Archive: June 2008

Thanks for the all the inquiries, but, yes, I did make it back home from Nashville alive. You're all so sweet to worry after my safety. Anyhoo, the old email box is filled to brimming, but I couldn't let this story out of Canada slip by me without comment: A former Garda executive says the company threatened to kill him if he leaked financial information. And now Garda is suing him back for defamation. Garda World Security Corp. says it will initiate a defamation lawsuit against a "disgruntled"...

So, I'm back from the ESX show in Nashville, and I must say, I had a blast. To start off the show they let me play with guns (for security guys, they really have no sense), but I felt surprisingly confident firing live ammunition at small flying discs during the TBFAA's skeet shooting event. A shout out to Andrew Stadler of Security Partners for his fine videography skills. During the first two days of the show I attended several great educational sessions, my favorite being the Gen-Y session....

A couple days late, here are some highlights from the new home-grown industry show called ESX, the Electronic Security Exposition, which took place in Nashville, June 24-28. Congratulations to the CSAA, NBFAA, EH (the group that organized the event) and the TBFAA on this inaugural event. First up on June 24 was the skeet shoot, sponsored by the Tennessee Burglar & Fire Alarm Association at the Nashville Gun Club Now, I’d never held a gun, let alone shot one, but guess what I found...

Whoo-ee. Things are getting started a little later all over the conference today after the damage done on the Club Crawl sponsored by the Tennessee BFAA last night. People were having all kinds of fun listening to music, enjoying frosty beverages, and, of course, riding a mechanical bull. Don't believe me? Here's a bad photo of Security Partners' Kerry Egan trying not to get thrown: But people deserved a night out on the town after yet another day of success here at ESX's first go round. I won't...

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--Here on the opening day of the first annual Electronic Security Expo, attendees repeatedly heard the message that they need to add recurring monthly revenue to their business model. In seminar sessions that were often so crowded people were standing along the walls, presenters such as Harvey Eisenstadt and Bob Harris of Attrition Busters, Pete Celano of Alarm.com, Pat Petrow of Vector Security, and John Tedesco of Contigo emphasized the high gross margin a recurring revenue model...

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--The NBFAA honored two of its outstanding members at the annual Weinstock and Jackson awards ceremony held at the Country Music Hall of Fame here on June 24 at the ESX show. Stewart Jackson, former owner of Jackson Burglar Alarm, presented the Sara Jackson award, which is in honor of his mother's work and dedication to the NFBAA, to Frank Burke, of USA Alarm Systems. "This award recognizes an active member of the industry who has demonstrated outstanding leadership," said Jackson....

As everyone in Nashville surely knows, if the room is packed, you've done alright for yourself. By that reasoning, ESX is thus far a wild success. On the first full day of educational programming, every room I was in was standing-room-only, with at least 75 people crowding into the smaller rooms to see speakers, and the larger rooms (generally used by the central station operator crowd) holding more than 125. And people weren't even complaining about having to stand. Wild success, right? The programming...

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.--Vector Security announced this week that Pamela Petrow has been promoted to chief operating officer, effective July 1. "This is a new position," said Petrow during an interview with Security Systems News at ESX in Nashville. "It's a way to spread the responsibility around and it will also allow John Murphy [Vector's CEO] to have a more strategic role." In addition to her central station operations and information services group responsibilities, Petrow's new position as COO will...

NASHVILLE--Speaking here at ESX to a lively group during an educational session about how security companies can get involved in home automation, Michael Tangora talked about the importance of focusing on details and efficiencies. "We've gone from 12 employees to six employees, and we still do the same volume, but we're more efficient. With that, comes profit," he said. Tangora is president of Tangora Technologies, a company that does the whole range of home automation including security, home theater,...

NAPERVILLE, Ill.--Close on the heels of its announcement of the purchase of Sonitrol June 11, Stanley Convergent Security Solutions announced on June 20 the purchase of the retail branch business from National Guardian Security Services. According to a release, the purchase includes roughly 3,500 residential and commercial accounts concentrated in California, Missouri and Kansas. "This brings us some nice efficiencies," said Tony Byerly, chief operating officer at Stanley CSS. "It gets us some scale...