October 9 - 12, 2026

Westin Crown Center, Kansas City

2026 Sessions

CPE Approval Pending

CEC Approval Pending

Saturday Keynote Session

sponsored by

Recognizing and Resisting Complicity

Century Ballroom C Saturday 8:30 - 9:30 AM

Presenters: Asha Rangappa
Senior Lecturer, Yale University Jackson School of Global Affairs

How do people get away with bad behavior without being held accountable? Typically, misconduct within organizations isn’t a secret; more often, it is enabled by a supporting cast of individuals who become complicit through action or inaction, shielding bad actors from accountability. In this thought-provoking talk, Asha explores how these complicit actors serve as the human “scaffolding” that allows corruption to take root and misconduct to flourish at the highest levels. Drawing on case studies across multiple sectors, including the Theranos scandal, the CIA torture program, Harvey Weinstein, the Minneapolis Police Department, Facebook, and even Vladimir Putin, Asha examines the incentives, fears, and motivations that sustain corrupt systems. Her presentation offers practical lessons on how organizations can build stronger norms, codes of conduct, and oversight mechanisms to prevent misconduct from taking hold and empower those positioned to stop it.

Sunday Keynote Session

sponsored by

Hard Target: A Former Spy’s Guide to the Threats Your Industry Isn’t Ready For

Century Ballroom C Sunday 8:30 - 9:30 AM

Presenters: Shawnee Delaney
CEO, Vaillance Group

How do adversaries identify and exploit vulnerabilities inside organizations long before anyone realizes they have become a target? Before Shawnee Delaney protected organizations, she compromised them. As a former DIA clandestine case officer, her job was to find human vulnerabilities and exploit them in support of intelligence operations. In this keynote, Shawnee explores the convergence of threats facing organizations today: technical surveillance, AI-enabled social engineering, insider threats, and foreign and corporate espionage operations targeting industry every day. Drawing on her experience in intelligence and years of advising organizations on insider risk and espionage threats, she reveals how adversaries identify and develop targets, gain access through trusted insiders, and exploit the gaps between people, technology, and security programs. More than a discussion of threats, this keynote is an opportunity to see security from the adversary’s perspective. It challenges attendees to look beyond individual technologies and consider how human behavior, organizational culture, and technical vulnerabilities intersect, often creating opportunities attackers are counting on security teams to overlook.

Track Sessions

The Business of Security Consulting

sponsored by

Human Judgment, Machine Speed: AI in the Security Design Workflow

TBD

AI is reshaping the business of security consulting by enabling faster assessments, more consistent design outputs, and improved documentation quality across the project lifecycle. This session examines how consultants can leverage AI for tasks such as survey summarization, standards alignment, drawing review, specification development, and report generation while maintaining professional accountability and design integrity. We will explore how AI may redefine the industry’s standard of care, where human oversight remains essential, and how consulting firms can adapt their service models, staffing, and client expectations in an AI-accelerated future.

Beyond the Traditional Security Resume: Building a Converged Talent Pipeline

TBD

As security systems become more connected and technology-driven, the industry's future workforce may not come from traditional security backgrounds. Successful projects increasingly require expertise that span physical security, IT, cybersecurity, networking, and operational technology (OT). This panel explores how consultants and systems integrators are expanding beyond the traditional security talent pool to identify, recruit, and develop professionals with transferable skills from adjacent disciplines. Panelists will discuss what works, and what doesn't, when building a workforce capable of delivering the next generation of converged security solutions.

Beyond Protection: Turning Security Projects into Business Value

TBD

Great consultants do more than design secure systems; they help clients justify investments by connecting security outcomes to wider business goals. This session examines how to uncover adjacent use cases, align stakeholders across departmental lines, and position security technologies to support operations, workplace analytics, compliance, HR workflows, safety initiatives, and executive reporting. The discussion will focus on how consultants can lead higher-value conversations that transform projects from isolated security upgrades into enterprise-wide business solutions.

The Blurred Line Between Consultant, Integrator, and MSP

TBD

Is the future of security consulting still project-based, or are firms moving toward recurring advisory, embedded expertise, and managed outcomes? This session explores how consultants are expanding into ongoing service models that include cybersecurity monitoring, system health reviews, standards alignment, analytics optimization, and fractional design leadership. As tools like Defender, MDR, and cloud-based service platforms become more common, the industry must rethink where consulting ends and managed services begin.

Security Design & Projects

sponsored by

Why Security Commissioning Is More Than Project Oversight

TBD

Many project team members use the terms “Construction Administration” and “Commissioning” interchangeably, but they serve very different purposes in security projects. This session looks at more complete definitions of Commissioning and Contract Administration. The consultant’s responsibilities are greatly expanded when commissioning is to be included in project delivery. Activities such as installation oversight, testing, and final turnover have an expanded role with a formal commissioning processes. The ultimate goal of commissioning is to verify operational performance, interoperability, and owner readiness. Participants will gain a clearer understanding of where each role begins and ends, and how effective commissioning protects both the client and the design team.

Safer by Design: Bringing CPTED into Physical Security Projects

TBD

This session examines how CPTED concepts can be translated into actionable design decisions across the full project team. Rather than relying solely on electronic countermeasures, consultants will learn how environmental design, architectural coordination, landscape strategy, and site circulation can reduce risk before technology is even applied. The conversation will focus on how these principles lead to stronger Division 28 designs and how consultants can effectively coordinate intent across specifications, site packages, and construction disciplines.

