Show Notes: A Look Back at the Executive Security Operations Conference with Ronald J. | Episode #24

Travis

1 year ago

Overview

In this next episode, I recorded a joint podcast with Ronald J., founder of the Global Security & Protection Group (GSPG) podcast.

We focused this session on sharing our recent experience at the inaugural Executive Security Operations Conference in Kansas City — hosted by the Board of Executive Protection Professionals. We discussed highlights from conference presentations, key ideas we walked away from the event with, and much more.

Learn more about the GSPG Podcast:
https://gspgpodcast.podbean.com/

Highlights from This Episode

Event: The conference was organized by the Board of Executive Protection Professionals (BEPP), aiming to elevate the executive protection industry’s training, quality, and professionalism.
Quality Speakers: The conference attracted high-profile speakers, such as Michael Evanoff, former assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, reflecting the initiative to raise industry standards.
Diversity of Participants: Encouraged interactions between participants from different parts of the industry, not limited to one’s existing connections.
Quick Reference of Notable Presentations:
Scott Lowther, CPP, PCI’s Presentation
Shared insights into interacting with vendors from the perspective of a private family office.
Jason Bertrand’s Presentation
Discussed the dynamics of working with unique clients as well as with all the support staff that make an organization supporting a HNI client work.
Dr. Mary Beth Wilkas Janke’s Presentation
Concentrated on emotional and physical resilience for practitioners.
Dr. Michelle Keeney’s Presentation
Discussed protected intelligence investigations from her experience with the US Secret Service. And Highlighted the importance of effectively explaining the intelligence process to stakeholders.
Culture of Attendees: Willingness among security professionals to share information and experiences, contributing to the overall growth and improvement of the community.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Use CONTROL + F to search the transcript below if you want to learn more!

Transcript from this episode

*Note: this transcript was generated using automated software, and may not be a perfect transcription. But I hope you find it useful.

Travis 0:00
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the security student podcast Travis law shock here. In this next episode I recorded a joint podcast with Ronald Jacobus, founder of the global security and protection group podcast. We focus this session on sharing about our experience at the inaugural executive security operations conference hosted in Kansas City recently by the board of executive protection professionals. I hope you enjoy the show. Cheers.

Ron 0:37
Welcome everybody to the global security protection group podcast, as well as the security student podcast. This is the first of a joint venture between myself and Travis. We're doing something new, we both have our own podcasts. And we thought it would be great to merge them and talk about a conference that we both attended. The executive security operations conference hosted and brought to us by EP squared the board of executive protection professionals. So Travis, I've got you on here today, I'm gonna skip the portion where I introduce a guest because we're just basically co hosting today. So I'll let you give your background, what you do, and share a little bit about your podcasts. And then we'll jump on into this today. Yeah, and thank you, Ron, again, for having me. And it's so funny, because I think you started your podcast right around the same time that I started mine, which was just about a little over a year ago, maybe close to a year and a half. So it's finally it was really cool to meet you at the conference. And then also finally figure out a way to collaborate and you're also in LA, which I'm pretty much always there also. So a little bit about myself. So Travis law shock here. Today, I work in physical security consulting. So my big projects are focused around doing comprehensive security risk assessments for our clients over at Rosen security. And then before that, I worked for ontic technologies very much focused on supporting high net worth families, family offices, corporate security teams on the investigative side, so one delivering software to them, but then to also doing lots of investigative projects. And then what had led me there was first working in corporate executive protection, which was really one of my first security roles. My real, really my first corporate role, because before that my experience had really been limited to military police in the Marine Corps. So yeah, my experience has really been all over the place. And one of my big passions is I just enjoy learning. And that was really what inspired me to start my podcast, the security student podcast, very simple name. And my podcast is very much focused on interviewing practitioners across the industry working in everything from information security, training, workplace violence prevention, house investigations, so kind of all over the place just to give listeners a feel for what are these people do day to day? What experience? Did they need to get to get into that role? Or what what advice do they have for aspiring practitioners? If I just graduated from high school today, and I want to do investigative research, how might I get started? So really, that was the inspiration for starting the podcast. And it kind of guides the way that I structure interviews, the people that I reach out to do interviews. So that's been just a really awesome, fun project so far. And then hey, it's even led me on here to chat with you, Ron. Absolutely. I do think that's funny. I know, you mentioned that we kind of started downfield with the podcast thing at relatively the same time. And I think that was kind of our first interactions through LinkedIn were like, Hey, you have this thing, I have this thing. And I think it's funny, you know, kind of reflective of the conference, we're going to talk about the diversity within, you know, security operations and just security professionals as a whole.

You know, you listen to our both our podcasts, and they're radically different. And I think it's just it shows the individual, the person, the individual, kind of the corner that we come from. And even though we have interviewed the same people, on occasion, I think you get different conversations, because it's led differently. So I think that's fun. The diversity that we found within the protective security and security management profession, and the professionals that make that up. We've had some great conversations. And again, it's led us kind of to this moment where we kind of merge in the podcasts for for the first time. And, and I think both our listeners are going to get some great takeaways, especially those who didn't have a chance or conflicts or details kind of conflicted with the dates of the conference. They'll have an idea of kind of what we saw what we experienced, what we liked, what we look forward to next year, and we'll be able to give them kind of just that Recap. but also a little bit of a fire to make it to next year's conference. And so with that, I want to give you the opportunity to kind of build this up kind of an introduction, a little bit of the board of executive protection professionals conference that we just attended in Kansas City, because you kind of had a little bit of a part of putting it together, you're very connected and hooked in with the EP squared board of executive protection professionals. So could you go ahead and kind of just give us an introduction of what this conference was why people went to it. And we'll start off with that.

