'Best conference yet': Hundreds attend 10th annual
New England Loss
Prevention Expo
The 10th Annual – and recently rebranded – New England Loss
Prevention Expo was held Thursday, September 15, 2016 at the DCU Center in
Worcester, MA. About three hundred people in total were in attendance and
the agenda was packed full with great information and practical advice for a
loss prevention and protection person.
Throughout the day, a video montage played over three big screens in the
general session room and the vendor hall showing action shots from the
previous 9 conferences. Some of the people depicted have moved to new
companies or retired or have run for higher office. It was nice to see the
progression of the people and the conference over the years.
The
conference was planned by the Retailers Association of MA Loss Prevention
Committee. Members are Kevin Plante, Chairman, Brendan Fitzgerald, Jason
Adams, Matt Taylor, Allan Peterson and outgoing member Shannon Lenahan. RAM
leadership and co-planners were Jon Hurst, President of RAM, Ryan Kearney,
General Counsel of RAM and Andi Shea, Membership Director of RAM and head
planner / negotiator / executer for the conference. Hosts for the conference
were the trade associations for the New England States and the conference
was generously sponsored by Wegmans, Rite Aid, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Staples
and the NRF.
Kevin Plante began the day with a "selfie from the stage" and then moved on
to discuss some of the changes over the years surrounding LP and Law
Enforcement partnerships and the understanding of ORC in order to pass
legislation in Massachusetts. He also discussed the need to diversify the
conference to include all areas of loss prevention concern in order to offer
more to the attendees of the annual conference. He then ended his opening by
introducing – for the 10th time – Joe LaRocca as the opening speaker.
Joe LaRocca, Founder of Retail Partners talked to an attentive crowd
about retail trends and hot LP issues. Of the many points of discussion were
de-criminalization of shoplifting trends in the US and how ORC cases are
increasing becoming more violent. Additionally – and as Joe often does – he
talked about how technology is phenomenal for retailers, retail customers
and retail loss prevention but it comes with some risks that we all need to
be aware of and thinking about.
After a short break in which
attendees enjoyed some refreshments, the group then were able to spend an
hour with our solutions providers or attend one of four concurrent breakout
sessions going on in the break out rooms. All were very well attended given
the quality of the subject and the speakers.
The breakout sessions
consisted of:
•
Case Study –A close up investigative view of how Price
Chopper Supermarket’s Asset Protection team uncovered a credit card fraud
scheme in excess of $400,000. The investigation lead to the arrest of three
suspects who were convicted and sentenced to federal prison. The speakers
were Scott Ziter, Donna Imfeld and Mike Gulli from Golub Corporation / Price
Chopper.
•
GPS Tracking in
Retail - BlueTracs is a solution that uses GPS tracking
technology to combat Organized Retail Crime. Come learn how this could work
for your organization. Speakers were Tim Hickey and Gary Berra.
•
Analytic Approaches to Identifying the Next Gen Booster -
This presentation will focus on a new analytic approach under construction
that attempts to better leverage the various streams of ORC-related
information against existing criminal data. Specific attention will be given
to areas of potential cooperation between local crime analysis and loss
prevention. Finally, recent efforts undertaken by the Boston Regional
Intelligence Center to address Retail Theft in the metro Boston area will be
highlighted. Speakers were Anthony Stevens and Andrew Greathouse.
•
The Improvised Explosive Threat: Commonly Available Precursor
Chemicals - This presentation will focus on explosives that
can be manufactured with common chemicals that can be purchased at a variety
of retailers. Several case studies will be discussed. Speaker was Benjamin
Hicks of the FBI.
Following the vendor visits and breakout sessions, participants listened
intently to Walter Palmer of PCG Solutions talk about global traveler safety
and security. With Walter’s vast travel experience and his credentials as a
loss prevention and protection professional, he was able to convey plenty of
scenarios to think about when either traveling personally, professionally or
if your job involves protection of executives. This presentation covered
ideas on preparing for robbery, illness and kidnap / extortion attempts
abroad and provided resources attendees could contact as they prepare to
travel or protect a traveler.
After a delectable lunch and more solution provider face time, conference
goers were introduced to Keynote speaker Edward Minyard, President of
ResponseForce1. Ed talked about disaster preparedness, response and recovery
and discussed it from a practitioner’s perspective having been at the center
of many recent disasters such as Katrina and the Haiti earthquake. Ed talked
about the importance of retailers in the recovery effort of a community and
therefore it was our responsibility to ensure our organizations were able to
recover quickly. There were many people scrambling to grab a copy of Ed’s
book “After Disaster – An Insiders’ Perspective from the Heart of Chaos” and
to get his contact information because of some potential “organizational
complacency” that may have been felt surrounding how their company prepares.
After some additional time with the solutions providers looking over
new technology and offerings, the afternoon session was introduced. Mark
Solomon from the Greenwich, CT police department - who is working on a US
Secret Service detail currently surrounding identification and investigation
of skimming fraud – gave conference attendees a view into the world of
skimming and how easy it is to skim retail devices and ATM’s but how we can
put some basic steps in place to safeguard our companies and our customers.
Mark’s expertise on the subject, combined with his delivery of the material
made the session truly memorable.
The awards portion of the
conference was then put on by RAM General Counsel Ryan Kearney. Award
winners were:
Loss Prevention Partner of the Year –
Chris Semple, Asset Protection Investigator, Saks Off 5th.
Law Enforcement Partner of the Year – Anthony Stevens, Regional
Criminal Intelligence Analyst, Boston Regional Intelligence Center (now with
Attleboro, MA Police).
Loss Prevention Case of the Year
– Stefanie Mangiante, ORC East Manager – CVS and Gary Weisbecker, ORC East
Manager – Walgreens
Loss Prevention Partner of the Year
winner Chris Semple |
Law Enforcement Partner of the Year -
Anthony Stevens |
LLoss Prevention Case of the Year
Stefanie Mangiante and Gary Weisbecker |
Our closing session was a view into the how future technology is available
today. Kevin McMenimen, COO of Loss Prevention Magazine and Contact, Inc.,
along with panelists Jack Ives from Cyber Extruder and Yaacov Apelbaum from
XRvision talked about different biometric technologies and gave very
interesting detail and examples regarding facial recognition and voice
biometrics (not to be confused with speech recognition). The team also had
some really cool technology that participants saw throughout the day and
were able to see the biometric based solutions in action.
Participants commented on how it was the best conference yet and that they
looked forward to coming next year!