Greetings

[GT Surveillance]

Geez....

I've been here for half an hour and I'm already a popular contributor. Great site and I'm glad that I found it. Not only does it help me keep my game sharp, but it is also a great chance for me to network and get to know more people in the industry.

My name is Greg and I stumbled into the surveillance industry while finishing a marketing degree. I got really interested in using Maslowe's hierarchy of needs (my apologies to any transpersonal psych fans out there) as a marketing research tool. Since 9/11 was fresh in my mind, I began focusing on safety and security needs. Lo and behold, someone was opening up a camera store in my city. I went down there and volunteered to work.

Sometimes when you volunteer to work, you get taken advantage of. Within a few months, Greg the volunteer was doing everything, from ordering, to sales, to designs, to helping out on installs. The more I learned, the more obsessed I got with the technology.

Circumstances intervened again in 2007 and I had the opportunity to start my own distributorship. When I was placing the orders, I discovered that there was a gap in the industry. High end consumers are served by recognizable brands. Low end consumers are served by eBay. Problem with eBay is that, as you all know, sometimes you don't get what you think you're getting. And when things break (which they inevitably do), low end consumers are left holding the bag on a useless piece of technology. So, I became committed to building a recognizable brand of high quality cameras at budget prices.

My focus right now is on helping my clients build their businesses. My company works on a simple rule - we would rather do business with five friends than 100 credit card numbers. Other areas of interest include marketing surveillance cameras to small businesses, the psychology of surveillance, organizational behaviour and surveillance, and how computers (specifically artificial intelligence) will transform the surveillance landscape.

In my personal life, I am Founding Director and Advertising Coordinator for a non-profit street publication called the Regina Streets Magazine. I'm extremely interested in poverty and justice issues. And, when I'm not writing articles about CCTV, or poverty, I'm hard at work trying to become a published novelist. On that note, I find it really humourous. When I was in high school, one of my favourite books was Big Brother. Now I could consider myself 'supplier to Big Brother'. :-)

[CCTV Blog Admin]

Quite a resume. Happy to have you here. It seems like you are filling up space quickly. I will contribute more soon. Its certainly a pleasure having you here.

[John Feeney]

Well atleast there's (2)

Unlike most, stumbling into surveillance camera's was not an accident. My background is pretty deep, my profile can save space.

With a strong distribution, OEM, Channel Development background this particular segment is slowly coming into it's own. Recent environmental issues (Layoffs) raise the stress-level of individuals, like it or not unemployment means crime. That may be the birth point. What we don't see is long term development. In a nutshell, creating "content" has always been the key to any marketing campaign. Camera's, DVRs or PC Based Solutions, IP lines, Remote Access with all these advancements we're still back to square one - Surveillance.

Greg, I for one would like to see an Advertising Coordinator for a non-profit street publication interested in poverty issues, LEAD the change in organizational behaviour of Surveillance. IT'S VIDEO FOLKS. Street band on surveillance camera, pulls themselves out of the suffering hell of poverty. Store owner becomes community activist. More businesses align themselves with each other. Wire-less end-points are created, community has Wi-Fi WITHOUT Government intervention .

I looking for like minded people......

[Abigail Hamilton]

Thanks for such a fun-to-read micro-bio. Great point about doing business with friends — though we at Airship need more than 5 to make it ;-) You also talk about getting good technology to midrange and lower end customers: We wrote a press release about that awhile back, which I've attached here for you.This is a central theme to what Airship does. We make superior video technologies so scalable, flexible, easy to use, easy to install, and AFFORDABLE that they are a good solution for customers up and down the food chain.

Anyway, great to meet you — let's keep trying to build this independent community out and make it useful and informative for everyone!