Travis 5:37
Yes. So to start with everyone, the conference we're talking about is the executive security operations conference, which was just held in Kansas City for two days. And it was put on by the board of executive protection professionals, of which I am a member. So so that may color my perspective at the same time, too. So maybe take some of what I say with a grain of salt. So it's put on by our board. And our mission is really just to elevate the training, the quality and the professionalism of the executive protection industry. And a couple of initiatives, there is one first working towards establishing an American National Standards Institute standard for EP. So that's one really big project. And then to its other initiatives, like hosting this conference, bringing together like minded professionals that want to raise standards in our industries that want to raise the quality of the service that we provide our clients. So that was really the big goal with bringing all these people together all of our speakers, all of our attendees, and then all of our awesome sponsors that made it possible to and I should also put it out there too, that this conference would totally not be possible with all the work that James Cameron did the chairman of our board, Jerry, Barney, hello, Joe, Arturo, Kevin, di and so many others, plus our awesome special advisers, some of which had the opportunity to speak at the conference like Mr. Michael Evanoff, who led our keynote. And I think that's kind of like a good example of raising standards in our industry, that we're able to attract such awesome speakers like Mr. Evanoff, who's former assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, so someone who's led protection projects all over the world and high threat environments for people that have very serious threats against them. I think that's kind of like a very good example, for how we're raising the standard and kind of sets the bar high for all the other great speakers that we had in attendance.

Ron 7:36
We've actually had the board of executive protection professionals on this podcast, previous to talk about the conference, right, and this was before it kicked off. And so I think between you who you are a board member, you're on that myself, I'm not, we're kind of the two halves colliding here. And I think that'll give our listeners a bit of perspective, both from somebody who is invested and on the board and really a part of making this, this, this bird fly. And then you have myself who really was clearly a participant, right. And it was kind of nice to show up to a conference for once, and not be asked to do anything more than participate and enjoy. Usually I get roped into either being an MC or being a speaker or something. So it had been a long time since I got to actually enjoy a conference. So I look forward to talking a little bit about that in downfield with you here. But I think you teed it up there, there are a lot of individuals, a lot of sponsors, and a lot of presenters who gave their time and especially the sponsors gave their time and money to make this a really great conference in my perspective. So maybe we, before we get too far down into goals, expectations and all that fun stuff. Maybe we just list off some of the sponsors that made this happen. I know I got a list of them here. I'm sure you do, too. So I'll let you jump in there and, and kind of list off the individuals who made this happen. And then we can talk about maybe some of their importance as well as partners in this.

Travis 9:06
Yeah. So when it comes to sponsors, our title sponsor was Tam see and then right behind them, our credential sponsors, Sam desk are gold sponsor, the North group, silver sponsor, world protection group. We had friends of Chuck, who there's so many

Ron 9:21
told us worldwide protection guide post is a big one re secure 360 protective solutions, security concepts and the Omni protection group Eldorado insurance, which I thought was an interesting one myself, a company that does primarily executive protection or security based insurance. And I know that's a topic that kind of gets thrown by the wayside a little bit, unless you are an owner operator of a security company and then you have to deal with all that fun stuff like I have to on a daily basis, are we insured, are we insured correctly? Are we insured in the states that we want to be working in all that fun stuff? Those guys help with a lot of those things, and the art and well International Group, it was

Travis 10:01
awesome to have their support because without them really no conference as possible. So we're incredibly grateful.

Ron 10:08
Absolutely, absolutely. So we got that I don't want to rattle off all of our presentations or other the speakers that gave their time yet I think we'll kind of embed that as we move on with some of the other questions, but kind of pre conference expectations, maybe we start there. And before we showed up what we thought we were going to get into who we thought we were going to meet kind of those types of things. So did you have any specific goals and expectations that you had set before the conference? And I know you were kind of in the back end kind of putting this thing together? Especially with that role? Was there anything that you were really anticipating or anything that you were really looking forward to?

Travis 10:46
Yeah, as far as goals and expectations, first number one goal was for everything to go as planned, because there's just so much that goes, there's so much involved in the conference, like everyone got their badges in the mail, which I thought were really awesome. So it was everything from getting all the badges created. And all of the literature created getting those sent to all the right people getting all the sponsorship materials, and all the marketing and branding materials to the hotel, getting everything displayed on time. So I'd say first one big goal, just being able to execute our plan, which I think we did really well with the help of so many people volunteering on the board, and then so many others. But really, I think the big goal was just to bring like minded professionals together. And after talking with so many people at well, of course, during the conference, but also talking with them at some of the cocktail hours and some of the mixers, I heard almost nothing but great things about what they had to say from everything of what they thought about getting their badges in the mail, they thought that was pretty awesome. Or being able to get a handout with lists of all the speakers, all the presentation materials. So that's copies of all the slides that everyone saw. So I think those were really my big goals. And then of course, just catching up with so many of my industry peers who I knew were attending. So getting out there early on LinkedIn, and DMing everyone and trying to set up meetings, and then just meeting new people, which I think, which is the great thing about these conferences is that you just run into people that you that otherwise you would just never meet. And it's just fun to share your experiences. And then of course, you always happen to know all the same people so you could tell all of your crazy stories. So yeah, I'd say those are really my my goals and expectations.

Ron 12:32
The logistics that go on in the background that you guys are all a part of, I guess I didn't have to be a part of this round. I think they're they're massive feats that people don't really get to see on the other end. So knowing that, you know, the time investment and the logistical feats that you guys had to go through even just to send stuff out early and send things out at Mass. I think I didn't hear of a single hiccup somebody's not getting their badges somebody's thinking and lost in the mail. Myself, I had a move between the time that I submitted my paperwork to you guys, and, and all this stuff. And my stuff still showed up. So you know, that was my concern is things started to pop up on LinkedIn and people showing, hey, I got my stuff. I'm going Oh, that's right there. We're gonna mail this stuff. I wonder if it will make it to me. And sure enough, it did. So I think it made it a lot easier. The biggest thing, I've been to a lot of conferences over the years, this is the first one where I've just been able to walk right in and go enjoy a networking hour right off the get go. Instead of having to stand in line have to prove that Yeah, I did all this stuff. Nope, I had my credential. I had everything I needed. And it was able to just a breeze right into the conference. It alleviated a lot of headaches that I have had to deal with in the past. Yeah, exactly. Because

Travis 13:45
we're so used to showing up at the conference and then standing in line for 30 minutes. And then they don't have our badge. So they just have to write Travis law shock on like a post it note. But yeah, instead, you showed up, you already had your badge, you walked in, got your drink tickets, and then went and got a cocktail and join everyone else. So I thought it was pretty smooth.

