Are Conferences Still Relevant? The Social Side

Part Three of Three - By Amber Bradley

Part One and Part Two of this series discussed two important factors for loss prevention executives when deciding which conferences to attend. One, the value, specificity, and relevancy of the content and two, the ability to peruse and talk with numerous solutions providers, both veteran and those new to the industry. Part Three discusses the social side of conferences. As many will tell you, one of the most important parts of any industry gathering is the relationships you build and strengthen through spending some quality time with your colleagues and business partners.

Many solutions providers host specific gatherings in hopes of packing the house. At RILA this year, the CRAZE was back complete with a "hotsy-totsy" password to get in to their event. Others, such as PPS (Product Protection Solutions), treated attendees to an exciting baseball game. These social interactions might be the unwritten value of conferences, but they are just as important as the other two. What does your network of professional colleagues look like? Who can you call if you run into a business challenge for which you need additional perspectives? RILA provided ample opportunity for the participating exhibitors to host events and create fun ways for attendees to build their network. This is another important consideration when selecting what will fill your calendar this trade show season.

Of course, there is that "other" social network part to discuss; social media. I'm always fascinated at how many people engage with social media around an event. RILA provided a very cool App, and attendees were definitely engaged! Let's look at some of the social media coverage by you, our readers:

Read more here

Axis re-opens newly renovated Experience Center
The official grand re-opening ceremony at the Axis Experience Center (AEC) was held here on May 2nd at Axis' North American headquarters.

The event was truly a celebration, featuring speeches delivered by Fredrik Nilsson, VP, Americas, Axis Communications, Inc., Larry Newman, Senior Director of Sales, Axis Communications, Inc., and Steve Stanberry, Business Area Director, Northeast, Axis Communications, Inc. and a ribbon cutting to officially re-open the AEC.

There were more than 100 guests in attendance, including partners, customers and distributors, that enjoyed a welcome reception to network with industry peers, followed by small group tours that showcased the newest and most popular Axis solutions and technologies. The event also featured magician, Steven Brundage from America's Got Talent and a caricature artist.

The Center includes a 45-person Axis Communications Academy training and certification facility, conference space and command center to demonstrate Axis technology. The AEC is open to distributors, partners, customers and industry associations to host trainings, meetings and product demonstrations.

Axis has eight AECs in North America. Locations include Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Washington, D.C., Toronto, Mexico City, and its newly renovated North American headquarters in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. securitystemsnews.com

"#MeToo has touched every industry imaginable"
Compliance Challenges Swell With Regulatory & #MeToo the Leading C-Suite Concerns
Workplace issues are growing increasingly complex amid a growing patchwork of state and local employment laws and the ongoing #MeToo movement.

That's according to a survey by Littler, the world's largest employment and labor law practice representing management, which found that employers' compliance challenges swelled on multiple fronts over the past year under unexpectedly robust enforcement of federal employment laws and a mounting patchwork of state and local requirements. The "Littler Annual Employer Survey, 2019" also found that employers are more preoccupied than ever with preventing harassment and pay inequality in the second year of the #MeToo movement.

Department of Labor enforcement of federal employment laws topped the list. The top three areas where respondents expect an increase in workplace discrimination claims over the next year include harassment claims (61%), retaliation against employees who file discrimination or harassment claims (49%) and equal pay (47%).

Employers are taking action to address gender pay equity, with 48% auditing salary data and pay practices and 24% revising hiring practices. chainstoreage.com

 

Update: First City in Nation
San Francisco May Ban City Law Enforcement's Use of Facial Recognition
San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to pass the Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance.

The plan called, Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance states, "The propensity for facial recognition technology to endanger civil rights and civil liberties substantially outweighs its purported benefits, and the technology will exacerbate racial injustice and threaten our ability to live free of continuous government monitoring" and would render police and any other municipal agency in San Francisco unable to purchase the product.

If it is eventually approved, San Francisco would become the first city in the nation to make such a move, but it's not the only Bay Area city moving in that direction.

"Both the San Francisco and Oakland ordinances do governor data sharing arrangements and under both of our proposals which are using the same language the police would not be able to receive that data," said Brian Hofer, Chairman of the Oakland Privacy Commission.

Supporters of facial recognition technology say it will help fight crime and identify criminals.

The ordinance requires public input and the supervisors' approval before agencies buy surveillance technology with public funds, including the purchase of license plate readers, toll readers, closed-circuit cameras, body cams, biometrics technology and software for forecasting criminal activity such as gunshot detection hardware and services, says a news report. securitymagazine.com ktvu.com

Millions uploaded photos to Ever app
Then the company used them to develop facial recognition tools
"Make memories": That's the slogan on the website for the photo storage app Ever, accompanied by a cursive logo and an example album titled "Weekend with Grandpa."

