The Bahamas are more than a tropical island. Life there is a party — lively music, lovely people and a beautiful landscape to look upon with every step you take.

It was the perfect venue for AiN Group’s 2026 Live & Learn conference, which took place Jan. 21-24 at the Baha Mar. As a national buying group and dealer collaboration network, AiN invited hundreds of security dealers and vendors to share in the exchange of knowledge and optimism.

The positive attitude shaping the conference venue wasn’t due solely to the beautiful setting. The event was teeming with engaging speakers, including Live & Learn’s emcee, comedian and impressionist John Di Domenico, economist Dr. Elliot Eisenberg and even President Donald J. Trump (not really — but Domenico does a great impression of him). They all had fantastic news to deliver: with a promising economy ahead, 2026 is set to be a year of industry-wide growth, whether that means taking smart risks, expanding into new verticals and/or elevating partnerships with clients to win more business and save more lives.

Here are some key takeaways from the conference, as well as two new initiatives aligned with dealers’ biggest opportunities.

This Is Life Safety. Partnerships Are Essential.

I’m still fairly new to the industry; I’m coming up on my six-month anniversary with SDM, my introduction to working in security. In these few months, I’ve found that the industry is not only generous with their knowledge, but with their time and resources. Everyone I spoke with at the Live & Learn conference emphasized how important it was to take time out of their schedule to attend these events because of the ample opportunities to talk to vendors, learn something new and, most importantly, share what they learned in the past year that they extracted valuable lessons from.

“The dealers that come to this will get exposed to the content of like-minded integrators that are here speaking about their best practices,” said Travis Firth, vice president – North American intrusion sales, Johnson Controls Inc., Milwaukee. “Dealers will learn a lot from just speaking to like-minded dealers. Some of them may be competitors, some of them may be in a common area, but it seems like everyone leaves their hat at the door, and we come here and we just open up. It’s a kind of an open architecture, an open environment to speak up and network with your like-minded individuals, whether it be integrators or manufacturers.”

For Bryan Cipoletti, president, Guardian Protection Services, Warrendale, Pa., the real value is taking the tidbits of information shared at the conference and then interacting with his team or others to keep the conversation going. “At times that are kind of unscheduled, like impromptu meetings, you just talk about [what you learned] and find ways to help each other make our businesses better,” he said. “If, during the course of the few days, you walk away with one or two things, whether from a session, from a conversation, planned or unplanned, it’s worth it.”

The entrepreneurs that have built up the security industry reap the most benefits from these conversations and partnerships. “This is their career, their livelihood, presumably their interest, and there are very few organizations that they can participate in and have a real, hands-on experience,” said Ken Kirschenbaum, managing partner, Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum, Garden City, N.Y. “This organization is one that really brings them in.”

Brendan Armstrong Jr., chief financial officer, Trinity Wiring & Security Solutions, Chantilly, Va., added, “It’s the age old saying: ‘Are you working in your business, or are you working on your business?’ If somebody is, let’s say a young integrator, or somebody is looking to reinvest into their business, I have no better suggestion than to look at an organization like AiN to start working on your business.”

The information-sharing at Live & Learn was constant, from panels to keynotes to side conversations in the hallway or at the bar. Various dealers noted that they feel more optimistic about 2026 than they’ve felt about the past two or three years, driven by the opportunities available thanks to the less-than-worrisome state of the economy.

The Economy Is Steady. It’s Time to Take Risks.

Kenny Aronoff, a legendary drummer and performance keynote, shared a nugget of wisdom before, literally, rocking the stage: every day, he tries to improve himself and be a little better than he was the day prior.

This quickly became the underlying message for security professionals at Live & Learn. In their keynotes, Dr. Eisenberg, acclaimed speaker and economist, and Michael Barnes, founding partner of Barnes and Associates, positioned 2026 as a resilient year, economy-wise, and one for growth, industry-wise.

In fact, Eisenberg was willing to write off the few concerns (primarily unemployment) he does have, given how much resilience the economy is maintaining despite tariff concerns, labor market softening and consumer anxiety. He chalked this resilience up to various key factors, i.e. consumers spending more and corporations investing in AI infrastructure. Overall, Eisenberg predicts 2026 will be a decent, if uneven, year. There’s not nothing to worry about, and things won’t be completely smooth sailing, but it is time for security professionals to take risks.

“This is the time to do it,” Barnes said in his keynote. “The economy is good. We’ve got great technologies coming down the pipeline. This video stuff just blows me away. And it’s time to lean in, take some risks.”

During his presentation, Barnes showcased that net margins on recurring revenue increased for the first time in more than a decade, driven by pricing discipline and higher-value services such as video. At the same time, customer attrition ticked upward in 2025, reinforcing the importance of closely managing unit economics — particularly customer acquisition costs, margins and retention — as volatility across these metrics increases.