Ron 14:06
Absolutely. And myself having talked with a lot of the guys on the board yourself included ahead of time. You know, my biggest thing was knowing there's gonna be a lot of people that I maybe have connected with on LinkedIn that maybe I've had a couple messages with, or we like each other's posts or commenting on things but have never had an end face or person to person connection. And I thought this was this is great, because you guys started off the conference really making that available from the get go right? You had a networking happy hour, the evening before the the actual conference presentation started. And I think that got everybody off on the right foot. You recognize people from LinkedIn profile pictures or from different things that are written on their credential and you're Hey, I kind of know you but I don't really know you and you take 510 minutes and you get introduced and then you kind of built on that foundation through the rest of the couple days. So I thought that was also the expectation of networking was actually really forefront in importance of this conference, which sometimes it gets thrown by the wayside. And you end up doing things out of the conference in order to make up for that this conference really was centric in the networking aspects. So I didn't feel a need necessarily to skip out on things or have to go talk to people, you know, while they were great presentations going on you built in the networking component, and embedded it into the structure of the conference, which I thought was was unique, but also great, especially for the community that we have, which is essentially networking based at its core, right, the contracting, the sub contracting that goes on in the security world is a little bit more than most other kind of professions. And I think that networking kind of just is part of what we do. So to make that an embedded portion of the conference was really great on your guys's part.

Travis 15:56
And I thought one other aspect that helped to was we put out some early marketing videos, so highlighting who the sponsors are the services that they offer, why they're supporting the conference, and then even interviews with the people who were our scholarship recipients. So our young professional, our veteran, our women insecurity, and I think having done all that in advance, it was much easier to if I see Joe crane from tam see walking around, I, I feel much more comfortable just walking up and going and chatting with him. Or if I see, Michael, who's one of our scholarship recipients, if I see him around, I know, Oh, this guy's a young professional, he probably doesn't know that many people here, like let me introduce him to some of the people that I know here. So I thought that also kind of like facilitated and just made the networking that much easier.

Ron 16:43
Yeah, absolutely. And I think for myself, I knew probably more people than I thought it was going to know. But even with at the amount of people that did not know, far out, you know, outnumbered the people that knew the cool thing about this conference, that hasn't happened at every other conference. And I spent a lot of time in academia, going to academic conferences, and this was very different in that somebody like yourself, I bumped into you early on and immediately said, hey, I want to introduce you to that person. And it's like, you know, all of a sudden, the snowball got bigger and bigger and bigger, as you rolled down the hill, it just it was it was that the entire conference was, hey, I know somebody, I'm going to introduce you to that person, and then you know, somebody's going to do see that person. Next thing, you know, we're all talking in a group. And it was just kind of cool to see, you know, we all have shared backgrounds, we have common interests, and it was very easy for people to, to just kind of spin off that initial conversation. And next thing, you know, I know that there were people that, you know, gain some contracts that, you know, found people that did things that they didn't, that they were able to build off of in a business sense, and really, you know, help give clients a better end product, and service. And that all came up from people being willing to talk to each other. And I think you saw that a lot. I know, I did, just new connections becoming, you know, lasting business connections, but even more importantly, you know, lasting friendships that are built on business. And so I thought that was something pretty cool, that you don't see at every conference.

Travis 18:13
Yeah, I heard that from multiple people. And I experienced that myself, too, which was that I really, compared to other conferences, where maybe you walk in the room, and you feel like, you know, 80% of the people in here, this conference was not like that, like when I think about the proportion of people that I knew, when I walked into the, into the networking mixer, I felt like I probably knew 20% of the people, which is a great thing, because that's going to force me to go meet more people learn about what they do learn about their service offerings, learn about how they might support my company, or how we might support them, or just have fun at the mixer. So I thought that was one great advantage to you. It was just it was kind of a different mix of people, not necessarily who we see when we walk into every conference. So it just forced us to get out there and learn more about others and meet new people.

Ron 19:06
I think that's awesome. And I think it's it's relatively unique when you look at executive protection, and even then the security management. You know, when you get a group of individuals do all the same work, you're sometimes concerned about, well, you know, who's going to steal whose clients, you know, a business development group of people, I'm sure would, would act very differently than the executive protection professionals that we were around at this conference. And I think the community works so hard and you know, for say, a subcontract and portion. And this is something that you guys are kind of working through from the BPP is how do we make that even easier, right? And how do we have a standard that makes it easier to work with subcontractors and go, Hey, you guys operate in the same standard that we do, right? But what I saw there at the conference was the fractured nature of licensing right kind of puts a lot of companies in a corner while we work in this state, or we're sorry, refer to maybe two or three, but our client visits upwards, you know, to 50, and maybe even all 50 states, I mean and beyond internationally, right. And I think there's such a collaborative nature to the executive protection and security management community that you really saw that flourishing. They're like, Hey, I work in state, but my client goes to this state a lot, Oh, you guys are licensed to work in that state. And you held the same standards, you go to the same training providers that we do. And let's exchange cards. And you saw that a lot throughout the conference, not even just at the network. And you just saw that throughout the day of, hey, oh, you do that. And you do it there. I don't do it there. But we have a need. And to me that that was so impactful. And it really speaks volumes to the BPP. Recognizing that and knowing their audience, knowing their own community and knowing their own profession, to say this is what's most important, yes, we have fantastic speakers. But we're gonna build it around continuous networking. And as people get more comfortable throughout the couple of days that we were there, I think you just saw that even from the get go, just the exchange of cards was pretty rapid on my own. And then you just met great people. But with that, and I want to segue to it, it wasn't just networking, you on top of that you had a host of different presentations with an abundance of in very diverse group of speakers. And I'd love to give them some highlights here as well. So I know you talked about Michael Evanoff, who was the day one keynote speaker talking about, you know, executive security, advanced operations in a diplomatic setting with DSS. But we had government individuals, we had private sector guys, we have people who float in between and do contracts for every which way. This wasn't limited just to one aspect of executive protection, it wasn't limited to government side, it wasn't limited to private sector. So the list of speakers that we have here are about as diverse as the executive protection and security management overlay as a whole. So I would love to give the opportunity to talk a little bit more about some of these speakers. I know James Cameron, Scott Lowe, author, who is a Canadian, and I don't hold that against them at all. Great guy and has a very interesting background, and very interesting job now that he talked about, and talking about, you know, vendor perspective, which is something that most of us have to deal with third party companies and vendor selection. And there were a whole host of other ones. And I'll let you rattle some of those off, and we can talk about their presentations as well.

