I attended the 2006 American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) Annual Seminar and Exhibit held in San Diego, CA during the last week of September looking for innovative solutions and the latest technology advancements in security. The ASIS sponsored events started on Saturday September 23^rd with comprehensive educational seminars held over a two day period. Topics included: “Defending Against Terrorism: Open Source Data Mining and Intelligence Exploitation”, “Detecting Deception in Verbal & Written Statements”, “Successful Security Consulting”, “Emergency Management Planning/Cost Effective Institutional Protection Management”, “CPP Certification”, etc.

The Exhibit itself started on Monday thru Wednesday and featured innovations from over 900 companies. ASIS also offered over 150 educational sessions (1 hour long on average) on various topics ranging from “Computer Forensic Primer” to “Crisis Response Training”.

Attendees included firefighters, police officers, emergency managers (Incl. EMS), corporate security consultants & officers, representatives from various U.S. military branches, CEOs, CFOs, VPs, engineers, and various U.S. government agency reps.

I can honestly say that - after these 3 days roaming through the multiple alleys of the Convention Center - this event was a great educational experience as it gave me a great opportunity to gain a unique insight in evolving technologies. I not only learned from the educational sessions that I attended but also from my peers who gave me quite some insight into their perspectives, concerns and solutions. There is simply so much to learn and so many great minds to meet that I can only highly recommend participation in this great international annual event!

Of the 900+ companies exhibiting, needless to say that I didn’t have the time to meet with all, I found some very exciting technologies that I believe are worth taking some additional time to understand and consider in our quest to better our security world. I hereby offer a short “apercu” of these outstanding evolving technologies.

As I am currently waiting to hear back from many of the companies providing these services, please indulge the extra time it might take to get them all listed.