Structurally, Barnes noted continued industry consolidation, with national and specialty players gaining share through acquisition and faster growth. However, he stressed that regional and local integrators remain highly competitive and capable of outperforming larger players, particularly if they “lean in” to growth, expand sales capacity and adopt new technologies rather than defaulting to conservative strategies.

This is what many dealers are doing: leaning into opportunities and refusing to be left behind. “While the residential market is still growing, it’s at a much slower pace than commercial video, access and fire. Our network sees that this lull gives them the opportunity to invest in different areas,” said Speros Venios, president, AiN Group, Detroit.

Brendan Armstrong Sr., president and owner, Trinity Wiring & Security Solutions, walked away from Barnes’ keynote with expansion in mind. He told SDM in an exclusive interview, “We need to expand our sales presence. We’re going to grow the number of salespeople that we have in our company. Our growth is immense with the same number of people, so if our focus is on growth, that’s an area of investment.”

Dealers aren’t necessarily switching gears. In fact, unification was a blaring theme across the conference (as it has been in the industry as a whole), as many dealers looked to expand into new markets while maintaining their expertise in the bread and butter with which they built their businesses.

“We want to own the building,” said Anita Brunet, vice president – security solutions, Americas, Wesco Security Solutions, a distributor headquartered in Pittsburgh. “For an integrator to walk in and say, ‘I can do the whole thing,’ that’s magic. It’s saving you from hiring and having to trust five different people to come into your home and do this stuff. And talk about attrition. You keep your customers that way. More RMR that way. It opens up so many doors for them.”

The AiN team has observed higher demand for integrated solutions that work seamlessly and believe it’s important for dealers to select partners with multiple platforms, move more toward managed services, expand RMR, grow more efficient and undertake more training to combat labor pressure.

“Big picture, I think the future of our business is still bright,” Cipoletti said. “It’s more so challenging on the residential than the commercial, but we’re still diversified. We still believe in residential. I don’t know that it’s 2026, but in next three to five years, the way we provide services … with enhancing video, [we can] make it proactive and preventative. As more and more people have cameras, we can take security to the next level. I think that is the future that will really grow residential security, not the home automation products. Lights, locks, thermostats, that’s nice. That’s not enhancing security. I think video analytics and remote video monitoring (RVM) and proactive video surveillance are growing much faster in the commercial side. When that starts to take hold in residential, then it’ll really take off. Our job in the meantime is to just persevere, keep pushing, wait for the dam to burst and then to be there to catch all the water.”

Looking for Expansion? Try RVM.

The imperative to expand into new verticals is impossible to ignore. Barnes highlighted remote video monitoring (RMV) as one of the biggest opportunities for dealers. He described RVM as a transformational force that can deliver guard-level security outcomes with dramatic operational leverage, higher recurring revenue and compelling value propositions for customers. 

David Charney, recently appointed senior vice president of video command center, Everon, delivered a keynote, drawing on two decades of experience, which created a roadmap for succeeding in remote video monitoring.

As an early adopter of remote video monitoring, having co-founded Stealth Monitoring, Charney framed the market as a “wide-open ocean” and assured that there was more than enough room for everyone. “If you hear the waves are good today, you don’t ask if they’re going to be too busy for you to surf,” he said. “Don’t worry about the competition.”

Though RVM is still a somewhat immature market, it is rapidly growing and has ample runway for dealers willing to commit, focus and execute with discipline.

During his keynote, Charney traced the evolution of his career from growing a six-truck regional operation into a national, multi-command-center business. Central to his message was the idea that hardware is merely a conduit to recurring revenue, and that dealers must design their organizations (sales, technical, monitoring and back office) to support consistent, repeatable service delivery. He stressed the importance of having a dedicated “wizard” or architect within the organization who understands the full lifecycle of RVM, from system design and health monitoring to service, contracts and legal exposure. Importantly, he said the time to make the move is now, while the market is open and the economy is steady.

Charney provided his top 10 considerations for integrators entering or scaling RVM in 2026:

1. Commit to what you want to look like in a year. Consider best case, worst case and likely case scenarios.
2. Dedicate full-time resources toward it (at minimum, selling and delivering).
3. Flush out your tech stack. Don’t have five ways to do it. Pick a preferred way that will work for a decent chunk of your customer base.
4. A tiny bit of RMR doesn’t move the needle. Figure out your end game.
5. Assess what will change. For a decade, customers have been asking: ‘Why do I need intrusion? Can the intrusion expense be applied toward video watching?’ Be prepared and be flexible.
6. What price makes sense to you, and what price makes sense to your customers? Price accordingly.
7. Who can you pull in for help?
8. CYA! Watch out for legal exposure with ongoing relationships.
9. Customers generally want prevention, not reaction. Having footage does not mean you hit the mark. How do you prevent bad activity?
10. Selling all sites full services is the “old way of doing things” and may shoot you in the foot. Sell where bleeding and then standardize.

