Speaker: Alex Knapik, Senior Product Manager, Arcules
Alex Knapik: Hi, my name is Alex Knapik and I have been going to ISC West since I've been an adult I think. I think I first came to ISC West in 2009, I wanna say. And it was my first time in Las Vegas. Actually, it was my first time anywhere even remotely on the West Coast if you would even consider Las Vegas on the West Coast.
What are you most excited about at ISC West this year?
Alex Knapik: What I'm most excited about at ISC West this year is just the fact that I've now been at Arcules well over a year and I'm able to have much deeper conversations with our customers, with our partners, with a lot of people that I know around the industry, just being able to talk about their challenges and what we're doing at Arcules now and what we will be doing in the future. Just have much, much better conversations now that I've been around just a little bit. And a distant second is I get to spend my annual $20 on this horsey game that they have at the D casino. It's a distant number two, but it mostly the conversations.
What is included in your ISC West survivor kit?
Alex Knapik: My ISC survivor kit. What do I have in that? My ISC survivor kit just has lots of water as my voice will go out from talking, comfortable shoes. This is pretty key. I've made that mistake before. Sorry, you're gonna see tennis shoes out of me, maybe a couple different pairs. But otherwise, you know, it's not about surviving. It's about thriving. You know, this is one of a handful of times a year that we really get to come together as an industry, you know, who cares what company you're at, who cares what, where you're coming from all over the world. It's a chance to really talk about security, talk about solutions and really just learn from each other all over the place, which is fantastic. So, those are the big thing, comfortable shoes. Did I say that already? Need to repeat it.
How can attendees make the most out of ISC West this year?
Alex Knapik: So how can attendees make the most out of ISC West this year? I think something that if you haven't done so already, make sure you take advantage of the education schedule. If you haven't gotten your SIA education at ISC West passport. Look into that. I just think there's a lot of fantastic sessions out there and a lot of different people to learn from especially systems that you may not use. Like if you see people that are from companies that you don't even use their products, it's a great way to kind of get out of your worldview and see what else is happening out there. And I would encourage you to go to those and connect with the people that are presenting. I know as a presenter at some of these things in the past, I love it when people are wanting to engage afterwards so that's some free consulting services, if you're willing to just stick your neck out a little bit and introduce yourself and ask some questions either during the presentation or afterwards when you're connecting with people afterward the seminars, so definitely hit up those educational experiences and again, go outside of your comfort zone and talk to people that maybe you haven't talked to before or maybe things that you don't think directly have something to do with your business. There's just a lot of cross pollination that can happen if you're willing to give that a try.
What is one word you would use to describe ISCW?
Alex Knapik: Inculcation.
Why should people attend ISC West?
Alex Knapik: Why should people attend ISC West? So I'm from Minnesota and in Minnesota we have the country's greatest state fair. It's the Minnesota State Fair. We call it the Great Minnesota Get Together. And when I think of ISC West, my career, my life and security, I think of ISC West as the Great Security Get Together. It is the place that once a year that everyone's coming together. Manufacturers, users of systems, security experts, people new to security, distributors, hardware folks, software folks, down the line, technicians to CEOs and all the way back around again. And this is a great place for people to connect. And to really learn from each other. And I feel like to take a step back from your regular day to day job, whatever your role is to contribute to this industry and to safety, security and surveillance and to just think about why we're here. What are we doing and how do we make progress?
