Conference Attendence Continue to Drop

SSN is reporting that conference attendees to the US ISC East trade show continue to drop precipitously from 187 people in 2005 to only 44 people in 2009. Access to the conference/speaking sessions usually costs hundreds of dollars. By contrast, exhibitor attendance (which is generally free or $50) declined only about 10% since 2005, from 7060 to 6331 people.  SSN notes that the rise of free manufacturer sponsored education events has contributed to this. We believe this makes sense as its the same manufacturers who generally present at the conferences.

In October, SIA made a commitment to make ISC West commercial free (which might bolster the value of the conference). From the first session we have seen announced, this does not look to be the case. Axis and Secure-i are presenting on Security as a Service - an interesting topic but one that is likely to be biased towards Axis's AVHS. By contrast, see our test results of Axis AVHS/Secure-i and our comparison reported of the hosted/managed video market.