FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -- Utter the words "technology expo" and most folks imagine swarms of geeky guys clad in "high-water" polyester pants, black-rimmed glasses and pocket calculators holstered at their hips.
But there was nary a pocket protector or slide rule to be found at the Fort Sam Houston Technology Expo at the Sam Houston Community Center Jan. 26. Instead, there were slick presentations, well-dressed and articulate presenters and enough high-tech gizmos to make you go "whoa"!
The event was being hosted by the FSH Network Enterprise Center and all military, civilian, and contractor personnel were invited to attend for free.
Presented yearly by National Conference Service, Inc., at all the Joint Base San Antonio installations, there were vendors from companies with cool names like ErgoGenesis, Plan B and Morpho Detection, and offering everything from comfy office chairs to the latest in information technology.
"The expo gives people a chance to interact with industry partners, assess technology capabilities from leading industry experts and experience hands-on demonstrations of cutting edge technologies," said NCSI's Kelly Heacock.
More than 30 exhibitors demonstrated the latest in secure data storage, video networks, transport solutions, secure communication technologies, engineering and IT products, distance learning, integration services, enterprise systems management, data management and storage, hardware and software, audiovisual equipment and much more.
The big industry names like HP, Xerox, Panasonic and CDW-G were also represented, as well as a number of companies and schools offering basic and advanced IT training, both in the classroom and online.
"We're currently working on setting up classes with Army North, Army South and the Fort Sam Houston Network Enterprise Center," said Wayne Williams, senior account executive at New Horizons Computer Learning Centers. "We hold the classes at our centers to minimize distraction to the students."
"Tech Now was started as a consulting company in 1990 that focused on assisting our customers with large multimillion-dollar rollouts of hardware, network services, and advanced training," said director Cindy McClister of the company headquartered in San Antonio.
"Ninety percent of our business is with the military and our founder used to work at the old Kelly Air Force Base," McClister added. "We have dozens of courses and even have one that teaches the students to think like a computer hacker so they can protect their own networks better."
In addition to computer and document security companies, there was even a company that supplies explosives, narcotics, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear detection systems to the government, law enforcement agencies, military and other entities.
"Every military base has trace detection technology we supply," said Kevin Hefferman of Morpho Detection, showing off instruments that looked like they just came off a "Crime Scene Investigation" set. "We have mobile trace and vapor trace detection tools that can pick up traces of any kind of illegal drugs or explosives."
Many of the vendors already have strong Joint Base San Antonio ties, such as Docucon Imaging, which was selected by Brooke Army Medical Center to perform document conversion services which resulted in 40 years worth of files being placed on computer disks.
"The BAMC job took us eight months to complete," said Docucon account executive Dan Fousie. "The resulting savings in space allowed for another activity to move into that area."
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