 and welcome back to an exciting episode of Security Matters. We are in the, actually, I'm not in the ThinkTech studio today, but Nor is my guest, but we are live. And my guest today is Antoinette King. She's coming to us from Access Communications. Antoinette, thank you so much for taking some time to share your wisdom with our industry. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be with you. Cool. Yeah, we have some fun on here. So typically what I do is I get our guests to just kind of introduce themselves, talk a little bit about your history, what got you into technology and the security, and then sort of bring this up to your current role at Access Communications. Yeah, so I am one of the very few people that actually went to school for security. I have a bachelor's degree in managing security systems. So I started my degree program back in the mid-90s, and I got some education on the IT side of things as well, because back then my chairperson was smart enough to understand that convergence was going to happen, despite the fact that the security industry was all analog at the time. So I got my MCSC back when Windows NT was the operating system of choice. So I'm just dating myself a little bit. Shortly after that, it went to Windows 2000 and kind of let it expire because I wasn't taking all eight tests again. But from there, I worked for an integration company called Total Recall and I was one of their first technicians. And I did installs for them, mounting cameras, building head ends, programming. And that's kind of where I got the basic foundation of security for myself was at that job, being an installer. And after I got pregnant with my first son, I was about six months pregnant on a ladder with a tool belt. I was working at the Statue of Liberty and one of the guys says, Hey, listen, you might want to turn that in. So unfortunately I had to hang up my tool belt. And from there, I kind of segued into sales and operations. And most of my career was spent in the integration side of things. So I worked for a couple of different companies throughout the years, just prior to working for AXIS just about three years ago. I was working for an integration company called Linstar and they're a New York based company. And that was my first experience in outside sales. And that was when I realized that, I wanted to do something a little bit bigger, have a little bit more influence and AXIS called and you answer the phone when AXIS calls. About a year and a half ago, I recognized that there was a huge knowledge gap between physical security and cybersecurity. And so I started pursuing my masters in cybersecurity and I'm four classes shy right now of obtaining my masters in cybersecurity policy and risk management. So now I've kind of found a new passion. Security was never a job for me. It's always been a calling and cybersecurity and physical security is now kind of the direction that I'm trying to head at this point. Well, you're an industry leader in that you recognize the cyber problem. We've all witnessed it. The last half decade, I think we've seen the industry wake up some faster than others, obviously. Congrats on pursuing the masters. I love that passion to continue to learn. It's something I wish more of us did. We have, I think, kind of a top heavy industry sometimes where the folks that have been there, they know what they're doing and they sit in these chairs and they stay there forever. And they're not continuing to learn. I think that's a problem. So we'll look forward to seeing what else you bring back to AXIS. That should be a pretty exciting place to work. So you do key accounts over there now. Is that a, so that's customer facing it sounds like and then do you still get to integrate you get to solve integration issues for those clients? Are they Fortune 5 or what's the, what is that entail? I guess. Yes, so AXIS is three tenants for key account managers. First of all, yes, we're end customer facing. We never sell direct, but we really want to be able to influence technology decisions from a C-suite level. And so accounts that qualify for a key account would be one that would cover multi-year, multi-million dollar and multi-region aspect. That's awesome. Yeah, I saw presentation last time I was in DC. It was put on by the FBI. There's coordinated presentation, but AXIS was there helping, they're doing a smart city rollout for New Orleans. And so the New Orleans team was there and some AXIS folks were there and then the FBI was there to help us. That was really cool. And that's a, that mentorship is necessary. You know, the practitioners are in need of sort of unbiased, you know, hey, here's how you can do that. You know, ways to solve things they really don't know. So that's, that's important. Do you, do you get out yourself? Do you like work just in New York? Do you work nationally? How's that? How's that work? Well, I'm very lucky. So basically the accounts that I work with are traditionally headquartered in New York, but they are global and national accounts. So I do get to work closely with them and influence national and global rollouts. And an answer to your question before about if I get to help with integration, that's kind of the best part of this job. So my role is to really build a team around the end customer. And