Travis 22:40
Yeah, so you mentioned some good ones. You mentioned Scott Lowe there who talked about really interacting with vendors. And so his perspective is coming from a private family office. And I really loved his presentation. One, he's just an excellent speaker, it felt like he was just talking off the cuff, except he's speaking specifically to his topic and giving us some great info. And for someone like me who interacts with vendors on behalf of a client really almost daily, I was able to take away some really good insights. And it was almost like he provided some cheat codes when it comes to assessing vendors on your client's behalf. So I really did love Scott's presentation. Jason Bertrand also gave another great presentation focused more on the sole practitioner side, although his perspective, too, is coming around working with private family offices. So he had a lot of really interesting insights, I think especially around some of the dynamics of working with the client, and then also working in that ecosystem. So communicating with the executive assistant, with a flight personnel, with people in the organization. So I really liked his perspective on like, those interpersonal interactions and those dynamics in the environment. And then also, like you mentioned, the speakers were really diverse. So there were three different doctors that also gave presentations here as well. So there was Dr. debusk, who talked about medical oversight, which I thought was a really cool conversation, because when you go to these conferences, medical tends to be something that might be talked about, you know, in like an offshoot conversation peripherally. But it tends not to be something that people dive into, maybe they talk about, like medical bags, that sort of thing, but listening to his presentation and getting the perspective of a medical physician who works across the spectrum with people like us an EP or people that are working in the federal and state government. So getting his perspective on, hey, here's what I see some of you doing right? And here's how you can improve it. And here's why you should consider coming to a trained physician for medical direction for whatever it is your corporate program or your family office program. So I really enjoyed his talk to you. And to be frank, he also dumbed it down for a layperson, like he didn't speak in any crazy medical lingo. So it's all All like very practical information. So love Dr. debusk presentation.

Ron 25:04
Yeah, you know, I found his particularly interesting. And I think when you go to a lot of conferences, or if you go to even just, you know, training iterations when the medical is covered, right, it's kind of an overlay. And it's okay. Yeah, personal medical kids tourniquets stop the bleed, you know, and that's kind of the revolving door of training for most individuals, and especially for people who own a company, or are kind of in a VP role, or an operations VP role, and have to consider some of these other things like, Do we need a medical director of part of this company? Or do we need to have one on contract or standby for things such as our credential and our licensure? Right? And what are our executive protection professionals that we have out in the field? What are they doing? Do we know what they're doing? And we do? Do we have a set standard? Is it compatible with the state's board of medical licensure? Are we covered? Are we going to be in some legal hot water if something goes sideways, and one of our guys does something? And does the Good Samaritan laws even apply in this kind of business context? You know, who's covered? Who's not? Do we really know who's covered and who's not? I think he gave a lot of people some good nuggets to then go back with their organizations and kind of be the person that says, Hey, is everything aboveboard? And maybe we double check and ensure that everything's aboveboard, because, as you know, getting slapped with something on the medical side, whether it's a lawsuit or any other number of things, can really be detrimental to a company. And I know we've seen companies fold in the past just because of things they really didn't anticipate, and kind of got blindsided on. And I think this medical component, as he brought up, there are some, you know, landmines and minefields to avoid. And I think he did a good job of highlighting that.

Travis 27:01
Yeah. And I think it kind of boils down to you don't know what you don't know, and go into his presentation and being able to see his perspective and how he outlines concerns that he sees and areas of improvement for all of us as practitioners. I found that to be very insightful. There was also Dr. Mary Beth Genki. So I think her presentation might have been one of the most well received ones based on as soon as she got off stage, you could tell that there's just like a horde of people that are following her around the conference that all want to talk to her. Yes. So her presentation was essentially on, like emotional and physical resilience as a practitioner, and she had a lot of very practical things to talk about everything from considering breathing exercises for de stressing and for encouraging resilience to let's see, what was the other aspect? She talked about

Ron 27:56
all the cognitive behavioral theory in the mindset, that's what

Travis 27:59
it was? Yep. That's what I was looking for. Yeah. And then I think her second big point was around. To put it in layman's terms, it was essentially talking about growth mindset. So how we frame looking at different scenarios in our personal and our work life. For example, if we look at, for example, there's many ways that we can look at something if we encounter a failure, we could look at it as Oh, Travis is a failure. Travis is bad at doing protective advances, or he's bad at writing reports. But really, if we wanted to look at it through a growth mindset, it would be more like, okay, Travis failed in this instance. And here are very tangible steps that he could take to improve in that area. If he works hard, and does this and this and this, and seeks help from Ron and does this, then he can be exceptional, or he can master whatever this concept or whatever this idea is. So those are two of my big takeaways around breathing exercises, and then also approaching things with a growth mindset.

