally, our company saw a large amount of booth traffic – and all three days were without a lull in attendees, demonstrations and presentations. This show was especially important to demonstrate Pelco's continued strength in the marketplace, which we were able to do through strategic meetings with our valued partners, presentations through our SIA Education@ISC West panels and discussions with end users in the marketplace.

ISC West 2016 was a great trade show for ISONAS. While we were not in the center of the tradeshow floor, our reception from the attendees was tremendous. We saw 37% more people in our booth; we had over 90 scheduled meetings; and we were sought for partnership by several other access control manufacturers. Perhaps the best complement that we were paid came from several attendees who said “ISONAS is the one product on the show floor that is truly unique and is The product to see.” This success, we believe, is a direct result of the access control industry moving to IP technology. The market is expanding for IP access control at a 34% per-annum rate, and we at ISONAS are right in the sweet spot of product offering, features, and price point for this market.

This year’s ISC West event was a huge success for Panasonic. We were able to launch and showcase our newest Aero PTZ camera and enhanced Smart Coding for our 4K cameras, as well as complete our UniPhier platform with the unveil of our 1 Series cameras. In addition, ISC West was a great opportunity for us to connect one-on-one with current and potential dealers, retailers and integrators to educate them on our latest security offerings. We look forward to continuing the on-the-ground conversations and providing our customers with the best solutions we have to offer.

This year’s ISC West served as a great opportunity to connect with security leaders and Verint partners. As security leaders become more business savvy, technology increases in sophistication, and emerging trends such as Big Data and the Internet of Things drive new opportunity, conferences like ISC offer a tremendous opportunity for us to share our message and strategies. This year’s conference was impressive as it not only highlighted new strategies for traditional security practices but looked at how the blurring of lines between Physical, Cyber and IT Security are changing the face of the market. During the conference, we had the opportunity to introduce two strategic technology updates to the market. Verint Video Tracker is an intelligent analytics platform, and new updates to Verint EdgeVMS are designed to further streamline investigation management and enhance multi-agency collaboration.

Our expectations were certainly exceeded; we saw double the amount of interest in video event management software systems and open platform analytics technology than we did in the previous year. This signifies that customers, integrators and other attendees are searching anew for cost-effective business tools that will protect their perimeters and give them an edge over other available technologies in the market. People are witnessing first-hand the concept of event-driven intelligence working for their business models and streamlining their security initiatives, and it was fantastic to be able to bring more forward-thinking professionals from all over the globe into the fold.

This year’s ISC West was probably the best ISC West AMAG has ever attended. Attendance was up and traffic to our booth was phenomenal. We were very pleased with the interest in our new products, specifically our new Symmetry GUEST visitor management system and Symmetry CONNECT, our policy-based software platform. The attendees were highly interested and motivated to learn about new technologies and integrations that will help better secure their buildings and staff.