that involves not only AXIS, that's what we call ourselves by the way, not only AXIS, but also our partnerships within the industry, right? So VMS platforms, AXIS control platforms, because AXIS really truly is an open company. We love to work with the best and breed. And so that is one of my favorite parts of what we do is to be able to form these relationships, build these teams around our customers and then watch these solutions come to life. That's awesome. So what's hot? I mean, like if you're getting, those are big accounts. So I would think they would have a lot of interest in a broad variety of topics, but see you put out its megatrans, of course, cyber was number one. So you're right on point for that one. I think facial recognition was next, which kind of heads down the surveillance path and the privacy path. But what kind of, what are you seeing? What are they knocking on your door for today saying, hey, can you help us with something? Oh, it's all about the analytics. Come on. That's a everybody's favorite keyword, analytics. Yeah, so everybody's interested in analytics. What can we do with our surveillance cameras that can add value to our business proposition, right? And a lot of the customers that I work are mostly in retail. I do work some also in the banking industry. And so money's tight and they're gonna be spending money on cameras anyway. How can we use that technology to improve the bottom line, to improve customer experience? Not just for loss prevention anymore. And so it's really about big data. What information can we get? How can we use it? And then how can we drive our business in the direction that's gonna create more revenue? Yeah, I mean, that seems to be the topic of this gathering of data. We're pumping out petabytes, right? For all these cameras daily. And it's, I guess, hitting a data lake, right? So you've got this storage capacity going on that's growing and growing and growing. And what are they wanting to mine? I mean, can you give me an example of like the, you know, I know there was like queuing was a good idea. So you don't have to have so many lines open in a bank if there's no one there. But when the line gets long, you gotta make sure customer service is high. So, you know, analytics for like queue lines, I sort of understand that one. What else is the industry throwing at you? So from kind of a retail perspective, line queue is a big one, but also loitering. So if someone is spending an exorbitant amount of time in front of a display, they're probably doing one or two things. Either they're confused about their decision on what they're gonna buy or they're trying to steal something. So we can utilize a loitering analytics to find out, you know, if somebody's standing in front of something for let's say a minute or two minutes, whatever the predetermined amount of time is, trigger an announcement for an associate to come and help them. Number one, it's gonna make those good customers feel like they matter and they're important. The people that are maybe there for other nefarious reasons, maybe they won't come back to the store for that because they realized that they're being watched. We also, you know, I deal with a lot of high-end retailers that have very, very expensive merchandising, but because of anesthetics, they don't wanna necessarily put them behind a case or something. So we can also use the analytics to see if something's been removed, if the object's been removed from an area, or we can create some sort of barrier in the area to make sure that if somebody crosses that barrier immediately an associate will come and try to help them. Yeah, that's awesome. There's, retail seems to have taken the lead. I know the financial sector as well, but retail surely has the, I think that a lot, because they're at that point of sale, right? So at that decision time, and that if that's driving more revenue form, the use of an analytics valuable. Are you seeing it, are we edge deploying analytics? Are they moving, are they so large that we've gotta put them back, you know, in the chassis or is it a hybrid? I mean, that's, the customer has to be confused about where are we gonna run these analytics? Oh my gosh, that's such an awesome question. Okay, so yes and no. Yes, we can manage a lot of these analytics on the edge, but when we start getting into things like facial recognition and, you know, heat mapping and those kinds of analytics, there's not enough processing power right now at the edge to manage that. So depending on what the end customer is looking for and how much data they're trying to mine, that would really be the determining factor as to whether or not they would use an edge analytic or they'd use something that was built into a chassis. That's awesome. Do you get pulled into, so the, I can understand that this, the deployment is this, the security team, right? But the data side of the business, who are the folks that you work with on that side of, you know, like in a retail, like a large retailer, do they have folks dedicated that are like, are they data managers or I don't know what the title may be? Yeah, so it depends on the organization that you're working with, but a lot of times it's marketing dollars, right? So, you know, we as security practitioners, we really wanna talk to this, you