Ron 28:58
Yeah, you know, it's interesting, that growth mindset in particular, I think you've you know, we've all heard the stories of, hey, somebody's on a detail one day, next day, they're often and sometimes there's an explanation as to why and sometimes that's kind of just left by the wayside. And I think, you know, for companies that are employing a lot of staff, and have those options to shuffle guys around to where their skill set is best deployed. I think if you have a company that is focused on that growth mindset, where it's, Hey, okay, instead of he failed, and he's out, okay, something didn't go right today, but we have the ability to build off of that and see where the deficiency was, and maybe redeploy him to a place that's better applicable to his skill set. And I think you're gonna see companies who do that retaining staff a lot more. And also clients that are going to be seeing that a company is putting third people in their best positions and therefore, they're going to be protecting their client. We kind of kind of like a sports team mentality, right? Your best players and your best positions, whether or not somebody likes to be in one spot, if they're not good at that spot, you're going to have some gaps. So I think that's great. And again, to your point, she did have a bunch of people walking around wanting to meet her immediately after she got off stage. And I don't know if that's a normal thing for if that was just kind of this, this group of individuals. But I think what she was talking about resonated with a lot of people. And she started it off, as he kind of mentioned with a breathing exercise, and I looked around the room, I come from a law enforcement background, and nine times out of 10, you're gonna get laughed out of the room when you start with something like that. But it was interesting to watch a hardcore group of individuals who are very good at their jobs. Take a moment, listen to this speaker. And, you know, at least play along for a moment. But I think by the end of it, everybody felt relaxed. Breathing exercise works pretty well. And, and I think it was cool for her to shift kind of the presentation dynamic away from hey, what can we do for the client to if you're not taking care of yourself, and if your team isn't taking care of themselves individually, you can't provide all the services to your client, like it's going to show up in the end result. And I thought that was pretty cool. And we're in an age where, yeah, people talk about mental health, but she gave some actionable steps that actually can help an individual improve themselves. And like I said, that growth growth mindset, and you mentioned that as well. build upon that with some actionable tools. So I thought that was cool, I think it's going to be great for the industry, if we have protectors that just have a really strong mental fortitude that's built on stuff that she talked about in her presentation. And, and for anybody who doesn't know who she is, please take a moment to look her up. She's got an interesting story coming out of you know, Secret Service. And I won't spoil anything that's in her book, but it's all right there. And she now is a practicing psychologist with a great security overlay. So that was probably one of my favorite speakers out of the bunch myself.

Travis 32:03
Yeah, she has an incredible background. So former secret service, and then also a cognitive and forensic psychologist, and you could 100% tell that her topic hit a nerve with everyone. Because yeah, everyone was so energized by that topic. So I will definitely be pestering other board members for why we need someone to speak about a psychology specific topic at next year's conference. So that is for sure. Also, you mentioned to the breathing exercises, it is something where it's kind of like, you know, people might laugh at it or might think that it's kind of like woowoo. But so Rogan just did a podcast with Bossard. And he's like, pretty sure he was the former heavyweight champion in the UFC back in the day, and they spent literally almost 40 minutes talking about breathing exercises. So I think if someone as like masculine as Boston can talk about breathing exercises and sees like incredible potential, and I guess just like physical growth, mental growth from it, I think the rest of us could consider it too.

Ron 33:03
Oh, absolutely. I think that's a really good point to bring up. But the presentation doesn't stop there. I mean, you had Dr. Keaney, which was another keynote for day two. And you talk about an interesting individual, somebody very academic, but also has a great security layer over at US Secret Service, on an analyst perspective. And I thought that was cool, as we've kind of seen executive protection, build and merge and become something more an apparatus as opposed to just this solo practitioner body card esque thing that you saw, kind of, and now you've got this intelligence overlay. And she really kind of talked about some cool facets of that. And was there anything particular for you that you got out of her keynote, because I know it was very different from the day one keynote with Michael Evanoff. Yeah, I

Travis 33:55
really enjoyed hers to and from. So I did kind of like an informal survey when I was at the conference, talking to people hearing about which presentations they enjoyed most. And I think generally, the vast majority of people told me that they enjoyed Dr. Michelle kinis presentation the most. And I really enjoyed hers as well. So hers was around essentially protected intelligence investigations from the perspective of someone with extensive experience in the Secret Service. And what I really enjoyed most about her presentation, she had some really good anecdotes when it came to interacting with stakeholders in her organization. So really just like explaining the intelligence process to stakeholders, and how it works and how it's not, it does not work 100% of the time, we cannot prevent all threats. So hearing how she interacts with stakeholders, and then also really just getting some of her thoughts around prioritizing different aspects of intelligence collection, and then focusing your collection opportunities for your organization specifically, and the threats that you're specifically facing. So it really was Interesting to hear her perspective.

Ron 35:02
Yeah, no, I thought it was particularly interesting that how she was applying all this stuff that she had been using and still currently uses in kind of a government capacity with the US Secret Service, and how applicable it was to the private side. And then for a corporate environment as well did a lot of like the behavioral profiling, behavioral threat assessment, and how many similarities in terms of use cases that they have that the corporate guys have, and that the private sector guys have with a single client. So when when you pair up her presentation, rather, with somebody like Scott Luthor, when you do the side by side and what content was talked about when they started talking about, you know, the threat matrix to their clients, it was very similar, you know, a, there's a lot of synergy that went into what he does in a day with some of the threat profile that his private family office deals with. And then even with hers, Dr. Keaney, with the President and V POTUS the United States, right, and the other overlays of protections that they have within their umbrella, it was very interesting to hear how it's not all that different. At the end of the day.

Travis 36:13
Yeah, their approaches are essentially very similar, except on the public side, you have a lot more resources. But yeah, it's funny, you're using all the same processes, a lot of similar tools when it comes to the corporate side, or the private family office side. And then also just the area of threat assessment, we see so much more research, so many more presentations. So that's something that's just a very fast growing area and security. Like, if you look at the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, their conference has grown like crazy in the last five years

Ron 36:44
as if their numbers, I mean, they were extremely small number of years ago, and I mean, they're still relatively small. But the amount of interest in, you know, behavioral threat assessments, has just grown exponentially. And I think we've seen that with kind of the shift with companies, corporate environments, and even private family offices to kind of see how do we manage threats, right? And how do we do it kind of at a scale that we can and rapid intelligence layer on top of it and wrap, you know, an approach of, you know, left of bang, before we have to deal with incidents? How do we start tracking these things, and getting ahead of the threat before it fully materializes? I think that's been an interesting endeavor for a lot of these especially private sector clients, and teams that have started to use that and embed that in their security operations.

Travis 37:36
Yeah, and I think their approach over a tap is somewhat similar. And that they also developed a certification for their certified threat manager. So it was really cool to see how they can really use their knowledge and their very unique knowledge and experience and develop a specific, a specific curriculum where someone who is I'm not an expert in threat assessment, but I could definitely go to their reading list, check out what they recommend, as far as some of their academic books, some of their research papers, some of the published documents from government agencies, as far as just being able to wrap your head around and simplified the simple simplify like your lens for looking at threat assessment. So yeah, I just really, I really admire the work that they do over there.

