CSAA mid-year meeting declared "programmatic and financial success"

ORLANDO--Steve Doyle, executive vice president of the Central Station Alarm Association, pronounced this year's mid-year meeting "a programmatic and financial success. All classes were exceptionally well-attended. Some CSAA members said it was the best program we've ever had." The program included three tracks: Operations Management, Business Development, and a Technical track, in addition to a UL series of seminars given by Peter Tallman. Classes ranged from motivational speaker Gail Kaspar's "Increasing Customer Loyalty," to "Pandemic Preparedness," where John Judd, president of Adevcon, instructed attendees on what to do in case of an epidemic, in which half of the country's workforce--and supply chain--may be out of commission. Kevin Coleman, chief strategist of the Technolytics Institute, gave the keynote on May 19 on "Technology Driven Integration of Physical and Information Security." During "The Importance of Next Generation Communications to your Core Business," Gordon Hope, vice president, Alarmnet, Honeywell Corporation, spoke to a packed audience on the "perfect storm" about to hit the industry: the AMPS sunset clause, the demise of traditional phone lines, the rise of VoIP telephone services, and changes in wireless networks. What might happen? "There are two theories regarding AMPS," said Hope. "The 'big bang theory,' where all AMPS radios suddenly stop working, and the 'evolutionary theory,' where areas will lose AMPS connectivity, with the AMPS network ending over time." Regardless of recent industry efforts to extend the AMPS deadline, Hope iterated during his presentation, "It's real and it's going to happen sooner or later--and it looks like it may be sooner." On Saturday, May 26, a full exhibitor floor saw monitoring companies, distributors, consultants and manufacturers mingling with central station managers and operators. Most attendees and exhibitors listed "networking" as the reason they come--and keep coming--to the CSAA meetings. Said Doyle, "What's interesting is that in the beginning, we had mostly central station and alarm company owners come...now we have central station managers, operators, virtually every aspect of the industry related to monitoring, and the networking has been very good for these folks who are sharing ideas across the board." CSAA's annual meeting will be held at the Fairmont Orchid hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii, October 19-24. For more information, access www.csaaul.org.