asis

CHICAGO—Keith Kambic, director of security and life safety for the Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, gave us a great overview of the 4.3 million-square-feet building, Some 12,000 people work in the building and anywhere from 300 to 11,000 tourists visit the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere each day. From access control, surveillance, bag screening, loading dock security, mass notification, building evacuation drills and more, there's a lot going on at the building, which at the same time has a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. More about the Willis Tower later.

Next we were off to the Museum of Science and Industry. Said Edward J. McDonald, director of facilities and operations, "We're here to be a 'touchy' museum.' We encourage people to touch things," he said. "We haven't lost anything in 30 years." Guards and 370 cameras keep things well in hand. McDonald also gave us a tour of a couple of the exhibit halls—there are 71 major ones. Put this museum on your bucket list, for sure. Fascinating.

Both Kambic and McDonald, along with the other security directors we spoke with on the tour, stressed the importance of effective communication and positive relationships, both within their organizations and with local and federal law enforcement agencies.

A big thanks to ASIS' Leigh McGuire for inviting me and for a problem-free, exceptionally instructional tour. Fllooding in Chicago, because of the torrential rain Weds/Thurs, caused the cancellation of one of our site visits, but we more than made up with it at other tours. As I said, exceptional. Lots of good article ideas.

I had to leave my hotel at 5 a.m. today to fly back to Maine, unfortunately missing out on the security tour of O'Hare, but I will certainly write more about my Chicago experiences in the coming days.

It was a great trip.
 

Have you seen the award-winning film Argo, the dramatization of the rescue of six U.S. diplomats during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis?

The movie was directed by Ben Affleck, who also stars in it, playing CIA operative Tony Mendez, who led the rescue.

Mendez will be the keynote speaker at the 6th Annual CSO Roundtable Spring Conference, "Lessons Learned. Problem Solved."

Mendez worked undercover for 25 years and was a master of disguise.

At the conference he will talk about how he engineered and conducted the hostage rescue plan, which involved having the hostages pose as Canadian filmmakers and included creating a phony Hollywood film production company. For his work, Mendez was awarded the Intelligence Star for Valor.

Sounds like a great a talk. The conference will be held March 4-5 in Chicago. For more information, go to www.asisonline.org.

I'm in Philadelphia for a few days on the ASIS International media tour in preparation for the annual conference that will be held here in September.

On the first day, we visited the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where the ASIS show will be held. We sat down with Doug Chen, the center's director of security services, and Kenneth Matty, its VP of security services, to hear about the challenges of securing a large convention space. Chief among the challenges is managing the numerous protests that pop up around the center depending on which large convention is taking place. The center hosts several major conferences in the life sciences area, Chen said, which includes such flammable topics as stem-cell research and animal testing. There are more than 300 cameras protecting the roughly 1 million sq. ft. of space, Chen said.

When the ASIS show arrives in September, which Chen doesn't believe will attract any major protests, it will bring as many as 25,000 people to the city for several days. The event will have a $50 million economic impact on the city, we were told, which may explain why everyone is treating us so nicely.

I'll follow up with more reports from my time here, including from tours of the Comcast Center and Federal Reserve.