The 250-plus security industry professionals that gathered in Orlando for the seventh annual Electronic Security Association (ESA) Leadership Summit were treated to a few days of deep-dive educational sessions that ran the gamut from running an alarm business to positioning it to be sold; along with a variety of networking events and opportunities; and of course, the association’s annual awards.
A wide-ranging roster of speakers from both inside and outside the electronic security industry offered attendees multiple educational opportunities. Keynote speeches ranged from Steve Bookbinder’s captivating take on sales strategies, to U.S. Army Major General (ret.) Doug Anson’s look at national security, with speeches covering cyber security and the challenges facing industry associations along the way.
In addition to the inspiring keynotes, ESA hosted many educational sessions.
Hosted solutions, in general, “are becoming less complex and easier to use,” said Matt Krebs of Xtralis during a session on video surveillance as a service (VSaaS).
Henry Edmonds of the Edmonds Group delivered a fascinating session on preparing alarm dealers to position their companies for an eventual sale; and AE Ventures’ John Galante unveiled some of the results from a coming benchmarking report/guideline for sales and service of security systems — which will be released to the public at ESX in June.
Additionally, ESA handed out its yearly leadership awards. They included:
• Morris F. Weinstock Person of the Year: Charles “Dom” D’Ascoli, Smoky Mountain Systems
• Sara E. Jackson Memorial Award: Sam Fiske, Smoky Mountain Systems;
• Chapter Executive Director of the Year: Jerry Lenander, California Alarm Association;
• Chapter President of the Year: Joe Parisi, Rapid Response Monitoring (N.J. Chapter of ESA);
• NTS Instructor of the Year: Dan Cantrell, ADT North America;
• Chapter of the Year: Louisiana Life Safety & Security Association (LLSSA).
