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What a week we just went through. I was out of town for work but tried to keep up on the Boston and Texas news as much as I could. I was in Chicago, and visited the Office of Emergency Management and Communications one day before torrential downpours flooded much of the area, wreaking havoc on transportation, including flights at O'Hare. It would have been fascinating to see the office in actual emergency mode, but I'm sure they were glad we weren't there on that day.

What more could happen?

I woke up this morning to news that a gun battle in Seattle claimed five lives, and then learned later that Canadian officials have made multiple arrests after preventing a "major terrorist attack," according to the CBC. As I post this, no further details have been released.

We can all be thankful that the planned terrorism in Canada has been thwarted, thanks to Canadian law enforcement and intelligence agencies, with the cooperation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and FBI, just as we are thankful for the work of Boston area law enforcement to bring in the remaining suspect in the Marathon bombings.

Here's an insightful interview with the Revere, Mass., police chief, who was on the scene in Watertown when the second bombing suspect was arrested. Thermal imaging and helicopter video are shown.

Let's hope for a less eventful week this week.

CHICAGO—Breakfast bright and early featured George Rosebrock, security manager for the McCormick Place. That's where ASIS's 59th annual Seminar and Exhibits will be held, here, Sept. 24-27.

Rosebrock, a native of Chicago with deep experience in the Chicago Police Department, including working as a police officer, plain-clothes officer, sergeant and lieutenant before becoming a commander, has been at McCormick since his retirement from the CPD five years ago. He had many great insights, including his learning curve coming into a situation where there's 2.6 million square feet of exhibit space--the largest in North America—and where ASIS expects at least 20,000 visitors in September. I'll share his thoughts in an article for SDN coming soon.

After breakfast, we set off on a tour of Columbia College Chicago and the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

At the college, with 16 buildings spread out across the South Loop area, Robert Koverman, associate vice president of campus safety and security at the school, and Martha Meegan, director of campus safety and security, discussed the challenges associated with protecting an urban campus. They talked about the school's security evolution over a very short time, four years, from evolving from home burglary-type alarm systems in buildings to a state-of-the-art 24/7 command center. "It was very bare bones before," Koverman said. He credits developing a relationship with the college's IT department, and its cooperation, for his success. There were no access card readers when he arrived on the job, but now most students have them, he said. He had a lot more to say, as did Meegan, who has been instrumental in proactive efforts in the public/private security partnership realm. More about that later, too.

At the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications, Executive Director Gary Schenkel showed our group around the newly renovated 911 floor, which gets 5.3 million calls a year, the control center and operations center. Very high-tech.

Especially of note was a presentation from Jonathan Lewin, managing deputy director for the city's OEMC, overseeing Public Safety Information Technology from the city's Departments of Police, Fire, and Emergency Management. He is responsible for the city's advanced police crime surveillance camera network, described by the Department of Homeland Security as one of the most advanced in the nation.

We heard about Lewin's next step: Inputting variables from all the city's available databases—from information about gangs and their alliances, sex offender registries, troubled buildings and more—to identify those people likely to become victims of crimes or to become criminals. "We take that data and leverage it," Lewin said.

Tomorrow is another full day, thanks to ASIS.

Stay tuned.

One day back in the office after the successful extravaganza that was ISC West and tomorrow, April 16, I'm headed out for another great event: The ASIS 2013 Media Tour in Chicago.

My security trade pub colleagues and I will be visiting Columbia College, the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications, Willis Tower and the Museum of Science and Industry in preparation for the 59th annual ASIS International Seminar and Exhibits Sept. 24-27 at the McCormick Place in Chicago.

I'm really looking forward to learning how these end-users are updating their physical security and what hot new technology they're using.

A big thanks to the ASIS staff for arranging this event.

Please watch for my blog updates and tweets and, of course,  articles when I return!

Bob Hayes, managing director of the Security Executive Council, and Shirley Decker-Lucke, publisher at Elsevier, were first on my agenda on Thursday, my second day at the show. They have a new collaborative venture, announced at ISC West, to produce texts on security topics, both for practitioners and for the 400 colleges with security curriculums. They aim to serve next-gen professionals as well as gathering book ideas from thought leaders in the industry. "They'll tell us what they need and we'll write a book about it," Hayes said.

Next up was Mike Howard from Microsoft. We had an interesting talk about the prevailing challenge security professionals face: Reaching out to the c-suite. "It's getting them out of their comfort zone," Howard said. Having the business acumen to "evangelize" for security and prove ROI is vital, he said. He's in his eleventh year at Microsoft and even at that corporate giant he needed to do some evangelizing of his own, he said. We talked about what he looks for when hiring to his team. Gone are the days of just hiring former law enforcement personnel, he said. He looks for the right attitude, great interpersonal skills, a willingness to learn the business, dedication, selflessness and subject matter expertise. Howard also talked proudly about Microsoft's Global Security Operations Centers, and the ''showcasing" of best-practice use of Microsoft products in a real-world operational environment. You can check that out here: www.msgsoc.com. I know I'll be visiting that site when I have more time to really delve into it.

From Microsoft I changed course to learn about Delta Scientific's portable crash barriers. They were used at the 2013 Inauguration and are used at military checkpoints in Afghanistan and Iraq, at busy ports, university football games, graduations and other events requiring other crowd-control. Simplicity is the name of the game, said Garrett Gustason, project manager for high security systems. It only takes 15 minutes to set up one of the barriers, he said, and there's no need to dig up the ground.

Saw a demo of NFC at Ingersoll Rand, quickly being adopted on campuses nationwide, making smartphones even smarter, access-wise.

Polaroid, yes, that Polaroid, is getting into security video. VP Nathan Needel explained to me the full line of surveillance solutions that will be offered to end-users starting June 1. Their solution comes with a 10-year warranty and an integrator dedicated to the user.

On the media stage, I interviewed campus security expert Berkly Trumbo, national business manager for campus solutions at Siemens. He discussed the progress of "the easy button," social media's impact and usefulness in regard to emergency management and the integrated approach to campus safety. I also went on air with Brian Johnson, network systems analyst for the Escambia County, Fla., School District, responsible for security at its 60 facilities. Video surveillance, law enforcement's access to that and active-shooter training were among our topics. You'll be able to watch Trumbo's and Johnson's video interviews soon on the SDN website. You'll enjoy them and get great takeaways.

In addition, I met with Kostas Mellos from interlogix about the company's part in the migration from analog to IP, stopped in to visit with Onvif, attended the Security 5K Awards ceremony and then a couple of receptions.

It's been a very productive show for me. Headed out now for Day 3.