Charney reinforced that strong solutions, clear processes and confidence in execution (not commoditized hardware) will define which integrators win as competition increases in the years ahead.

Is Fire Your Next Vertical?

If you’re anything like the Armstrongs, you’re considering it. The fire space was another, pun intended, hot topic at Live & Learn. In fact, AiN Group recently partnered with Wesco to launch the Group Enterprise Fire Program on Jan. 24.

The program will give dealers access to Wesco’s national fire suppliers and the solutions, design specs and support from Wesco’s Technical Sales Group, all in a scalable, repeatable model. “Ultimately, it’s about enabling growth safely, strategically and at scale. I like to say we’re not just opening the door to fire, we’re walking integrators through it,” Brunet said.

The Group Enterprise Fire Program is designed to remove the complexity that comes with expanding into a vertical with as many barriers and regulations as fire. “I think this program that we’ve put together is going to lower the barrier to entry without lowering the system standards,” Brunet said. “It was created to address the challenge that we found and saw in the market, where many strong security integrators want to enter or expand into the fire business, but they feel like the barriers are overwhelming.”

Have You Considered Outdoor Living?

Maybe you’re like Joe Colosimo, CEO, HomePro Operating LLC, Carrollton, Texas, who told SDM, “I’ve been in the security business my whole life; I’ve never thought I’d be even looking at doing outdoor kitchens, let alone actually installing them.”

Over the course of his years attending AiN conferences, though, the outdoor kitchen business has become a decently sized part of his business. This is true for other dealers, too. “Our dealers are searching for additional ways to engage new home buyers earlier in the sales cycle, well before closing and outdoor living seemed like a natural fit. Outdoor living spaces create high-value touchpoints where dealers can introduce outdoor kitchens, lighting and audio in a way that feels consultative, not transactional,” Venios said. “It allows dealers to establish relationships sooner, influence design decisions and ultimately become a trusted partner in the overall property vision rather than just a last-minute technology add-on.”

Recently, AiN Group launched the AiN Outdoor Program after seeing success from dealers like Synergy, a technology system integration company headquartered in Tampa, Fla. “It’s a great way to tie in technology because, along with the outdoor kitchens that we’re currently doing, it allows you then to tie in and do outdoor TVs, outdoor audio and, most importantly, landscape lighting along with LED lighting. … It makes perfect sense to bring those together,” said Guy Ross, president and CEO, Synergy.

For the program, AiN brought on several vendors that offer grills, fire features, water features and so on that can offer training and boot camps to dealers. “A lot of the new AiN dealers are looking to get an outdoor living,” Ross said. “They’ll come visit [our Tampa location]; they’ll stay with us for a few days and learn how to install, how to sell the product, the pricing, layouts, designs, things of that nature.”

Ross noted having high hopes for the future of outdoor living. “The opportunity is there, and they see the growth and the interest in that market. It’s tough when you’ve had your business 20, 25, 30 years and all you’ve done is wiring and now you look at switching gears. … It’s tough. It’s like starting up a brand new company,” Ross acknowledged. “I know that’s scary, and it can be a little bit daunting. But the ones that have jumped in and tried it, they see the benefit behind it. As long as they get over that original step, that fear factor of opening up a new vertical and having to start that, it’s a great thing.”

Fundamentals Never Change

At the tail end of the conference, AiN Group hosted an awards ceremony celebrating dozens of dealers from coast to coast, like Pye-Barker Fire & Safety, Guardian Protection, Trinity Wiring and many more. As AiN Group celebrates its 25th anniversary, the group looks to continue acknowledging incredible dealers and building on its foundational model of learning best practices from fellow dealers, while being connected to industry manufacturers and service partners.

“We’re truly a family of dealers,” said Diana Rotondo, executive vice president, AiN Group. “There’s always someone in the network you can reach out to for real-world business advice and guidance. If you’re facing a challenge, chances are another dealer has already navigated it and is willing to share what they’ve learned. And when it comes to evaluating new products or solutions, there’s almost always a peer who’s already been down that path and can offer firsthand insight.”

AiN began as a network of residential security dealers. Today, nearly 60% of the network’s focus has shifted toward commercial solutions like access control and video because the group and its dealers are focused on truly expanding and elevating their businesses and the life safety industry. “Dealers must always be looking to the future; 25 years ago, no one imagined that your security system would be the smart hub of your home,” said Stan Matysiak, CEO, AiN Group. 

Venios concluded, “The basics still win: relationships, quality work and doing what you say you’ll do. Technology changes, fundamentals don’t.”