Virtual 5K prizes awarded.

No doubt all of the more than 15,000 security professionals who attended the 42nd Annual ASIS Seminar and Exhibits in Atlanta left the show with a wealth of new knowledge from the four days of sessions and product demonstrations. But Jeremy Sturgeon came away especially enriched by the experience. As the winner of the Security Management Online Virtual 5K, Sturgeon received a $3,000 gift certificate applicable toward a state-of-the-art computer system.

"I've never really won anything like this before," said the surprised Sturgeon, a security manager at Intel Corporation's Hillsboro, Oregon, site, when told that his name had been drawn from hundreds of participants' entry forms as the grand prize winner of the Virtual 5K competition.

Competitors in the Security Management Virtual 5K completed the course by taking the entry form to each of ten participating exhibitors throughout the Georgia World Congress Center exhibit hall. Each exhibitor then stamped a designated portion of the Security Management Online address (http://www.securitymanagement.com) on each entry form. Once the entire address had been filled with a corresponding stamp, the contestant dropped the form off at the Security Management booth, received a free T-shirt, and had the chance to win either the grand prize computer gift certificate or one of twenty gift certificates for running shoes.

Sturgeon, a member of ASIS only since June and a first-time seminar attendee, almost missed being in the winner's circle, "I wasn't: going to fill out the [form]," he says, "but the person I went to the seminar with encouraged me to do it."

The effort paid off in more ways than one. "I thought it was a neat way to get people to go to different parts of the floor," says Sturgeon. Other contestants echoed that sentiment. Several players who said they normally feel pressured or intimidated approaching an exhibitor's booth found that the Virtual 5K eased the process. Some attendees who said they wouldn't have stopped at certain booths if it weren't for the contest even ended up doing business with those exhibitors.

Though Sturgeon took the big prize, twenty other winners walked away with a gift certificate for athletic shoes. They included: William L. Bell, Key Bank, Tacoma, Washington; Wendy Bott, Dow Corning, Midland, Michigan; Ray Broeker, MCI Telecommunications, Atlanta; Paul Chochrek, U.S. Federal Protective Service, Boston; James R. Cogan, American Greetings, Cleveland; Forrest Cooper, CPP, Rite Aid, Detroit; Warren J. Danzenbaker, CPP, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Thomas De Paola, Del Laboratories, Farmingdale, New York; Harry Eaton, Aramco Services Company, Houston; and Martin A. Grossman, CPP, Exxon Research & Engineering Company, Annandale, New Jersey.

Also winning athletic shoes were Terri Johnson, Milwaukee Public Museum; J.P. Jones, CPP, Trident Data Systems, Los Angeles; Jeff Kleiber, Michelin, Spartanburg, South Carolina; Stephen A. Meyer, Accurate Technologies, Goleta, California; Eric Morris, Emory Crawford Long Hospital, Atlanta; David K. Richardson, CPP, Bausch & Lomb, Rochester, New York; Rick Seba, Bank One, Dallas; Barbara Sekerak, KeyCorp, Cleveland; Lester Weinman, Connaught Laboratories, Swiftwater, Pennsylvania; and Rudy A. Wolter, Citibank, Miami.

If you missed the Virtual 5K, don't despair. You can still take a walk on the educational side by visiting Security Management Online. Just rev up your modem and cruise the library stalls or hang out in the forums for an exchange of news and views with your peers. You won't even have to get your tennis shoes dirty.