The first official annual meeting of the newly-named The Monitoring Association (TMA) will build on the previous successful meetings of the Central Station Alarm Association. TMA will welcome keynote speaker Jack Uldrich, a well-recognized global futurist, speaker and author of 11 books. He is a frequent speaker on emerging technology, change management and leadership and has addressed hundreds of corporations, associations and not-for-profit organizations on five continents, TMA reported.

“Over the past several years, we have reimagined our annual meeting to provide participants with the kind of value in both content and engagement that is unmatched at any other industry event,” said TMA President Pam Petrow. “2017 will build on our past successes — we’ll present a program of the kind of top-level engagement and professional development that our members have come to expect from our Annual Meeting, while we celebrate our new name and our mission to advance the professional monitoring industry.”

Wes Usie, president, Guardian Alarm Systems, said, “The annual meeting was exceptional [in 2016]. The meeting content, speakers and social networking events were fantastic. I came away with a lot of useful information that will help my business.”

The 2017 TMA Annual Meeting will be held in Scottsdale, Ariz., October 7-11 at the five-star Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. The Sonoran Desert location and event schedule allow for focused professional development and networking in a spectacular natural setting, the organization reported. “The Annual Meeting keeps getting better every year,” said Morgan Hertel, vice president, Rapid Response. “And the onshore location makes it easy to attend.”

UIdrich will be sharing insights from his forthcoming book, Business as Unusual: How to Future-Proof Yourself Against Tomorrow’s Transformational Trends, Today. “I’ll outline the trends transforming the world of tomorrow, as well as identify concrete actions business leaders can take today to future-proof themselves and their companies against ‘the tides of tomorrow,’” he added. The session is sponsored by Honeywell.

Additional education sessions (October 9-11) at the Annual Meeting will focus on helping leaders address critical issues and challenges facing the monitoring industry, such as best practices in operations, executive management, technology updates and telecomm issues. The complete roster of speakers will be announced over the summer. TMA will hold board of directors and committee meetings October 7-8.

To see the preliminary schedule, register, and reserve hotel rooms for the TMA Annual Meeting, visit tma.us/2017am.