Envysion's inaugural Video Summit deemed a success

BOULDER, Colo. - Envysion held its premiere Hosted and Managed Video Summit here from July 22-23 to what it called a sold-out crowd of attendees eager to learn about opportunities in managed services from the leaders in the field of managed video and share ideas with contemporaries. The Summit, cosponsored by Axis Communications, was, according to sponsors and attendees alike, a success.

"We're incredibly excited about how the inaugural event came off. We had 57 registered attendees in a 50-person room, so it was standing-room only. We had the right mix of folks, according to attendee feedback. There was a mix of participants from across the space,' said Carlos Perez, Envysion vice president of product and marketing. "Envysion and Axis sponsored, but Brivo, Sony, Cisco, Salesforce.com, Hughes, Cernium, Verint, and many others participated … The content was focused on the opportunity and the strong ROI value available to customers through the innovative solutions that span the managed and hosted space.'

King Rogers Analytics EVP Mike Knievel represented Edina, Minn.-based King Rogers Group at the summit. Knievel devoted a lot of time to the event, spoke on a panel and felt his effort was well spent. "I think the attendees in general were very interested in absorbing as much information as they could about other people that are out there working in the same space they're working in,' Knievel said. "One of the things I think most everyone walked away with was that there's going to be a need to work together on certain things. And there's a need to educate the public in general about what we're doing and what's available. We need to agree on common terminology so that when an end user is reading an article they understand … I also think that more and more people are realizing the importance of open architecture.'

Formerly with SureView, Axis business development manager, AVHS (Axis Video Hosting System) Matt Krebs was on hand at the event and felt positive about the results. "I sat on two panels and there was some follow-up conversations on how we could take this forward with steering committees and so forth,' Krebs said. "In my estimation it was a very successful event … Axis, being an IP camera manufacturer and a leader in the intelligent video space, feels hosted video is going to be central in the industry.'

Brivo president and CEO Steve Van Till attended the summit and participated in a "Fireside Chat' session with Envysion CEO Matt Steinfort. Van Till published a blog with his impressions of the event. He felt the summit was an important beginning to good stewardship of this developing, opportunity-filled space. "A lot of the applications here for surveillance and video aren't necessarily security applications. They're customer counting and line management in retail, compliance solutions in a variety of industries … In a sense the security universe has been letting something that was traditionally its baby - video surveillance - bleed out across the borders,' Van Till said. "It's very much a Darwinian proposition. Adapt or die … It's an exciting time to be in this space.'

Security Partners recently launched a video-centric trade show, and The Remote Guarding Alliance, comprising advanced video monitoring companies like Rapid Response Systems, Smart Interactive Systems, Statewide Security, SureView Systems, VideoIQ, ViewPoint CRM and Visentry, among others held a meeting at this year's ISC West in Las Vegas. The aim of the RGA was to organize and try to establish standards and leadership committees to position the space for future growth, aims Perez said were also part of the Envysion's summit. "There was a strong feeling this should be a yearly event and a lot of interest in forming a leadership committee and sponsoring for next year,' Perez said. "If you think about the objectives in terms of bringing together the right folks, discussing the opportunities and how do we accelerate growth and drive energy and to the space, we hit all those. We're really fired up.'