60 Years: August

​26. Seminar and exhibits. The ASIS International Annual Seminar and Exhibits marks the high point of the Society’s year. Tens of thousands of security professionals travel from all over the world to network and learn more about the latest in best practices, products, and services. Many of the features we associate with the seminar and exhibits appeared early in the Society’s history. In its second year, the conference expanded to two days and included exhibits for the first time. Eleven companies participated, including Tyco Integrated Security (formerly ADT), which has never missed a seminar. Over the coming decades, hundreds of U.S. and international exhibitors would fill increasingly larger exhibit halls.

27. Educational sessions. Also, in the second year several educational sessions were held. They included topics such as “Physical Security in the Electronic Era” and “Have We Gone Overboard on Identification?” In the third year, concurrent sessions became the norm. By 1995, presenting a session at the seminar and exhibits had become so popular that the Society instituted a call for papers, establishing a committee to determine which submissions would be accepted. Now the seminar hosts hundreds of concurrent sessions organized into tracks such as IT security and terrorism.

28. Global participation. The seminar and exhibits tripled in size during the 1980s. By the end of the decade, the seminar hosted 84 educational sessions and 747 exhibit booths. In 1982, a full day of sessions was presented in Spanish, ushering in a high level of global participation that remains robust today. In 1993, the seminar included an “International Day” devoted to a global issues.

29. Participation. Over the years, the seminar and exhibits continued to break participation records. In 2003, the seminar and exhibits included 135 sessions, 2,106 exhibit booths, and 17,264 attendees.

30. Partnerships. (ISC)2 held its first Security Congress, collocated with ASIS, in 2011, cementing a tradition of partnerships with like-minded groups. Last year, ASIS partner organizations included the Door and Hardware Institute, the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety, PSA Security Network, the Security Industry Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce National Security Task Force.