ASIS International announced on Tuesday that its 59th Annual Seminar and Exhibits held last month in Chicago drew more than 20,000 attendees, marking a five and a half percent increase in attendance for the conference.
"This year’s Annual Seminar and Exhibits theme called on security practitioners to be 'Smart. Strategic. Secure.' The high quality education led by leading industry experts, networking, and the latest technology supported the theme, offering security professionals from across the country and around the world the opportunity to gain vast new knowledge and strategic perspectives on the practice and business of security," ASIS President Geoff T. Craighead, said in a statement. "This year’s event welcomed many of the senior most security practitioners from many global organizations to an active and engaging forum for peer-to-peer exchange and customized executive level professional development."
"This was also the third year that the (ISC)2 Security Congress co-located with the ASIS Seminar, providing a unique industry forum in which traditional and IT security professionals were able to connect, exchange, and explore shared risks and mitigation strategies in a converged business landscape," added Craighead.
Covering more than 230,000 net square feet of McCormick Place, 640 companies exhibited a wide array of security solutions. Keynote speakers included Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder and philanthropist and The Honorable John Winston Howard, 25th Prime Minister of Australia (1996-2007). NFL legend Mike Ditka delivered the address at the closing luncheon on Fri., Sept. 27.
Nearly 200 education sessions on topics ranging from school shootings to mobile security and terrorism trends to big data offered practitioners a wealth of opportunities to gain new knowledge, best practices, and strategies in security management.
The exhibit hall also featured the ASIS and (ISC)2 Career Pavilion. More than 400 attendees took advantage of Pavilion activities including panel sessions of CSOs discussing career-pathing, as well as employers discussing in-demand skill sets.
ASIS International’s 60th Annual Seminar and Exhibits will take place Sept. 29-Oct. 2 in Atlanta.
