CSAA Annual Meeting Draws Raves from Attendees

First Year of Multi-Year Reimagining of CSAA’s Signature Event a Hit with Members

Security industry professionals explored their leadership styles, received tools and insights for dealing with health insurance trends, crisis communications and cyber security, and discussed technology trends and legal issues last week in Sonoma, CA. The 2015 CSAA International Annual Meeting garnered rave reviews from attendees, who attended at the highest rate since 2008.

The 2015 meeting marked the beginning of a multi-year reimagining of CSAA’s annual event. “We have been delighted with the member feedback on the revamped Annual Meeting,” said CSAA President Pam Petrow, President and CEO of Vector Security. “The responses have been overwhelmingly positive and confirm we are headed in the right direction.”

With the goal that attendees would have an experience that added value to their business, CSAA assembled a roster of expert presenters to share information to help members change and improve their business practices. So strong was the participation throughout the education sessions that the room was still full for the last session on the last day.

“President Petrow and I saw this meeting as a bellwether event for CSAA, where we would present a vision for where we wanted to take the association during her tenure,” said CSAA Executive Director Jay Hauhn. “We created an agenda that was much different from our traditional programs. We eliminated having the same speakers as in previous years, just giving updates on what’s changed in the last 12 months. We threw away the old agendas, and started from scratch with a laser focus on evolving member needs. Judging from our members’ participation and feedback, we succeeded in presenting a program that will have a real and meaningful impact on their businesses.”

“I thought every session held was relevant, to business and specifically our industry,” said CSAA member Howard Sanders, VP of Operations, Kings III. “I look forward to coming back next year!”

“The CSAA Annual Meeting was a great event,” said first-time attendee Justin Bailey, COO, AvantGuard Monitoring Centers. “I’ve learned a lot from the courses and from rubbing shoulders with some of the leaders of the industry. I’m planning on returning for 2016, and I look forward to what I can learn there and the connections I can make. “

The conference included plenty of networking opportunities for members, both onsite at formal and informal gatherings, and offsite at special events that took advantage of the setting in Sonoma wine country. This format allowed members to get acquainted and for associate and consultant members to engage with CSAA’s North American and international alarm company members. “[This was] actually one of the best and most relevant Annual Meetings I’ve been to,” said Chuck Speck, president of Bold Technologies. “As an associate member, it’s really encouraging to see the focal changes on the association becoming more geared toward growth, content and development. There’s a tremendous amount of value there, and I hope that message gains traction throughout the industry.”

A unique aspect of the CSAA Annual Meeting is the presence of Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) representatives. The 2015 event included the largest representation of AHJs in several years, including Chiefs of Police, Fire Chiefs, and Sheriffs. These groups were allotted time to meet separately by themselves and with the CSAA members, so that they could engage with each other and then bring their own unique challenges to the attention of the alarm industry.

“My expectations were exceeded tremendously at our CSAA annual meeting,” said Ralph Sevinor, president of Wayne Alarm Systems. “This was the first time we had our general manager, Jeff Kahn, attend, and he told me that he felt so motivated and confident after the event, and that he could not recall at any other industry event such an open dialogue at such a high level.”

“This CSAA annual meeting was an amazing experience,” Sevinor added. “People will really have to ask themselves why they were not there?”      

At the event, CSAA announced that the 2016 Annual Meeting will be held at the Marco Island (FL) Marriott Beach Resort, October 22-27.  “We will continue to build on 2015’s success for the 2016 Annual Meeting and welcome comments related to content and format,” said President Petrow.

The 2015 CSAA Annual Meeting program included:

• Meeting the Information Security Management Challenge: The Financial Implications of Cybercrime on the Alarm Monitoring Industry — Stan Stahl, Ph.D.
• Protect Your Reputation: Crisis Management in the Cyber Age — David Margulies, Margulies Communications
• “Why Can’t You Be Normal…Like Me!” — Robert A. Rohm, Ph.D., Personality Insights
• This is Going to Pinch! National Market Trends in Health Care and How They Will Affect Your Bottom Line: A Panel Presentation by National Experts Representing Health Insurance Carriers and Brokers
• Business Impact of Technology and Innovation Speaker: Jay Hauhn, Executive Director, CSAA
• Legal Concerns in a Tech-Crazy World Speaker: Charles C. Eblen, Esquire, Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon, L.L.P.
• The Communications Landscape Speaker: Syed Zaeem “Z” Hosain, Founder, SVP Engineering and CTO, Aeris Communications, Inc.
• Innovation in a Services Based Economy–It’s Not Your Father’s Monitoring Business Anymore! — Steven Van Till, President and COO, Brivo Systems, Steve Trundle, CEO, Alarm.com