ASIS International has recently completed its first international event in mainland China, which was held in Shanghai on 3 and 4 December. With some 150 attendees from 18 countries, the conference was sold out.
ASIS President-Elect, David C. Davis, CPP, opened the conference and was followed by an informative keynote presentation of former diplomat and Chatham House Scholar Dr. Tim Summers who spoke on “China 2020: will the reforms work?” Dave Davis also presented the Dan Grove APAC Regional Scholarship for emerging security professionals to Garrhett Thomas from Perth, Australia.
Presentations on day one included Patrick Wang, Head of Security Asia at Bekaert who spoke on the topic of corporate security culture, and Rain Teng, Security Director, Cardinal Health who talked about social engineering. The first conference day closed with the President’s Reception which was sponsored by Tyco.
Day two of the conference started with a dynamic presentation by Dr. Marc Siegel, commissioner of the ASIS Global Standards Initiative, on using standards to align security with business. Other sessions included Colin Chen, Greater China and Southeast Asia director at Johnson & Johnson, who spoke on IPR protection issues in China, and Wesley Fan, Asia regional security director at Walmart, who spoke about the effective use of anonymous whistle-blower mechanisms to detect and investigate corporate fraud.
The closing keynote was delivered by Totti Karpela, director of Hong Kong-based Peace of Mind Threat Management, about psychopaths in the corporate world.
Conference attendee Andy G. Torrato, Assistant Vice President- Physical Assets Security at Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. commented, “The ASIS China Conference was indeed very informative and kept me updated with new standards, case studies and best practices shared by peers in the security industry, particularly in terms of business resilience and creating a security culture. My network has expanded and I have created new friends from across the world. It is definitely a worthwhile event and I am looking forward to next year.”
On concluding the conference, ASIS President-Elect, David C. Davis, CPP remarked “I think it was an outstanding event for our first outing in mainland China.”
The event, which was sponsored by Tyco, CRI, China City Guard, Global Rescue, G4S, ICD, Abloy, and Redpoint Resolutions, follows the establishment of the ASIS Shanghai Chapter in 2014, strong membership growth in China, and aligns with the ASIS Board of Directors’ goal of increasing the Society’s global presence. ASIS International plans return to Shanghai with a second iteration of its China Conference in the last quarter of 2016.
About ASIS International:
ASIS International (ASIS) is the premier organisation for professionals responsible for security, with more than 38,000 members worldwide. Founded in 1955, ASIS is dedicated to increasing the effectiveness and productivity of security professionals by developing educational programmes and materials that address broad security interests as well as specific security topics. ASIS also advocates the role and value of the security management profession to business, the media, governmental entities and the general public. By providing members and the security community with access to a full range of programmes and services, and by publishing the industry’s leading magazine, Security Management, ASIS leads the way for advanced and improved security performance. For more information, visit www.asisonline.org.