The photos people share are used to train the company's facial recognition system, and that Ever then offers to sell that technology to private companies, law enforcement and the military.

In other words, what began in 2013 as another cloud storage app has pivoted toward a far more lucrative business known as Ever AI - without telling the app's millions of users.

"This looks like an egregious violation of people's privacy," said Jacob Snow, a technology and civil liberties attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. "They are taking images of people's families, photos from a private photo app, and using it to build surveillance technology. That's hugely concerning."

Doug Aley, Ever's CEO, told NBC News that Ever AI does not share the photos or any identifying information about users with its facial recognition customers.

Rather, the billions of images are used to instruct an algorithm how to identify faces. Every time Ever users enable facial recognition on their photos to group together images of the same people, Ever's facial recognition technology learns from the matches and trains itself. That knowledge, in turn, powers the company's commercial facial recognition products.  nbcnews.com

 

Workplace Emergency Planning is Shifting, But Employees Don't Feel It's a Priority
The 2019 Workplace Safety and Preparedness Survey from Rave Mobile Safety discusses the latest state of safety in the corporate environment, as well as what communication changes companies have made and what shortcomings still exist from the last year. The survey found that almost 50 percent of respondents have experienced a severe weather emergency, though more than 47 percent of those surveyed rarely or never tested emergency drills to be better prepared for the events.

"The survey gives great insight into how employees feel about their level of safety at work in the event of a possible emergency situation, but also demonstrates the disconnect that still exists between the communications channels employers use to inform their employees during emergencies and the way employees prefer to receive this information," said Todd Piett, CEO of Rave Mobile Safety. "This year's survey continues to emphasize that more needs to be done to drive safety awareness in an organization's everyday operations. Employers must also examine how they can bridge the gap between preparedness plans and the drills in place and realities of what their workers could encounter while on the job."  securitymagazine.com

Walmart Governance Report: Store Mgr's Make $175k Yearly
The retailer's inaugural Environmental, Social & Governance Report released Wednesday says all of Walmart's 1 million-plus U.S. workers earn more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25, with the average wage for full-time hourly workers $14.26 per hour.

The report outlines the company's goals, progress and achievements in key areas, including climate change initiatives, sustainability in supply chains and economic opportunity for employees and communities.

55% of Walmart's total U.S. workforce is female and 43% of management is female. usatoday.com

New 'Open Security & Safety Alliance' to Create Standardized Platform
Membership Doubles in 1st Six Months
In the Fall of 2018, five companies - Bosch Building Technologies, Hanwha Techwin, Milestone Systems, Pelco by Schneider Electric and VIVOTEK, Inc. - came together for the good of the open platform community, becoming founding companies of the Open Security & Safety Alliance (OSSA), or simply, "the Alliance." Since that time, 15 inventive international players have joined the organization, producing 50 percent growth with initiatives in full swing, which include "publishing first concepts for new standards and common frameworks from when we can all work from," Johan Jubbega, president of OSSA told SSN. 

The Alliance is a non-profit corporation founded to bring together like-minded organizations to create a common, standardized platform accessible to all security and safety solutions. In just their first six months, the Alliance has already created a common Technology Stack specification, catering to product and services innovation to reduce market fragmentation and friction, but there are more works in progress. securitysystemsnews.com

Should Auditors Be Responsible For Catching Corporate Fraud?
Tensions are running high in the U.K. corporate auditing arena. Amid calls to break up the so-called Big Four auditors - PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, EY and KPMG - experts have raised concerns over why these players were unable to detect and prevent several high-profile corporate collapses and fraud schemes in recent years. Doubts over the Big Four's potential conflicts of interest in some cases have further fueled calls for a breakup.

"For the big firms, audits seem too often to be the route to milking the cash cow of consultancy business."

At the same time, there is a growing campaign to expand the role of the corporate auditor, fueling the divide over how to boost the effectiveness of the auditing space while promoting competition and limiting conflicts of interest. pymnts.com

Carson, NV: AB 236 Vote today; Decrease Prison population, and DECREASE Felony threshold from $2,000 to $1,200

Dunkin to add 200 to 250 stores over three years in US

Party City to close 45 stores


Quarterly Results

EZ Corp Q1 comp's up 5%, sales up 6%
Ahold Delhaize USA Q1 comp's up 1.2%, sales up 1.1%
Party City Q1 comp's down 1.4%, sales up 1%
Camping World Q1 comp's down 11%, sales up 0.6%