Designing for Resiliency: Cloud, Edge, and Hybrid Security Platforms

TBD

Cloud-native platforms, hybrid architectures, and integrated ecosystems are rapidly reshaping the physical security industry - but not without tradeoffs. This panel brings together manufacturers, platform providers, and integrators to discuss the advantages and limitations of open versus closed ecosystems, including interoperability, deployment simplicity, cybersecurity, vendor accountability, and long-term flexibility. The discussion will also examine where cloud, on-premise, and hybrid approaches each make the most sense based on resiliency, compliance, remote management, analytics, and operational requirements.

Beyond Cut Sheets: Manufacturer Tools That Improve Security Design

TBD

Manufacturers are increasingly providing design assistance platforms, engineering teams, and workflow tools that can significantly improve the speed, consistency, and accuracy of security system design. This session explores how consultants can effectively leverage manufacturer-supported resources such as device calculators, storage estimators, BIM objects, Revit families, and design validation services. Panelists will compare what tools are currently available across manufacturers, how these resources integrate into consultant workflows, and where they meaningfully improve design outcomes versus where independent validation is still required. The discussion will also focus on what tools consultants increasingly expect from manufacturers as a baseline.

Technology

sponsored by

The Third Dimension: Adding Air Space to the Security Perimeter

TBD

Drone technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace, rapidly reshaping industries, public spaces, and the physical security landscape. As capabilities continue to advance, so do the risks and challenges facing security professionals. This session will examine the evolving drone threat, explore how emerging technologies are changing the risk environment, and discuss the implications for physical security programs. You will gain a foundational understanding of today's drone-related threats, the challenges they present, and the key factors security professionals should consider as drones become an increasingly significant element of the modern risk landscape.

Detect, Track, Respond: Technology Strategies for Drone Threats

TBD

Building on the discussion of today's evolving drone threats, this session shifts from understanding the challenge to developing an effective response. This session will explore practical mitigation strategies, drone detection and mitigation technologies, and lessons learned from real-world applications. Attendees will gain insights into evaluating risks, developing layered mitigation approaches, and preparing security programs for a future where protecting the airspace above facilities is becoming an essential component of physical security.

Beyond Legacy Cards: The Rise of Open Credential Standards

TBD

The physical security industry is at an inflection point where proprietary credential ecosystems are giving way to open standards built on interoperability and public-key trust models. This session examines how PKOC, LEAF, LEAF Verified, and Aliro are redefining secure identity at the door across cards, smartphones, wearables, and wallet-based credentials. Panelists will discuss migration strategy, mobile-first design, cryptographic differences, reader infrastructure impacts, and how these technologies influence specification writing, enterprise lifecycle planning, and credential governance.

Beyond Retention Days: AI’s Impact on Video Security Storage

TBD

This session explores how AI is reshaping video storage design beyond the traditional metrics of camera count, frame rate, codec, and retention period. As the industry aligns with key SIA megatrends such as AI-driven analytics, cloud and hybrid infrastructure, cybersecurity resilience, and the growing demand for operational intelligence, storage architectures must evolve to support new workloads and business outcomes. The discussion will examine how AI changes infrastructure requirements and the retention of large-scale datasets for ongoing model training and optimization. Attendees will gain insight into how consultants, manufacturers, and enterprise users can design video infrastructure that supports both traditional forensic investigations and next-generation AI-enabled workflows in a more connected, data-driven security environment.

Special Topics

sponsored by

Open by Mission, Secure by Design: Higher Education Challenges

TBD

Higher education campuses present one of the most complex security design environments in the built world, balancing open access, academic freedom, student safety, research protection, and large-scale public events across distributed facilities. This session explores the unique design challenges consultants face in higher education environments, including decentralized governance, aging infrastructure, mixed technology standards, residence life, public gathering spaces, laboratories, athletics, and campus-wide emergency response integration. The discussion will focus on design strategies for access control, mass notification, video, blue light systems, lockdown workflows, cyber-physical integrations, and long-term campus standards that can evolve across multi-year capital plans.

The Key to Electronic Hardware Coordination and Design

TBD

Security is an integral part of any project in the built environment. Door Hardware, electronic and mechanical, is a key part of the total project, but efficient coordination is commonly overlooked. In this session, we'll explore various electronic applications to enhance system designs, maximize coordination with minimal effort, and reduce the overall CapEx and OpEx costs. Additionally, we'll review designs from concept to completion and improve the life cycle management of a security system. This "interactive" session will benefit experienced consultants, newer systems designers, and those participants looking to enhance their knowledge of Door Hardware and Access Control coordination.

Securing Human Access in Always-On Infrastructure

TBD

The greatest security risks in high-availability facilities often emerge through legitimate human workflows rather than perimeter failure. This session focuses on the operational realities of securing access for employees, vendors, remote hands teams, emergency responders, and maintenance contractors in data centers and other always-on environments. The discussion will explore how consultants can design workflows around after-hours access, escorted entry, dual authorization, cabinet-level permissions, temporary work windows, break-glass procedures, and audit-ready chain of custody for sensitive spaces, while remaining usable for operations teams that cannot afford procedural friction.

Secure Deployment Starts in Design

TBD

Cybersecurity failures in physical security systems are often the result of small design omissions that become major attack paths after deployment. Through quick live demonstrations such as packet capture, unauthorized device insertion on unsecured switch ports, and flat network pivoting, this session shows how weak segmentation, poor port security, exposed management interfaces, and insecure protocols can quickly lead to compromised cameras, panels, and management systems. Each demo is tied back to practical design decisions, helping consultants understand how to embed cyber deployment hygiene into network architecture, Division 28 specifications, commissioning, and customer incident response playbooks.

Questions or comments? Contact us at admin@securityspecifiers.com.

About Us

CONSULT is a security industry event sponsored by SecuritySpecifiers. SecuritySpecifiers is an online community and network of security professionals established to address the need for the physical security industry to more effectively engage with designers and consultants.

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