“All of you in this room play a huge role in our security,” noted military analyst Gen. Barry McCaffrey at the 7th Annual Industry Summit of the ISC West 2005 Conference and Expo April 5-8 in Las Vegas. “Thank God for what you’re doing, who you are and what you stand for.”

The four-star general and NBC News military analyst was the keynote speaker April 6 at the expo, which was attended by a record-breaking number of 21,619 security professionals, an 11-percent increase over the 2004 ISC West attendance.

“We are safer than before 9-11,” McCaffrey insisted. “We threw $80 billion on top of this pile [called] homeland security, and it’s slowly trickling down. Eventually, it will get to you.”

Among the awards presented at ISC’s summit were the SDM/NBFAA First Line of Defense Award to Norshore Alarm Co. Inc., Libertyville, Ill. Accepting were Ken and Elaine Hohs, Norshore’s co-owners.

Also attending were Tim and Kathleen Newman of Infinity Monitoring Services Inc., Elk Grove Village, Ill., which received the fire alarm signal from the First Line of Defense Award incident, and Dan Palmer of the Oakton House Condominium Association, Evanston, Ill., where the award incident’s fire occurred.

At a separate event April 5, the Morris Weinstock Person of the Year award was given to NBFAA immediate past president Cecil Hogan, and the Sara Jackson award went to NBFAA treasurer Mike Miller.

At a press conference of the Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC) April 7, Ron Haner of The Alarm Center, Olympia, Wash., received the William Moody SIAC Excellence award.

Merlin Guilbeau, NBFAA executive director, received the President’s award during the association’s annual awards luncheon April 4.

“Merlin is an extremely dedicated worker,” noted NBFAA president Scot Colby. “His heart is in making the association survive. Merlin’s one of a kind – I wish my company was full of employees like him.”

At the expo, 825 exhibitors (an increase of 11 percent over the 2004 ISC West) at the Sands Convention Center conducted business and networked with dealers on the 544,300-gross-square-foot show floor.

“ISC in 2005 was once again a great success with its continued growth trend,” declared Joe Grillo, president of the Security Industry Association (SIA), Alexandria, Va., which is the exclusive sponsor of ISC West in conjunction with Reed Exhibitions.

Held concurrently with the expo was an educational security conference April 5-7 of which the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association (NBFAA) is an educational partner. A new addition to this year’s conference was the inaugural NBFAA/CSA Symposium.

This allowed chartered state associations (CSAs) to discuss with NBFAA and fellow CSA state leaders current industry issues and affairs, membership recruitment and retention, best practices and government affairs.

“The symposium was excellent,” Colby emphasized. “I heard nothing but positive feedback from members. We will definitely continue it and add more education and information programs.