Lets Shake On It
Partnerships and networking key components of ASIS 2013
- By Rebecca Overton
- Jul 01, 2013
Hardly a day goes by without hearing someone
extol the virtue of partnerships. In a global
environment, partnerships often provide the
resources to start the wheels of a project turning and
keep it rolling to the finish line.
Wikipedia defines a partnership as “an arrangement
where parties agree to cooperate to advance
their mutual interests.” Because human beings are
social animals, partnerships between individuals,
businesses, organizations and governments have been
around for centuries.
When ASIS International hosts its 59th Annual
Seminar and Exhibits in Chicago in September, the
leading organization for security professionals will offer
attendees a four-day opportunity for 24/7 education,
innovation and inspiration in the security field.
Partnerships with sponsors help make the yearly security
extravaganza possible, which contributes to ASIS’
role in strengthening a relationship with which anyone
inside or outside the security industry can identify—
the partnership between law enforcement and
private security companies.
“ASIS has done a phenomenal job of fostering the
relationship between public and private partnerships
post 9/11,” said Keith Kambic, CPP, a volunteer leader
and host committee chair for ASIS 2013. Kambic is
director of Security and Life Safety for U.S. Equities
Asset Management, which oversees management and
leasing of Chicago’s Willis Tower (also known as the
Sears Tower), the western hemisphere’s tallest building.
“Previous to 9/11, law enforcement was on one
side and private security was on the other,” Kambric
said. “After 9/11, we quickly realized we have a lot
more eyes and ears on the street. Through a lot of different
organizations and facilitations, we were able to
get those two groups together and double, triple, and
even quadruple the amount of information that flows
back and forth.”
Three Elements
ASIS will encourage that partnership, which was
praised repeatedly after the Boston Marathon bombing,
through three distinct elements at the convention.
First, from Sept. 24–27 in McCormick Place, the nation’s
largest convention center, almost 200 educational
sessions will address a wide range of timely topics, critical
issues and security management best practices by
top security practitioners and academic experts.
Second, the ASIS exhibit hall will offer hundreds
of new products, cutting-edge innovations and realworld
security solutions from more than 700 companies
that specialize in risk mitigation. Exhibitors
may enter the 2013 ASIS Accolades–Security’s Best,
an awards competition that recognizes the industry’s
most innovative new products, solutions and services.
Third, the seminar will feature three guest speakers
who are authorities on partnerships in business,
government and athletics. Steve Wozniak, co-founder
of Apple Computer with Steve Jobs, will address attendees
as the keynote speaker on Sept. 25. The next
day, the Honorable John Winston Howard, Australia’s
25th and second longest-serving prime minister,
will present the keynote address. NFL legend/anaylist
and former Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka
will conclude the convention by speaking at the closing
luncheon on Sept. 27.
What differentiates ASIS 2013 from previous ASIS
conventions? In one word—Chicago—Kambic said.
“ASIS hasn’t been back to Chicago for 28 years, so
obviously several generations of practitioners haven’t
seen or experienced our city. In the last decade or so,
Chicago has become a world-class destination, and I
believe our participants will see that when they come
here in September.”
Last year, the eyes of the world were on the city
as it hosted the NATO Summit, the first time the international
event was held in a U.S. city other than
Washington, D.C. The high-profile meeting provided
an opportunity for private and public security groups
to work together to ensure the safety of more than 50
world leaders.
“It was a unique experience that offered an opportunity
for the public and private sector to work together
to make something that had the potential to go
very ugly go very, very well,” said John Kellers, CPP,
CIPM, another volunteer leader and ASIS 2013 Host
Committee chair. Kellers serves as a sergeant in the
Protective Services Division at the University of Illinois
at Chicago.
An estimated 20,000 attendees at ASIS 2013 will
be able to take advantage of the experience of security
professionals who worked the NATO Summit. “Several
participants of those sectors will present at the
seminar to explain how those public/private partnerships
worked out and what the folks did to make them
so good,” he said.
Networking is Huge
Many partnerships are founded on relationships that
have been cultivated by networking. Because ASIS is
a worldwide organization that encompasses a diverse
group of security professionals, it has more than 30
different specialty councils on the national level, explained
Mike Crane, who joined Kambic and Sellers
as a volunteer leader and local Host Committee chair.
Crane is executive vice president and general counsel
of IPC International Corp.
“There are all different kinds of councils for people
in the gaming industry, military and law enforcement
liaison council, etc.—which focus on the special
interests of security managers,” Crane said. “Then
you have local city and state chapters of the specialty
councils, so there’s something for everybody.”
The diversity of professionals in ASIS’s international
membership of more than 38,000 facilitates
partnerships within the broad security field.
“At the national convention, it’s not unusual to
find yourself sitting next to a facilities guy next to
a defense guy next to a police officer next to a retail
guy,” Kambic said. “ASIS tends to gather all the specialty
organizations under its umbrella.”
Networking is one of the most important elements
ASIS provides its members, Kambic, Crane,
and Sellers all said. “I still talk with people I first
met 20-plus years ago at the first ASIS International
seminar and exhibits I attended,” said Sellers. “Networking
is huge.”
“My company is in 46 states, and when some problem
happens, the first thing you do is look in the ASIS
directory to find someone you can relate to,” Crane
added. “Networking is so important because you
don’t want to re-invent the wheel if you don’t have to.”
Networking also offers a big assist to benchmarking,
Kambic explained. “If Mike is running a security
company in the Midwest and he wants to know what
they’re doing on the West Coast, he can easily pick up
the phone because of the relationships he’s made over
the years and say, ‘What are you doing? How are you
addressing this, or how is it working for you?’”
Without networking, it’s impossible to create partnerships
that pool collective resources and knowledge.
And without partnerships to keep the economic wheel
turning, you can be back to square one.
This article originally appeared in the July 2013 issue of Security Today.