HSWeek Predicts Death of the Security Trade Show

24. April 2008 by Dan Verton.

As many of you know, the annual GovSec, U.S. Law and Ready! Conference took place this week in Washington, D.C.  I attended the show on its first of two days and what a disappointment it was.

Not only were the keynote speakers “B-Listers” as far as keynote speakers go, but the show floor (what was left of the show floor from last year - it was aout 1/2 the size) was dead. In fact, a few media colleagues and I were discussing how sorry we felt for the vendors becuase the only people many of them saw at their booths were guys like us who had a business proposition to pitch them. The real sales leads and the decision makers seemed to be few and far between.

Although the costs of attending big trade shows like this are just becoming more and more difficult for agencies and private sector companies to justify, there might be a more disturbing underlying reason for GovSec’s luke-warm reception this year: a lack of real innovation from the homeland security vendor community who attended this year’s show.

This year’s conference was great if you were in seach of a mobile command and control center, an armored SWAT vehicle, or mobile communications systems. But other than that, there was very little that a first responder organization couldn’t shop for and buy online.

The one exception to all of this was Northrop Grumman Corp., who received Homeland Security Television’s “Best In Show” award. The Northrop booth was the one place where I found some real innovation, particularly in the company’s new Critical Incident Response System (CIRS), which you can learn more about at Homeland Security Television. Of all the vendor booths I checked out, Northrop Grumman’s offered the best sampling of systems that met the following criteria: Innovation, Operational Impact, and Need.

So, Kudos to Northrop Grumman. And beware to the large industry trade show organizers. Your days are numbered, especially when organizations like Homeland Security Television can offer better keynote speakers, the same high-quality technical presentations, and vendor demonstrations through the HSTV Conference Center for a fraction of the cost. All online, on-demand and available to those who register to attend at their own leisure. 

There are rumors that the owners and operators of GovSec are considering merging GovSec with the Federal Office System Expo (FOSE). That sounds like it might be a good idea, but the truth of the matter is such a move will simply put both shows on life support indefinitely. The IP revolution has caught on in almost every corner of homeland security, accept for the dinosaurs that are the big expo/trade shows.

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