know, chief technology officer, the security officer, but we're really not branching out into those other parts of the organization. But if you think about retail end caps, for example, they charge the manufacturers of those products for the end caps. If we can use an analytic to prove that people have a tendency to go towards this end cap rather than another, they can actually drive revenue with that analytic to charge more money for that end cap. So we really need to be talking to people all across the organization, not just in the security side of things to manage these solutions on a much broader scale. Wow, are those, are they long term or are you finding that retail is open to using analytics and they're trying these things out and have been using them for a while or are you getting sort of like green field opportunities for corporates that haven't done anything yet and they don't, you know, they don't even know how to start. Yeah, I think it's a lot newer stuff, right? So everybody's kind of getting their feet wet. One of the things that was just recently at NRF and everybody, I mean, there were a million different companies out there that are doing analytics specific to retail and there's a lot of different dashboards. And one of the things I'm finding from several of the customers that I'm working with and engaged with is that they don't want to use a dashboard for everything. They've got a dashboard for their security stuff and then they've got a dashboard for their retail analytics and that's where things are starting to get muddied a little bit. And I think that there's a lot to grow into. We're going through this growth pattern right now, understanding the information that's required and then how can we, you know, get this information together in one common dashboard. So I think that's really been a little bit of a challenge. Mm, that's good. Well, guys, our industry's working on, we need to be part of a broader solution. That's for sure, we've been saying that for years and convergence is going to let us do that, hopefully. We're about midway through. Let's, we'll pause for a break, a one minute break and we'll be right back with Antoinette King. Hi, I am Yukari Kunisue, host of Konnichiwa Hawaii, Think Tech Hawaii's Japanese program, broadcasting every Monday from 2 p.m. I usually invite a guest in Japanese language community. That's interesting things and I'd like to share stories with you guys. Please tune in and listen to Konnichiwa Hawaii. Aloha, y'all. My name is Mitch Yuen. I'm from the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute and I'm the host of Hawaii, the State of Clean Energy. We're on every Wednesday at four o'clock and we hope that we have interesting guests who talk to us about various energy things that are happening in Hawaii all the way from PV to windmills to hydrogen, most of my heart, electric buses and electric vehicles. So please dial in every Wednesday at four o'clock on Hawaii, the State of Clean Energy. Aloha. Hey, welcome back to Security Matters. We are chatting with Antoinette King and it's really amazing stuff you're doing over there. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, it's, I don't know if all businesses are aware that there are subject matter expertise inside these companies. So if you're watching and you've got some questions about how to do these things, reach out to some of these companies that have subject matter expertise in these areas and teams that aren't trying to sell you things but help you develop solutions. I think that's so important. And for you, what an opportunity. It's gotta be fun. Oh, it really is. Definitely living my best life right now. Awesome, that's all. That's good every day. That's awesome. So we were kicking around before that episode a little bit about women's security. And I know our women's security forum from C is up and running. We've got a few hundred members now. I was an honorary invitee to try to help more men with the discussion around women's security as if we needed discussion at all. But I know you're deeply engaged with as is women's security. Tell us how that's going. What the size is. How do you feel things are happening with that organization? Yeah, so what's really nice about ASIS is that there are a lot of practitioners. So SIA is a lot more on the manufacturing side and the integrators, but with ASIS it's more of practitioners. And so I'm really lucky to be involved with the global council in a couple of different form factors. But the one that I'm most proud about is actually the publications committee. So the women in security global council created a publications committee to give women an opportunity to get published. So many of us are either in school or went to school or doing training on various different subjects within our industry but don't have really a platform to get our information out there. And so last year was the first year that we had the committee together and we as a group, there's a handful of us created a white paper on creating an insider risk program. And that was really exciting. This was the first time that I was published. So I'm kind of one of the people that got to use the opportunity. And now we're kind of opening up to various different subject matters so that women in our industry can have their