Weak ASIS 2015 Show Upsets Manufacturers

We might have gone if it wasn't way out in California. Yes, that'd be obvious for a company based in Florida like us, but even some people I talked to as far as Texas felt the same; they had no interest in going to California. Maybe a poll of integrators and end users who didn't go, but say they would have gone if it were a little less Westward (say Las Vegas or Colorado), more central (maybe Texas, Kansas, Missouri) or East (maybe Florida, Georgia or the Carolina's).

I have to agree that attendance seemed low. We had steady traffic at our booth the whole time, but day 3 seemed like the whole show was employees and that you had to really look for attendees.

I am questioning the value of trade shows moving forward. It seems like it gets harder to achieve ROI every single year.

Also, to what extent is poor performance attributable to poor location? Anaheim and Philly I think were poor choices this year and 2 years ago.

They should target New York, Dallas, San Fran, LA, etc. The major metro markets and not second tourist cities like Anaheim. My 2 cents. Even with Disney Land there as an excuse to "bring the family" attendance still dropped precipitously.

Trade shows have really become about networking with industry peers and attending all the parties which I don't mind. Sometimes attending does strenghen the relationship between us (intergator) and the manufacturer. However it's hard to trust a manufacturer on a product they are showing which won't be released for months down the road. This is the case with both ISC West and ASIS. Personally as much I enjoy Vegas, I'm little tired of going there. Being an explorer I don't mind moving around but the show location has to be central or a fun destination. Anaheim was not a good location or even worth the money. It much cheaper and easier on your feet checking lines and products out online. We picked up two lines last year by me sitting in my office and sending out 2 emails.

ASIS 2016 will be in Orlando so I'm thinking it would be worth my time to visit next year. I thought the 2011 show there was pretty good.

Wait a sec.

Manufacturers are mad because there was no foot traffic.

There was no foot traffic because people didn't think the Manufacturers had anything new to show.

Manufacturers had little new to show.

Help?

Consider another perspective. The show is seminars and exhibits. Could it be that the attendees are more focused than ever on the seminar side and less on the exhibits?

A couple items that may point in this direction include the increasing number of ASIS members becoming certified in one of the three offered "board certifications."

So, a member who does the "full seminar/exhibit" attendance receives 32 CPE points toward recertification. When you consider you only need 60 CPE credits every three years to maintain your certification, going to the show is the simplest way to attain a boatload of them (as opposed to 1CPE for a 1 hour webinar, lecture, etc....)

In other words, what drives ASIS members to the show is maybe increasingly having less to do with exhibits and new products, and more with education, collegiality, having one's employer foot the bill, and certification credits.

The value is just not there. I get 30 emails a day from manufacturers on the latest/greatest and the cost of the trip doubles over normal travel to exactly the same place (that's not ASIS's fault, that is the local economy trying to over-profit). I don't care about booth babes, private dinners, games, cruises etc. When my kids were young enough to enjoy Disney, they were in school in October. Even is they were not, when I go, I am working, not playing.

Let's not forget this either; the cost of the classes, if you are an ASIS member have gotten out of reach and are starting to lack in relevance to what we have to do for our customers. Manufacturer technical knowledge, respectfully ladies and gentlemen, is for the most part absent at the show. I need to know how it works!

Lastly and again, with all due respect, 2/3 of the US population still lives east of the Mississippi river. This is easy math. I go to Orlando, New Orleans, Atlanta, and San Antonio (really enjoy the city). I am actually not allowed to go back to Vegas (or the country of Mexico).

I attended this year's show and found the classes to be a little dissappointing. In previous years, there always seemed to be at least two or three interesting classes in each time slot, and the problem was picking the one you liked best. This year, there were many time slots where I had a hard time finding anything at all of interest.

ASIS partnered up with (ISC)2 Security Congress, so many of the classes had an IT security slant. During the one luncheon that I attended, many of the people at the table were IT security folks rather than physical security folks. They seemed fascinated by the physical security products on the floor, but probably weren't the actual buyers of these products for their employers.

With regards to the exhibits, I found them to be very quiet on all three days, at least when compared to previous shows. Good news for me; I was able to quickly get attention when I visited a booth, but probably bad news for the exhibitors.

I really like the Anaheim Convention Center as a venue. It flows well, there are plenty of restrooms and refreshment stands, and even chairs where you can sit down and rest or make a phone call. I stayed at the Hilton right next door which also made coming and going very convenient.

Overall, I would give this year's ASIS show a grade of "C". It's getting harder to justify the time and expense that is required to attend.

I am an end user and go almost every year to at least one ASIS. My impression is that there is really nothing new to see. Even the seminars are getting boring where they have 3 or 4 panelists who simply state the obvious and try to slip in the odd sales pitch.

