The New England Organized Retail Crime Symposium & Trade Show will be held on September 21, 2011 at DCU Center - Worcester, Massachusetts (50 Foster Street). The event is hosted by the Connecticut Retail Merchants Association, Maine Merchants Association, Retailers Association of Massachusetts, Retail Merchants Association of New Hampshire, Rhode Island Retail Federation and the Vermont Retail Association.
One of my favorite events of the year, the symposium features a strong blend of ORC and major crime information from companies such as CVS, eBay, T-Mobile and Wegmans. Last year Eric Ives of the FBI and Kevin Tyrrell of ICE both made the trip from Washington, DC and delivered updates on federal law enforcement initiatives. Kevin Plante of Staples served as the master of ceremonies (and comedian), keeping everything rolling onstage.
Since I spent the first 12 years of my career in operations and Loss Prevention and have deployed and sold over one billion dollars of security integrated technology solutions using Marchnetworks, Verint, Milestone and others within the retail sector since 9-11, I am always looking for ways to improve the tools and countermeasures loss prevention professionals use to protect the people and assets under their control. At the last NRF event that I attended the most common thread was how LP/AP needed to do more (WORK) with less (STAFF). My focus in this sector has been how the industry can better integrate technologies, create better evidence and streamline the ability to build cases in a more efficient manner. Then deploy and support those solutions with the best installation and service teams nationwide.
Now since I joined American Alarm and Communications, Inc., I support the retail industry with separate solutions up to one total package including full integration of Video, POS, Access Control, Intrusion, Fire, Monitoring and Alarm Verification. I look forward to this year’s show to demonstrate some of the new technologies, concepts and manufacturers available to reduce losses and improve productivity.
