The Security Industry is Back: Live from ISC West in Vegas where the Focus was Innovation and Collaboration

ISC West is a key event for the Security Industry. It took a pause in 2020, but recently brought the industry back together in July. We caught up with two senior consultants who survey the floor every year to explore the show and what they learned.

They found an eagerness to “get back to work”. There was a passion undergirding the event around relationships; relationships that can drive innovation and change.

Although the size of the crowd was quite a bit lower than in the past, ISC managed to “get the ball rolling again”. And new innovations on the floor focused on outcomes amid societal and environmental change.

One of the key insights was this “We are now monitoring our monitoring.” The point was that information (data) is the new oil and a new assurance expectation through transparent reporting is needed. These ‘dashboards’ are now a condition of a security manager’s evaluation of their vendors.

The consultants were J. Kelly Stewart the Managing Director & CEO of Newcastle Consulting, LLC  and a former CSO. Newcastle is a premiere Security Risk Management Consultancy that provides security strategies ensuring your Piece of Mind through a proactive prevention strategy to reduce risk.

Kelly draws upon more than 30 years of public and private sector experience as a Security Advisor, Subject Matter Expert, and former Chief Security Officer focused on assisting executives in directing their organizations on core competencies where they can achieve definable advantages and add value that facilitate and protect organizational objectives.

Steven Oplinger, a Senior Consultant with Star Asset Security, has been in the security industry for over 28 years, primarily as a security systems designer. he has been responsible for projects nationally to include shopping malls, resorts, and government facilities.  Mr. Oplinger represents Star Asset Security at numerous security industry events  as both a presenter and keynote speaker. He is a regular contributor to security association events and trade publications. He has been one of the primary authors and instructors for the Security Industry Association Security Project Management workshop. He also is an active member of ASIS International, and has served as the Chairman of the Physical Security Council