First day at ASIS NYC

I'm attending the 22nd ASIS NYC Security Conference and Expo this week. I'm coming away from the first day of the show with several story ideas scrawled in my reporter's notebook, the result of several conversations I had with security directors on the show floor.

I went to a few educational sessions during the day, the first of which focused on the state of the security job market and how security professionals should position themselves for success. I wrote an article detailing the gist of that discussion. I also stopped in sessions focused on best practices for completing risk assessments and how security professionals should demonstrate security's value to corporate executives.

Eduard Emde, the current ASIS president, and the organization's first president from outside the United States, made the trip from the Netherlands, so I was able to meet him in person and discuss a few things. I interviewed Eduard in February about the significance of his tenure, his goals and the organization's goals for 2012 and his international perspective on the security profession.

I also spoke throughout the day with Chuck Andrews, director of security for FirstData; Ron Hurley, director of public safety at Berkeley College in Woodland Park, N.J.; Steve Chupa, global security director for Johnson & Johnson's medical devices and diagnostics division; and Deyanira Murga, chair of ASIS International's new chapter in Juarez, Mexico.

Here's a photo of Eduard Emde, ASIS president, and Deyanira Murga, chair of the new ASIS chapter in Juarez, Mexico:

In the evening, a large group of conference attendees boarded buses to the 9/11 Memorial. Apparently, an Occupy Wall Street protest threw a small wrench in our plans and we had to alter our approach to the memorial.

This was my first visit to the memorial. It's a beautiful space. Here are two photos. The first shows the area around one of the pools where the names of the 441 first responders who died on 9/11 are displayed.

The second is of a Callary Pear tree, now vibrant, that was planted at the original World Trade Center and was found in the rubble as a charred trunk. Miraculously, the tree was nursed back to health and is now planted here as "a totem for survivors," as my tour guide said.