voices heard. Yeah, and we need that. I mean, we were talking before how there's every voice matters in security because I think that there's so much knowledge out there and so many problems have been solved that other people, if they're not aware that there's a solution for their problem and it may just be that they haven't talked to someone about or haven't heard of getting these voices out, getting them published is I think a super worthwhile effort. What is the driver there? Did you guys just decide to start writing or did you have some guidance from as is? Because they published a lot of obviously their documents for their various certifications as well. Yeah, so it really is a push from the inside out and the committee was formed prior to me getting onto the committee. So I don't know necessarily exactly how it originated but I just do know that it was very newly formed when I jumped on board. And we're really, really in line with the ASIS principles. So the white paper that we wrote was kind of in the same format and that's kind of where we're going in the direction with that committee is as an extension of ASIS. What a great resource. Is it a publicly available document once you get its published or does ASIS own it and sell it? Like, you know how they have prices for their ASIS membership prices is cheaper or whatever. So let me look at that. Yeah, no, it's a publicly available document on the website. We have a section of the website specific for women in security and so it's available online there and also on my LinkedIn if you'd like to just get a copy of it, it's posted there as well. That's awesome. So are you guys gonna get like multiple topics in one document this year, you think? Or just try to maybe keep some subject matter expertise in the areas of white paper? It's in the series of mini papers, right? So we want various different topics and we don't necessarily just wanna focus on diversity. We wanna hear what the practitioners have to say and what the subject matter experts have to be able to provide content out to our industry. Awesome. Are your, I guess when I say the, did you get more requests after you published that document to speak or to get, you know, to get the, you know, did the women that were engaged with that paper get more, I guess, industry exposure, you know, beyond the paper itself? Absolutely. I definitely think for me anyway, I can speak from my personal experience that being engaged not only with the committee and not just having that paper published but being engaged with the Women in Security Council at ASIS and also within SIA, you know, we have this tendency to talk about the good old boys club in our industry and yes, that does exist. But I've just seen in the last six to 10 months a real push to have more diverse groups of people within these committees in both organizations. And I've been invited to be on a couple of different committees, one being the ethics and the other cybersecurity advisory board on SIA as well. Because for me, you know, Women in Security is great and it's a really important cause but I wanna be a female in the industry that has a voice on various different subjects within our industry. And so yes, I will always be a champion and advocate for diversity, but I also think it's important to practice what you preach and so we can't just have a Women in Security Council. We have to have more women on the other councils and the other committees and the other working groups so that there's diverse input for all those other subject matters. Yeah, I mean, as our industry matures which is what it needs to do, right? We need to mature that outlook and I don't know how we got so male heavy unless it was just because they were ex cops and ex military and then that's what was in police and military, law enforcement military 30 years ago and was that all men and they all came into the security industry because it seems awful lot-sided to me when I attend events today, you know? And it's great, I think the awareness is out there now. I see many more men are, I think, willing to be mentors and willing to, it's kind of a who-you-know thing. They gotta share their contacts, introduce people around, get people engaged with each other and sort of pass those relationships on, I guess is the best way to put it, you know? There's a number of influence, there's this large but you gotta have a way to get to them and to know them, right? And to be become known. What do you think about our panel presentations and all this stuff? I've been pushing really hard to not accept them unless there's at least one woman, I prefer 50% of women and so these idea of manals, we gotta get rid of all these guys talking all the time. So what can we do to help there? Give me some ideas. Well, honestly, when we were at the first time I met you, which was at ISC East and you talked about that at the Women in Security Breakfast, I was so excited to hear that. I mean, that's such a big deal, right? To have that kind of a mandate to say, look, if you're gonna participate in something, you need to be the driving force to make it a more diverse panel. And I think that again, we need to go back to the fact that it's not just diverse and gender, right? We need diversity across all lines, across between age and culture and race because