Ron 38:25
Absolutely. And one of the other speakers to jumped to the next individual. And it's a topic that I just find fascinating, right? Safe and secure transportation, right trends and considerations that Joseph at Tierra, brought to us. And really, I didn't know exactly kind of what the angles were going to be for this, this presentation. And it was it was extremely interesting at kind of the the technological angle that that he kind of brought this up to, and then I'll let you kind of talk about a little bit of the background. And then I got some items that I want to kind of jump in there and throw at this one. But if you could give just a brief overview of kind of what what he brought to the table, which is entirely different from anything else that we had heard up until that point.

Travis 39:07
Yeah. So Joe's presentation was great as well talking about secure transportation, and some of the topics that that really jumped out to me. So I'm a little bit of a nerd when it comes to digital privacy. And that was one of the things that he talked about when he talked about, you know, if you come if you come to the challenge where a client is, you know, they're uncomfortable with tracking a vehicle or tracking any of their assets, and then you may raise the point that well, with the technology that's already in your, you know, 2023, Cadillac Escalade, platinum, you're actually already being tracked. So I thought, I thought hearing some of these insights, especially around privacy to those those just really jumped out to me. How about you, Ron, what jumped out for you for that presentation?

Ron 39:51
Yeah, I think the privacy concerns again, was first and foremost, and we've run into the client issues of why I don't I don't feel comfortable interact well, do you realize the footprint that you're already, you know, producing? And what's already out there? What can be even more importantly, well, it can be scraped off of open source or out in the web. And I think he highlighted a lot of the the security vulnerabilities that even I think a lot of protectors kind of aren't aware of, because it's not necessarily their job is, in some cases, the body man to do a lot of that kind of threat protection work. And in terms of what is my client's footprint? I think we kind of think of that as more of an analytical kind of an analyst role. And then you're showing up on day one, okay? What's the history of this vehicle? You know, even simple things like, Hey, you're gonna hook up your phone to this rental, right? Have you thought about the information that now you're embedding in there, and now, everything that you have is being tracked into that and the footprint that you're leaving? When you return that vehicle? I know, it's very popular to use, for the most part, you know, not a lot of in house vehicles. But even if you have an in house fleet, what kind of maintenance and management are you doing to secure some of those vulnerabilities? I think there's a lot like you said, you're kind of you nerd out in this, this kind of area, digital privacy. I know it's becoming a more popular topic. But I think the actual application of limiting a protect ease and even protective teams, digital footprint is far behind the ball. And then you start having the cascading effects of well, there's even privacy concerns within these vehicles. And like you said, clients don't like to be tracked, well, they're giving out a larger footprint than I think they realized. And if anything, what I learned about that presentation is the need for continuous communication between client and protective team, because the the knowledge gap is definitely going to be there. And it's easier to explain something to somebody as to why than just to expect them to accept, you know, your end result or your decision. And at the end of the day, we are, you know, in a service capacity for a client, and they, for the most part, have a lot of end result decision making power. And you also have a lot of sway in that decision making capability, if you know how to frame and what kind of conversations to have with your clients. So I thought in insecure transportation in this context, I think he did a really good job of equipping teams with a base knowledge, at least two to learn more about, and topics to bring up with, especially if they have an in house client or a long term client to bring these things up. And I think you will get a lot of you will build your credibility with your client with these conversations. So I think all he did there was was greater support teams, in bringing up conversations like, you know, unintended consequences that you may be encountering, based on you know, behaviors, whether it's the security team or the client, and building up a greater security presents, and mitigating a lot of the threats that could be encountering through just greater awareness.

Travis 43:08
Yeah, and secure transportation is such a staple. It's almost like you can't have an EP conference without touching on secure transportation, threat assessment investigations. And you could really tell at the at the mixer, towards the end of the day, lots of people were going up to Joe, because you could tell everyone had questions about their specific situation and the topics that he was talking about. And then also, we some of the speakers touched on topics that were like a little more fringe more on the innovation side. So Kent Moyer had a really awesome presentation when it came to demonstrating how he's using drones and executive protection. So in his operation out in Beverly Hills, he was able to give us a ton of examples for how he's using drones, everything from surveillance to doing site assessments, to just maintaining a perimeter for security awareness. And then also he pretty much gave everyone in the audience a playbook to develop their own in house drone program. So he had recommendations for what trainings to go to what books to read what models you want to consider what functionality you should be looking for in a drone. Maybe considerations for us manufactured drones versus foreign manufactured drones. There's just so much really interesting content there. Yeah, I just loved his presentation. It really makes me think I need to find more ways to incorporate technology, whether that's drones, whether it's GoPros into just everyday work that I do on the assessment side.

Ron 44:45
You know what I think the coolest thing about his presentation was, if there was an individual at this conference, who had every reason to hide his special sauce of how he makes his team work and how he leverages a drone security program. He would have been the guy that would I mean, here was an individual who has built a successful drone operations team within his, you know, security apparatus. And here he has given away all the secret sauce. He's given you the exact step by step recipe, how you build your drone team, the licensing, the FAA requirements, even down to the timeframe that it took him to bring his guys on online and operational with their drone program. If there was an individual who had every right to hide all that information, it would have been him. But here he was out freely giving it away to a group of individuals that not everybody's worked with, not everybody he knows. But he felt so compelled that the information needed to be shared with this community. So other teams could build their own in house team or build a team that can help contract with other teams. I just thought that was radically cool. And like you said, everything you brought in there, he went into depth on a lot of things. And then, you know, he was so open about, well, if you run into things just hit me up, you know, I mean, it's like one of those things where you don't see that a lot. People giving away information. And you really saw that with everybody that was presenting was a exchange of information. And even offline afterwards, outside of the presentation was, hey, if you have questions, contact me. And there was such a willingness to build up the standard through sharing information, that it's just something that's so unique. I'm used to people kind of holding things close to their chests and not wanting to share it. And this was totally the opposite.

