Major sporting events, like the World Series or the Super Bowl, are no longer just athletic contests – they are the new “destination vacations” and, for global events like the Olympics or the World Cup, sources of national prestige and economic drivers.

In my last column I wrote about the “Human Factor” of access control and identification. I now recall several negative incidents that I experienced as a security director involving security staffs screening persons entering the lobbies of hospitals.

Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies and the CBORD Group are in the midst of an access control trial at Villanova University in Pennsylvania involving NFC and smart phones.

When’s the last time you reviewed the services that your security integrator is offering? If it’s been more than a year, or perhaps even a few months, I’m certain that you’ll find that there are more choices and greater flexibility in the deployment of those choices.

Optical turnstiles are viewed as a growing trend in entrance control, currently dominating the speedgate market, according to IMS Research. As a security measure, optical turnstiles restrict or control access to a building or secured area.

A survey of IT managers shows gaps in access risk management programs, but also reveals that IT managers are very aware of their needs and what they have to do to address them.

I’ve written previously about the need to embrace our corporate or institutional culture and the language of business into enterprise physical security. All too often, we practical folks engaged in the day-to-day operations of our departments dismiss these concepts as superfluous or mere hoops to jump through to please some higher authority. As I’ve been known to preach about, regularly, is the need to market our services to our customers, both internal and external. One “corporate speak” method of marketing our work with the value added benefit of guiding our decision making is in the form of value statements.

I’m always amazed at how many of my colleagues still rely on a significant amount of manual data entry to their access control systems. Often, a large amount of employee information is entered at the badging station or after-the-fact at the security office.

Hotels face a universal challenge: how to manage security without encroaching on guests’ privacy, comfort and experience. Safeguarding hotel guests requires a multi-pronged security program that starts with a well-trained staff and includes security officers, closed circuit television systems, electronic access control and appropriate lighting and landscaping that ensures the identification and prevention of crime.