3200 East 81^st Street
Bloomington, MN   55245

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Members: $610 |  Nonmembers: $765

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Audience includes monitoring center managers and supervisors, as well as owners, manufacturers and automation providers. The event includes a tour of the Stanley Convergent Security Solutions Monitoring Center.

TMA Fall Ops Reservations:
Room Block expired on Friday, Oct 25th! Please contact the Hyatt directly at 877-803-7534.
If the group rate is no longer available, prevailing rates may be offered for some or all of your dates.

Seminar Program | Download Brochure PDF

We’re gearing up for Fall Ops! Fill up your think tank
and spark new ideas!

Theme 2019: Fine Tuning for Excellence  

Ignite, recalibrate, and fine tune your gauges.

Join your colleagues at TMA’s exclusive solutions-based event directed specifically to monitoring center managers and supervisors, as well as owners, manufacturers and automation providers. At Fall Ops, you will:

• Participate in an exclusive tour of STANLEY Security’s ProtectionNet™ Customer Services Center in Bloomington, MN to see monitoring in action
• Explore best practices from thought leaders in the monitoring industry
• Learn from your peers what they are doing to stay relevant, profitable and elevate the industry through two days of interactive sessions

• Hear step by step advice about how to manage the process of a technology upgrade to a new automation system

• Focus on new technology updates —Artificial Intelligence (AI) and video and audio surveillance solutions AND
• Collaborate through key networking and just-in-time problem-solving activities over two days, including a welcome activity on the evening of Nov. 11^th and the ever popular round table exchange on Nov 13th.

Topics will cover leadership challenges that include developing trust and accountability, training challenges, and communication best practices. In addition, we will be including solutions-based discussions around general operations concerns that include stop-work emergencies, automation and technology upgrades, and ongoing hiring, retention and conflict management challenges.

We have expanded the opening reception on Monday evening to include a State of the Industry Report and a team building exercise. Please plan your travel so that you can join us as we launch two days of leadership, team building and operations best practices.

Registration Fee: TMA members $610; nonmembers $765

Registration includes transportation to the tour of Stanley Convergent Security Solutions in nearby Bloomington.

Monday, November 11

• 2:00 – 4:00 PM  ASAP Users & Technical Committee Meeting
• Contract Monitoring meeting has been cancelled

Reception starts at 6:00 pm – Program begins at 6:30 pm

• Introductions by event facilitators: Kirk MacDowell, MacGuard; and Brandon Niles, Acadian Monitoring Services and TMA Education committee Co-Chair
• State of the Industry Report (latest on industry health, technology impact and other important metrics): John Brady, TRG Associates, TMA Education committee Co-Chair

Tuesday, Nov 12

7:30 AM  STANLEY Security’s ProtectionNet™ Customer Services Center Tour Activities Begin
In order to make a security system most effective, 24/7 alarm monitoring is essential. STANLEY Security monitors all types of security systems for everyone from homeowners to Fortune 500 companies. One of five monitoring centers in North America, this center provides monitoring capabilities for their clients in the U.S. and Canada. The facility is UL, ULC, and FM approved as well as staffed 24/7/365 with a bilingual team, so their clients can feel confident that they’ll be available to identify and respond to any emergencies appropriately .

7:30 – 7:50 AM Pre-Tour Presentation by STANLEY (Hosts: Peggy Page and Steve Walker)

8:00 AM Board the Buses

8:45 – 10:45 AM Tour various monitoring service stations

11:30 AM Arrive back at the hotel for Post Tour Q&A

12:00 NOON Lunch

1:05 – 2:15 PM Session 1: In the headlines! How to Support Your Staff When Your Workplace Becomes an Active Crime Scene
Today’s headlines pose a very real risk for your business and its employees. We will walk you through the critical steps of planning and preparing for an incident involving an active shooter or other workplace violence that brings your business to a halt. Learn from firsthand experience vital steps to help guide your employees through a crisis to ensure business continuity, provide employee assistance both immediately after and months following the event, and most importantly, develop a basis for a healthy recovery for employees and your business. Presenters: Kirk MacDowell, President, MacGuard Security Advisors, Inc. and Anita Ostrowski, Vice President of Central Station Services, Vector Security, Inc.