Travis 46:31
Yeah, I think I think we could say that about really all the speakers. So all of them were super approachable from Kent Moyer. I mean, Ivan got to chat briefly with Mr. Michael Evanoff. How often do you get the opportunity to talk to someone with such a wealth of experience?

Ron 46:47
Isn't that the case? At least for me, that's pretty rare. Exactly. And and I think one of the other presentations that we listened to on that second day was Chris Browning, the TSE EMS. And he's from REI, they are pretty unique. Because they're a training provider. They don't do any services, they don't contract anything out their team is strictly to build up tscm technical security countermeasure teams throughout the country. And I mean, it's an organization all our guys are trained at, and they are just such a resource, but to have them there and to be talking about such a hot topic. But in a way that, you know, in last second, they kind of switched around what they're going to talk about, because again, listening to the audience, all through that conference, people were coming up with them talking about air intakes. And they did an off the cuff presentation on air tags and technical threats. And I mean, he changed up most of that PowerPoint presentation, based on the conversations he had in these networking groups ahead of time, the day and a half before. So I thought that was pretty cool to see something kind of just molded by the conversations and by the conference to deliver something so specific to the audience that they were asking for.

Travis 48:07
Yeah. Chris Browning's presentation was great. And the great thing about it was that it was just so practical and applicable, like air tags is something we interact with every single day. It wasn't just air tags. He talked about tiles and like other similar devices. And yeah, these things are a legitimate threat. Like you could read articles in the news every day about people using different devices, pretty much anything connected to Apple for eavesdropping or for tracking like an inappropriate pursuer. Yeah, so it was just very cool that he touched on a topic that is very practical, that we see every day that we're always reading news articles about and he was able to show really the science and the technology that they use when it comes to analyzing them and discovering if this is something that's around us. So I just found it to be very fascinating. And then he also talked to also about how they have a number of free classes and presentations on their website. And for someone like me who's never had the pleasure of taking one of their courses. That's just another cool opportunity to where I could just go home and share some of these free trainings with some of my peers that didn't get to attend the conference or that might not have the cash that they need to attend an REI session this year.

Ron 49:27
Their training is top notch, pretty much everybody uses it. Three letter agencies, companies, organizations in house and contract and a lot of security teams that have tscm as a part of their profile. There was an individual that asked a question, basically, and I didn't get a chance to talk to him directly. So hopefully he's listening today. But he basically asked, you know, they have all these different levels of training. And he was curious, he has an in house team and at what level, could they start doing sweeps and be effective. And, you know, they're gonna have a level one core concepts. And I went through that one. And the reason why I went through that was specifically because we have a team of tscm technicians that go out and provide that service to a group of clients and will subcontract for security teams and whatnot. I've taken that level one class, and it was so cool. But also, could I find the needle in a haystack? Absolutely. Could I do it consistently and to something that I would feel comfortable charging a client to? Absolutely not. And I'm thankful that I have a bunch of guys who have gone through all the other levels of training that Rei provides, and also have real world experience. So I know, he was asking, at what point can my team be basically operational. And there are some people that will try to go through a level one class and give that service out there. And I will tell you, from my experience, I've gone through that class, and I'm the last person that I would trust to, to give a full tscm with the confidence of charging a client and that I've protected their environment. These guys that are out there, have been doing it for a long time. And so look for that. Or if you have an in house team, let them have the journey of learning this craft, because it is very technical, and go through, send them through, take the time and money to put them through an entire course. And I think Chris kind of was bringing that up as well. But for that individual, I didn't have a chance to catch at the end of the conference. You know, and anybody else who was looking at TSM, because it is becoming the hot topic, give yourself or your team time to go down time to enjoy the journey of learning that craft because it does take time. And if you speed through it, your clients or your in house clients are gonna suffer?

Travis 51:55
Yeah, exactly. And that's really one of those topics where there's so much continual training that you have to do throughout the year. Otherwise, you're just never going to have the level of proficiency that you need to exactly like you mentioned, like to be able to charge a client and have confidence that if there is some kind of listening device in here, or some kind of device that you're going to be able to detect it. I agree 100%.

Ron 52:20
With that. Chris gave a presentation. That was such a hot topic. But I think the cool thing is, as we've listed all these presentations, as presenters, they were also diverse, right? Nobody was talking about the same topics over and over again. And I think that's a testament to just the wide scope of executive protection, protective security, security management is that there's just so much out there that it's hard to be that guy at everything. And so again, back to the reason for the conference was the ability to network, right. And again, clients are about as varied as the services that we provide. So you may have a team that's very good at providing to a certain type of client, but in a different context, not so good. The ability to find and seek out other subcontractors that work really well, in certain context. I think that's what was really cool about this conference was that you could find people who are really good at something, and learn how to work with them, instead of compete against them. And I think that's unique to our community.

Travis 53:30
Yeah, absolutely. Because like, for people like us working in this industry, there's so many different diverse aspects that we can't all possibly be experts at. I can't be an expert at doing business due diligence investigations. But then also be you know, the leading expert when it comes to threat assessment, and also be an excellent security driver. There's so many different like diverse, specialized areas where you really can't be an expert at everything. And then especially think about the role that travel plays where clients are flying all over their state all over the US all over internationally. And there's absolutely no way where especially service providers that are smaller, there's absolutely no way you're going to be able to provide support for a hostile termination in Florida when your company is based in LA and that's an area where you don't normally work in. So really developing those relationships is everything when it comes to delivering service to your client the right way. And the quick way with vetted people that you trust, which just gets back to you that relationship building and the networking events at the conference.

Ron 54:36
Absolutely. You bring up a good point about the travel right. We have a strong bench in Texas, but I don't know anything about Atlanta, Georgia, right. If I have a client going to Atlanta, Georgia, I'm going to want a team with you know, local knowledge that knows those streets that knows how to get around safely and efficiently for my client, and likewise, I mean if there's teams traveling to Texas, yes We have, you know, the local area knowledge. And I think that was the cool part, you had a lot of people that had companies all over the United States. And I think if he went to this conference, and he left, I think that's probably the best strength you have is now I've got people everywhere, and that I've met in person that have a shared standard and support an organization like this in creating kind of the umbrella, the National umbrella of standards for this industry, which to date, there isn't one in existence. And whether it turns out to be an actual national standard, or something or more, here are the vetted companies that come through and are held to our organizational standard. I think that's going to play huge in, in this industry.

