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 explored 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 examined the incentives, fears, and motivations that sustain corrupt systems. Her presentation offered 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.

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 explored 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 revealed 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 offered attendees an opportunity to see security from the adversary’s perspective. It challenged 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.

AI is rapidly changing the security consulting and system design industry, and not everyone will survive the shift equally. Tasks that once consumed hours of consultant time, including drawing reviews, specification writing, standards alignment, survey summaries, BOM generation, and documentation development, can now be completed in minutes with AI-assisted workflows. This session explored where AI could replace repetitive consulting labor, which roles were most vulnerable, and where human expertise still provided irreplaceable value, as well as where safeguards should be considered.

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 spans physical security, IT, cybersecurity, networking, and operational technology (OT). This panel explored 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 discussed what works, and what doesn't, when building a workforce capable of delivering the next generation of converged security solutions.

AI is rewriting the rules of physical and electronic security faster than most organizations can adapt. Systems that once lived in their own silo are becoming sources of operational intelligence, workforce insight, compliance evidence, and executive decision support. This panel of veteran consultants explored how to stay ahead of that shift: identifying the adjacent use cases that matter, aligning stakeholders who still operate in separate worlds, and leading conversations that turn security projects into enterprise-wide solutions. The goal was practical: to highlight what experienced practitioners were doing to future-proof both their clients and their own practices.

Physical security consulting is no longer limited to producing drawings, specifications, and bid documents for a single project. Many firms are expanding into ongoing advisory roles that help clients manage security technology, standards, risk, and system performance throughout the full lifecycle of their programs. This session explored emerging service models such as recurring system health reviews, cybersecurity and configuration assessments, technology roadmaps, standards governance, analytics optimization, commissioning oversight, and fractional security technology leadership. Panelists discussed where traditional consulting ends, where ongoing operational support begins, and how firms can deliver lasting value without becoming systems integrators or managed service providers.

Drone technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace, rapidly reshaping industries, public spaces, and the physical security landscape. What was once viewed primarily as a commercial or recreational technology has become an increasingly sophisticated tool with the potential to introduce new vulnerabilities across critical infrastructure, facilities, events, and other high-value environments. As drone capabilities advance, from greater range and autonomy to improved sensing, navigation, and payload capabilities, the traditional security perimeter is no longer limited to fences, gates, walls, and controlled access points. The airspace above a facility is becoming an increasingly important dimension of the security environment, creating both new challenges and new opportunities for security professionals. This session examined the evolving drone threat and explored how emerging technologies are changing the risk environment. Presenters discussed real-world considerations surrounding unauthorized drone activity, the challenges of detecting and assessing potential threats, and the ways drone technology may impact existing physical security strategies and response plans. Attendees gained a foundational understanding of today’s drone-related threats, why they are becoming more difficult to ignore, and the key factors security professionals should consider when incorporating airspace into their broader security perimeter. The session also explored how organizations can begin thinking beyond the traditional ground-based security model and prepare for a future in which protecting a facility may require awareness of what is happening not only around it, but above it. Whether drones represent a nuisance, an emerging operational challenge, or a potential security threat, understanding their capabilities and implications remains an essential part of modern security planning.

Building on the discussion of today’s evolving drone threats, this session shifted from understanding the challenge to executing a complete, end-to-end response. Attendees explored how modern airspace defense requires a comprehensive strategy grounded in proactive planning and continuous team education. The session examined how to deploy a multi-layer detection approach, leveraging data fusion and integration to turn disparate sensor feeds into real-time, actionable intelligence. It then delved into practical deterrence and mitigation tactics, drawing on lessons learned from real-world applications. Ultimately, attendees gained insights into how to unite planning, layered detection, data intelligence, and mitigation into a single cohesive framework, making protection of the airspace above facilities a seamless, essential component of physical security.

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 examined how PKOC, LEAF, LEAF Verified, and Aliro are redefining secure identity at the door across cards, smartphones, wearables, and wallet-based credentials. Panelists discussed migration strategy, mobile-first design, cryptographic differences, reader infrastructure impacts, and how these technologies influence specification writing, enterprise lifecycle planning, and credential governance.

This session explored 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 examined how AI changes infrastructure requirements and the retention of large-scale datasets for ongoing model training and optimization. Attendees gained 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.