2:15 – 3:45 PM Session 2: Gearing Up — General Operations Update
Through a process overview, Stanley will present their technology upgrade story with lessons to share with their recent transition to a new automation system. Also included will be a discussion on issues associated with proactive vs. reactive technology upgrades. Panel: Steve Walker, VP, U.S. Monitoring for Stanley; Mike Rickard        Manager, SOC Infrastructure for Stanley Black & Decker; and Jeff Marx, IT Director, Global Security Monitoring

4:00 – 5:00 PM Session 3: Best Practices of Implementing Video and Audio Monitoring Services
This session provides a detailed overview and best-practices guide to better understand how these technologies are going to help monitoring centers in the future. We’ll also cover what changes are coming to alleviate operator intervention and optimize workload.
Panelists: John Romanowich, President & CEO SightLogix (Moderator); Brandon Niles, Director of Operations, Acadian Monitoring; and Chris Brown, Vice President, Central Stations & Guard Force Division, SureView Systems

5:30 – 6:45 PM            Proprietary Council Meeting

Wednesday, Nov 13

8:00 – 8:20 AM Facilitator Remarks

8:20 – 8:45 AM What’s New, What Does it Do?
Sponsors and Associate members provide up-to-the minute information on new services and products in the industry

8:45 – 9:45 AM Session 4: Fine-Tuning Communication for Accountability
For supervisors and managers, providing regular team and individual feedback is a critical responsibility. Regular communication lets the team know when they are meeting or not meeting their goals. Hear real-world advice on how to reignite sense of urgency and staff commitment on your team. How you communicate must include examples of what success looks like in your company culture. In this session, we will cover what types of feedback inspires accountability and pride in performance through conflict resolution strategies and relevant industry benchmarks.
Speakers: Steve Crist, Director of Monitoring, ADS Security and Nic Barrus, Operations Manager, AvantGuard Monitoring

10:00 – 11:15 AM Roundtable Exchange
[Attendee Favorite!] A highlight of the event is a 90-minute Roundtable Exchange session that allows all participants to “Come with a problem, leave with a solution!”  Spark new ideas in this highly interactive solutions-based exchange. Subject matter experts will lead discussions on the following topics.

• 3G, etc. – Telecomm Updates (Example: soon customers will have ability to block call that are not in their phone directories… Now what?)
• Industry Software Update – Software automation is changing face of industry. What’s coming down the road…
• Business Continuity Best Practices – Follow up on emergency response plan discussion
• Time Management for Operators – Tips for keeping operators busy without causing burnout
• Best Practices for Operator Care – How to take care of our employees and keep them healthy (mentally, physically and financially); holistic care of monitoring center staff (example, more operators are receiving customer suicide calls)
• Monitoring Center Training Best Practices – New Hire Orientation, professional development, and soft skills
• The Multigenerational Workforce – How to hire, understand, and effectively manage your team
• Customer Service Benchmarks – What metrics should we be collecting and evaluating for quality assurance
• All Things Video and AI – Continue the conversation from Tuesday’s session on preparing for and moving forward with video/audio monitoring
• Wildcard Slot – In the past we have done a wildcard topic where people can talk freely about specific challenges not covered above

11:15 – 12:00 NOON Roundtable Report-backs

12:00 NOON Lunch

1:05 – 2:15 PM Session 5: Innovative Employee Onboarding Solutions—The First Six Months
Effective Training in the life-safety industry is critical for new operators. What happens in the first six months is crucial to a successful employee onboarding. Keeping your team engaged and productive is everyone’s challenge. Hear tips and creative solutions to address employee burnout, non-monetary incentives and non-traditional schedules to reduce attrition and build healthy teams.
Panel: John Brady, President, TRG Associates; Galina Klimchuk, Manager, Minnesota Central Station, vivint.SmartHome; Richard Flores IV, CPP, Security Command Center Program Manager, Corporate Security, Puget Sound Energy

2:30 – 4:00 PM Session 6: Recalibrate – Servant Leadership – When Everybody Wins
Being a servant leader means that you put your team first, and yourself second. Hear from a panel of practitioners about the real-world implementation strategies to help you transform and recalibrate into the servant leader role. It has been proven that because servant leaders regularly engage with their teams, they build stronger working relationships leading to less staff turnover. Take back actionable steps and start serving!
Speaker: Morgan Hertel, VP of Technology and Innovation, Rapid Response Monitoring Service

4:00 – 4:15 PM   Closing Remarks/Event Feedback

Schedule Subject to Change (schedule and speaker updates as of Oct 31, 2019)

 Questions? Contact education@TMA.us

Schedule Subject to Change

 Earn 6 CEU Credits!

RG Associates, TMA Education committee Co-Chair