Yes I take advantage of the CPEs gained in one big clump. I spent almost all 3 days in meetings with specific vendors to review architecture and roadmaps. Day 3 is only half day since most manufacturers are trying to pack what they can and cant wait to get out of there.

I noticed a lot of blank spaces as well. ASIS for a non profit organization seems to be making a lot of money on organizing meeting areas for manufacturers and integratotors. You cannot book a meeting room without going thru ASIS. As an example I know one integrator who simply asked their customers to meet them at a local pub becuase ASIS wanted 2K$ just for a room for 1 hour.

I think ASIS is shooting themselves in the foot. So for once I am all for the manufacturers. Just think of better ways to show off your products, do more case studies that people can see the value. Dont simply say, my product is better, faster cheaper.

I'll make a (longer term) prediction. Whenever the next recession comes, ASIS attendance will go down under 15,000 and stay there.

The basis of this is that a similar sharp downturn happened with the last recession. Also, many manufacturers are reluctant to not show or shrink significantly unless they can use the economy as a justification.

Here is the floorplan for ASIS 2016 Orlando. Since the show is nearly a year away, obviously lots of unbooked booths:

Right now, there is only 1 lounge and no coffee spots, though this will surely grow. This year (2015), they would up with 11 lounges and 4 coffee spots, which appears to be their way of filling up unsold booths.

I did not go to ASIS and since my boss wont pay for anyone other than him to go. I did go back when ASIS was in San Antonio. I also had the pleasure of gonig to ISC West this year.

I recently had a conversation with a colleague when he asked of I was going. I mentioned no howeer my boss was. He stated and I quote "He used to go however he no longer goes because the seminars have nothing for him and I. They are geared towards the security professional with less than 5 years in the industry. Not someone who has been in the industry for over 20 years".

I would have to say I agreed with his statement. I attend a lot of local seminars, watch wwebinars and I keep hearing the same things over and over again. I find it disappointing to say the least.

I would also echo the calls for quit moving it around. Choose a city or choose 3 - 5 cities and rotate between those. Moving it around is certainly one reason they are loosing attendance.

Another reason for loosing attendance most certainly has to be the thoughts of my colleague, "seminars are not geared to the folks with several years inthe industry.

As far as exihibits, I can say this from ISC West, there were so many seminars that I wanted to attend I had to pick and choose which ones to attend and because there were so many I had a tough time walking the exhibit floor and going to talk to each manufacture that I wanted too. I also found it disappointing that at the end of each day when there were no more seminars to attend and I actually had time to walk the exhibit floor most of the manufactures were already closed for the day.

Cost is certainly an issue. I have been a member of ASIS for years and I can say they charge a premium for their stuff. It is very expensive.

IPVM has for year complained about the cost of ASIS, what the CEO makes and the fact that a lot of the organization is unpaid volunteers runnig it. This is so true. I have been involved at chapter level in years past as local chapter vice president and president. It is a lot of work for very little reward.

Here is a thought. Like I said I did attend ISC West this year. I enjoyed it. However I can not compare to previous ISC West shows.

Anyway, here is my thought or suggestion to both ISC West and ASIS.

We all know in years past ISC West was geared towards primary audiance of the integrator.

We also know that the primary audiance for ASIS in the past was the end user - security director or manager. The lines have certainly crossed overr theyears.

Combine the two shows. This would bring in the audiences from both shows, cut manufactures expenses. Cut attendee expenses.

heard the same stuff from vendors there. where are the customers? nice to have the time to talk to other vendors but...

FYI some seminars are definitely aimed at seasoned professionals. I'm on the IT Security Council, believe it or not some people are geninunely trying to develop and deliver seminar content that's worth it.

There is much to see in the exhibit hall, but not much new to see. Still, if you walk away with 2 or 3 golden nuggets of information that can cut cost and improve the performance of your system, as i did, it's worth the time and cost. Of course the block of recert credits ensures I will continue going in perpetuity. I do enjoy the seminars, but many class descriptions are not representative of the content, and some are simply a one-hour infomercial. So, ASIS needs to be more active in ensuring they are meeting attendees' expectation on education.

More negative comments from SSI:

"Traffic on the show floor ranged from barren (Days 1 and 3) to moderate (Day 2), and the 600 or so booths were about a 40% decline from what this event presented at its zenith. This made it easy most of the time for show-goers (including SSI’s ever-roaming editors) to get around and into booths as well as gain face time with vendor staff, but left the majority of exhibitors (particularly those focused on the dealer/integrator channel) dismayed."

Update: ASIS says attendance was 17,484, down ~10% from last year's 19,000+ attendance. Note, both numbers are unaudited so keep that in mind. Also, those numbers include ~7,000 manufacturer exhibitors, making the true end user / integrator number far lower.

Maybe they should have invited Donald Trump to be the Keynote Speaker!

• No Charge for his appearance #1
• He is drawing crowds of 25,000 Plus!