that's really when we truly get good input. It's something that every company just has to take seriously. I know at AXIS that they do a lot of training on unconscious bias. We have a diversity committee. We've got a whole bunch of different things that we try to work on, but still even at that, we're nowhere near the numbers that we should be in terms of diversity within our own company. And we really champion for diversity. We had a Women in Security Summit internally last year for our company, or actually in 2018. But it really is just a matter of understanding what it means, what diversity means, and then pushing for it. Sometimes it's easier to take the path of least resistance. We're going to get our male applicants in this industry because typically in a technology driven industry, that's what you get. You just have to work a little bit harder to look for other candidates and perhaps even in other industries. I was lucky enough to have been brought in from the ground level, from my education through my college. But we need to get closer to the young people. I think that's really where we're gonna be able to do what the millennials are gonna drive this. They really are in all industries, not just ours. Sure, do you think we're open enough? Are we friendly enough industry once people get to know us? Or are we the shoulders crossed security group that's too stodgy? We're not fun or whatever it may be. I don't know. Yeah, that's a really tough question. I've been in this industry for 20 years and I am gonna tell you up until I worked at AXIS, I was very intimidated oftentimes. Kelly Bond talked on her when she appeared on your show about when she went on her first trade show 20 years ago and there were very few women. I can't tell you how many times, even up until maybe five years ago where I was asked if I was a booth babe, because people just do not see women in technology as subject matter experts. I was just recently at NRF and was telling my story to a customer. And when I mentioned that I was a technician, he was like, what? You were a technician? And so people, I don't think he meant it maliciously, right? But he sees me, I'm dressed in a skirt and heels and got makeup and jewelry and all of that. And it's hard for him to envision me as a technician with work boots and a tool belt. And so, but that's really all goes back to those unconscious bias. It's what we see when we think about security professional. So, we all kind of have to take an active role in changing our own mindsets. We need more images of like when you were six months pregnant up on that ladder, we need those images out in our media instead of guys doing something, right? You know, we've got to do that. We have a superstar, a female installer on our crew that all of our guys like to work with that she's that good that she, they all want to learn from her. And I think it's epic. I'm obviously a champion for women in this industry in every role. I wish we had women just insecure. I wish they understood how valuable our industry is. You know, there's roles for women all throughout this industry. We need to create those roles. And I don't know if they're gonna be created from guys finally retiring. It seems like when you get in this industry you never stop working. I don't know how many check where they're 70. I'm like, don't you want to retire? Like make room for other people, you know? But security people, I think they have a passion for it. So they just keep doing it. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know what? Yes, we do need to create roles but I think we have to go deeper than that because the majority of women in our industry are currently in marketing and HR. There are, we're a very close knit type group of women. And when you start working the circuit and you start going to these panels you're gonna see there's a lot of repeats of security practitioners, women that are in this industry because they are far and few between. And so I think it's incumbent on all of us to just get, like I said, get to the young people. Technology is a sexy industry but people don't usually equate physical security and the technology, but we are getting into AI. We are getting into machine learning, cybersecurity, all of those things. I'm also a member of the Women in Cybersecurity Organization and that's another type of organization where I'm trying to get women from that sector to look at security as a viable option for them within their career path with cybersecurity because we need them. Yeah, we 100% do. We're about out of time, Antoinette, but I want to congratulate you for all the work you've done on the master's degree as well. I look forward to seeing you at the next show. I'm sure you'll be at ISC West or something. Maybe a closing thought for our audience if you have just one thing you'd like to prompt them with. Well, I just think that in terms of technology, be on the lookout for AI and machine learning but also just learn and understand what it means. Don't just take it for face value. And then in terms of diversity, make it your own mission, not just women, but all across all different segments. We just have to see more difference in people. And appreciate it too. Thank you so much. That's all we've got for today. We'll be back next week. Aloha, everybody.