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More police visible at industry events

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Security experts see more interest from prospective

clients

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UnitedHealth's ( UNH ) Brian Thompson was gunned down in December

By Sabrina Valle, Arriana McLymore and Siddharth Cavale

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) - U.S. industry

conferences, including a major San Francisco healthcare meeting,

have stepped up security for attendees this year after a health

insurance executive was murdered near a December investor

meeting in New York.

Last year, thousands of executives, analysts, investors and

others attending industry conferences wandered freely through

the sites and neighboring hotels. But event organizers, working

with police, added more law enforcement both inside and outside

a retail expo in New York and at JPMorgan's ( JPM ) healthcare

conference in San Francisco this week, as well as at the annual

CES technology show in Las Vegas earlier this month.

"There's a much more significant police presence, and I

think JPM is really taking it seriously, and I think that's

appreciated," said Teresa Graham, CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals,

a unit of Roche, in an interview at the JPMorgan ( JPM )

conference.

The National Retail Federation's (NRF) conference and expo

included both New York state and city officers patrolling the

Jacob Javits Convention Center and stationed near the entrance

as attendees were being registered.

"There's lots more security this time," Eric Olson, NRF's

vice president of content strategy, said at the conference.

The NRF works annually with New York City police on security

for the event, which is usually the first conference at the

Javits Center every year. The Javits Center and NYPD did not

respond to requests for comment.

Metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs were also present at

this month's Detroit Auto Show.

HEIGHTENED AWARENESS

Security consultants said they have had numerous discussions

with executives over additional protection following the Dec. 4

murder of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson

outside a Manhattan hotel, particularly for speaking

engagements. The accused killer, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, was

captured five days later in Pennsylvania.

Gun detection company Omnilert, which installs technology at

school districts, is getting interest from major hotel chains,

said Omnilert CEO David Fraser. The company uses artificial

intelligence to monitor security footage to recognize guns in a

fraction of a second.

Security experts said websites with conference agendas are

being updated with speaker information, keynote locations and

times much closer to event dates to shield speakers' identities.

"If you're going to pay 10 grand ($10,000) - which is cheap

- for somebody to come speak at a conference, you're going to

pay an extra, probably two grand, for an executive protection

agent," said Michael Julian, president of security firm MPS

Security & Protection.

The annual CES trade show - formerly known as the Consumer

Electronics Show - increased its security protocols "in response

to recent tragic events," said John Kelley, vice president and

show director of the Consumer Technology Association, in a

statement.

At the healthcare event, the number of security personnel

from JPMorgan ( JPM ) and the Westin St. Francis hotel was higher

onsite, with San Francisco police officers present in the halls

and conference rooms. Healthcare bankers from three big

institutions said their teams allotted more time between

meetings, anticipating disruptions that did not materialize.

On Monday, fewer than two dozen protesters, half of them

retirees, voiced their grievances peacefully outside the venue.

Their chants, "deny, delay, depose," echoed the words found on

bullet shell casings at Thompson's murder site, a reference to a

book about insurance claim practices. Only one protester

returned on Tuesday, the second day of the four-day event.

Most U.S. corporations spent little on executive security in

the past. An Equilar analysis shows that about 100 S&P 500

companies reported executive security expenses for 2023.

That spend rose to $71.9 million for those companies from $50.4

million in 2019, and experts said that figure should continue to

rise.

"Within the corporate security space this seems to be a

bellwether event that is not going away quickly," said Fraser.

"I thought frankly I thought this was going to slow down a

little bit, but the momentum of it just continues to escalate."