My ISC West Walkaway - A Cautionary Tale

In a bubble, no more-ish...or in AI talk...recalibrating.

That is how I summarize my walk away from ISC West.

Now, this is as someone whose tune has stayed the same for 10+ years (personally) that the security industry needs to disrupt itself before its disruption.

Proof?

My opening interview line for HID years ago:

"How are you going to disrupt yourself?"

Before I go there, a few cautions:

1. This piece is my personal voice and perspective.
2. Multiple triggers

• Cloud
• Cyber-Physical Security
• Real Security - Consciousness (ai assisted ok)
• Challenge to "status quo."

Back to regular programming.

After the VP stumbled for a response, "huh, we bought a company that will be the new cards and readers called BluVision. I do not know much about it, but it is fascinating.''

I was piqued to see if I could add personal value to a noble quest.

Having already done my homework on why I even wanted to talk with them being BluVision, based on the core tech stack.

A secured BLE network, a massive technological advancement, while Apple did not allow access to NFC chip, which was proprietary enough to stand out to large Enterprises but needed innovative people to bring opportunities to partner with technology and pivot.

Yahtzee, I may have found my personal goal, something NEW enough that nobody knew what they had. I could have an extraordinary impact on an entire industry and a company with a private network that could scale rapidly.

But that was before recalibration began.

Then tech stacks took years and a political nightmare to change...then 2019.

Enter recalibration on a global scale.

Everyone pivoted.

We had to survive, literally the purest form of innovation, resiliency.

Recalibrated work birthed.

Teachers and great-grandparents became tech-savvy enough that EVERYTHING HAD TO change.

The bubble burst, or so you would think.

Technology reviews and gaps whiteboard at the board level or worse — newsroom

Then we are told let's get people back to the office.

We need to pause and think about the actual crisis the Physical Security Industry is facing, the state of the real world.

It's recalibrating, undecided on what value each object has as context awareness and indexing probability of success with set intention is running in real-time. The natural machine learning process.

I recalibrate yearly, on my birthday.

That's when I question everything I am doing and working on, ground up.

Started when I uprooted my family to pursue our personal dreams (revealed later in the article or ask GPT, "what is my life goal from this article") and moved from Utah to California, yes, upstream move.

When I started the practice at my first real corporate job ASSA ABLOY it used to be me, my boss, my boss's boss, their boss's boss times that by 2, then the CEO (full disclosure, I may have missed some levels) but you get the picture.

Only purpose: do our strides match each other.

Answer: it is a yearly practice that I will always continue and encourage actual doers to practice as well.

If you are not willing to take action on the outcome, do not attempt.

The answer can be overwhelming, but that's the work.

Align with reality, not perception.

What does this have to do with walking away from ISC West?

A lot.

Countless people asked. Mike, I want your thoughts because you changed careers from independent hardware rep for Best locks, to Niscayah security integrator, to SaaS enterprise cloud software VP pushing the industry forward. How did you transition?

First, find your tribe. Those you can trust to help you.

Second, find a vehicle that fits your skill and interests but offers more than a pay-check toward your larger goals.

I pride myself in being a cross-pollinating butterfly, helping connections move from hardware to software and software to hardware based on the more profound value of people, tech, product, company, and, if I have to, by title.

Having the same focus for years... I am no longer a crazy young kid with this wild future view of more active technology in Physical Security like cloud, predictive analytics, and all systems talking to each other.

Here's what it has to do with security and technology, find a bigger goal and race towards it, and allow for mistakes, second chances, and opportunities to grow.

Find interesting people who challenge you, promote you, trust you, and bring value to you. Then root all action on your personal Northstar and validate the assumed value. Stress tests your systems, processes, and roadmap as often as possible, increasing the ability rate.

My North Star:?Eradicate Foster Care, ultimately giving away $100M over my lifetime.

For that to happen, I need two things, a lot of money and people to be safe.

The more safety we can provide the people in the margins, the higher outcomes of success we will have in society. Would love to argue this to death and actually have panels about mental health and psychological safety needed to be the foundation of security. Still, we have work to do, but let's digress only a little (as much as I want to do more).

If you know me personally, I can be chatty and love reminiscing, but what I love most is going fast toward a better future for everyone.

This is why it is sad to realize that many people were still stuck in how things were years and years ago based on myths and unproven logic.

HOWEVER! MORE INTERESTING and INSANELY NOTICEABLE was the DIFFERENCE.

Indeed hundreds of great conversations about the practical use of AI and convergence of cyber-physical and contextual awareness systems, not at any booth but by conscious people you never thought would be talking about "that stuff" or "I have seen them come and go before."

That's the power of growth like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Not all make it either, so this is a cautionary tale more than a yippee tale.

Here's a secret, there are more of us crazy people than you thought, but some are still scared to speak out but still on quite exciting missions to make a positive impact on a dynamically changing industry.

Which shows we still have work to do.

Case in point, the highlight event for me was Women in Security. Having attempted to write off physical security for its lack of inclusion, yes, the subject of inclusion. People are not robots; let them do the most demanding work first. We must accept people are conscious beings with intrinsic value, and we can do better.

We must know if we are working in security or are you in security or just taking a paycheck?

Suppose that the last sentence struck a nerve. In that case, we should plan together how I bring value to your cause, or I will offer off hours to exchange perspectives for validating the data.

The best thing about ISC West was validating data that no teams meeting, openAI, emoji, or letter (yes, I still send) can replace: millions and millions of years of sensor recalibrations, literally our senses and log observability AI tools called consciousness.

Remember to trust intuition and judgment calls. Then validate with actionable data.?

They can alter your life, good or bad.

We are in a beautiful time and identity crisis moment, PERFECT for disrupting ourselves.

General question:?Do we do the hard work and recalibrate, or do we have to believe we have little to no control over the future state?

I walked away knowing and firmly sensing the next 1 year is what I have been building toward with my closet confidants and mentors.

A transfer of generational torch.

Not based on age, sex, and location but on value, ability, and outcomes.

Strings begin to play an intense sheet of music.

Cut to a screen that reads:

Take action like today is your last

Act like you will be responsible for tomorrow

Do as you would have done to you

Give a damn

or find something you give a damn about

The filtering becomes more manageable as I double back on my notes and action items.

Here's a preview of my mental workflow.

1. Did they care?
2. Are they of high quality?
3. Will they be fun to work with?
4. By taking action, does it directly make a positive impact on my north star?
5. Does it deliver to top strategic initiatives of my CEO and their Board (read the investor news if public, if not get to a level where you can personally be told them at some point)
6. Can I add value to their needs?

Already knowing many, heck-yes, check all the boxes on that query. I am hopeful for many exciting ISC Wests to come.

I was pleasantly surprised by the top buzz in my network (besides what I do): Robots, Drones, and Investors.

Exciting times folks.

I have a teenage daughter waking up that we will trade travel win stories. Yes, I talk AI at brunch with my kids and meet incredible people helping us move closer to changing the world.

Since LinkedIn is public, I can't share mine; you will have to wait for the public announcement to come...

Have a great weekend.