Travis 55:47
Right, yeah. And there are also some very niche vendors and practitioners there as well. So I've met one practitioner, right here in California, who has about 2030 years experience with drones. So everything on, I guess, the more proactive side, where they're using drones to do surveys, where they're using it to support security operations and corporate clients, and then also working on like the drone detection and counter drone side. So just also being able to develop some of these connections for incredibly niche areas, those are going to be so useful. So that was one business card I definitely saved.

Ron 56:26
Awesome, awesome. Now, were there any tips or anything that you got throughout the week having been at this conference, that for those who missed out, but are looking to go next year could apply? As they attend this conference?

Travis 56:40
Yeah, I think really, if you want to be able to get the most out of the conference, I think it's great if you could show up a day early just to give you some extra time to network with people to get everything set up to get your suit prepped to also have extra time to DM all your friends on LinkedIn that you people that you want to get out there and contact or DM, you know, whoever your prospects are, maybe there's people that you have open business opportunities with or that there's leads you're trying to generate. So definitely, I would ideally like to get there a day early, definitely ahead of time a week or two weeks in advance, start reaching out to those contacts that you want to meet there. You can set up your lunches, your dinners, maybe you even sponsor like a special event in one of the evenings. Other than those, I'd say also, when you're at the when you're at the conference itself, just try to get out of your comfort zone, like some of us, myself, I feel like I'm probably one of the most introverted people that I know. But still, if you just make an effort to get out of your comfort zone, go introduce yourself to someone you don't even know. Or maybe someone that you recognize, because you saw their you saw an interview that they did, or you saw an article that they published. So I think the other big element is really just seeking to get out of your comfort zone and just get out there and talk to more people than you otherwise really would.

Ron 58:01
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. It really is about making that connection with people. And you're not going to be able to do that if you're the wallflower over in the corner, and I get that I mean, I can be a pretty extroverted guy, but also in certain settings. I can just, I like to watch the room. Right? I think that's pretty natural for most of us in this in this space. But really, you just had a room of protection professionals that wanted to meet other people. And I think, you know, and you can speak to it as well, the networking hours. I mean, everybody was not really even I don't want to say work in the room, because it was more collaborative efforts of I just want to get to know everybody here and and see what they do. It wasn't so much as I want to sell you something or I want to service this for you is, Hey, man, what do you do? This is what I do. And there was just so many points of mutual connection that I think people were just enjoying, sharing stories, sharing knowledge, and that was the big thing. And of course, you know, the downstream effects of that is somebody might call you and a couple of weeks, couple months, a year or two and say hey, man, remember that conversation and you said you did X, Y or Z? I need that now. You know, and that's what I enjoyed about this conference is there wasn't like a huge, here's my service, you got to use me type of thing it was it was just like, hey, let's kind of get to know each other and see what each other do that that was kind of nice.

Travis 59:29
Yeah. And you never really know where any of those conversations are going to lead. For example, I was talking, I met one person, and he was telling me oh, yeah, my organization's working on procuring this one software technology. Have you ever heard of it? And I was like, Yeah, I've been working. I was working there the last four years. What do you want to know about it? Or like, when I was in the hotel bar after one of the ends of the nights, someone walked up to me and introduce themselves in the like, Hey, my friend over at x organization said I need to come talk to you And it's funny after I started chatting with her for a while, it turns out she knew, like many of the same people that I've worked super closely with over the last few years. So it's just very cool to, to meet these people that you otherwise would never meet, and that you have so much in common with. So I, I just really enjoyed that aspect.

Ron 1:00:18
You know, to your point, I thought what was really interesting was the amount of people that I met. That said, hey, you know what? Because again, how many people do we have at this conference? About probably 250? Maybe a little bit more or less? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So right around that number, the amount of people that I met in person that said, hey, there's somebody who's not here that you need to talk to. And I mean, that was that happened with you, that happened with several other people. And it was like, it was a lot of like, second hand connections, through just having conversations with people. And they were like, oh, man, there's this person, I know, they have this need, you need to talk to them. And I mean, my first couple of days coming back home, were just follow up connections with people like that. And I thought that was kind of the cool part, right? It was just like this community of people who all knew a larger community of people outside of those who were able to attend, and the willingness to say, Hey, I'm going to connect you with somebody, because there's a need here, I have no personal incentive on making this connection, other than the fact that I've met you in person now. And we're here at this, you know, this conference where this is what we're here for, to make connections.

Travis 1:01:28
Yeah. And I think that just speaks to the environment that the board was trying to create in creating the conference. So everything from the speakers who were very approachable, who were also there at all the mixers that you could walk up to, and really ask any question about a situation you've encountered or get their advice. And then also, yeah, just the average attendees, like us, who can just share experiences, you could share some of our vendors that we find to be useful across the nation, or even just make introductions. So really not being competitive, just just looking to collaborate and help each other.

Ron 1:02:03
Absolutely. And I think that speaks volumes to kind of who is at the conference, right? I mean, even younger companies and individuals who are new in the profession, they approached it as I'm not here to compete with anybody, right? Everybody was very comfortable in their own skin at their own company at what they're doing. It wasn't Hey, look at me. And the best out there was, hey, what are you doing? And what are some things that, you know, I'm doing differently? And how can we figure out, you know, collaboratively? Again, based on, we're trying to develop a standard, right, so everybody had a shared interest on kind of seeing how each other work. And everybody wanted to be there to make things better the industry as a whole, not them as individuals, not their company, on top of other companies, but to come together and collaboratively do something that's best for the industry. I thought that was very cool.

Travis 1:02:55
Yeah, I feel like throughout the entire conference, I don't think I had one negative interaction with any of the attendees with any of the speakers. Yeah, or even with any of the board members, when we're up until one or 2am, setting up all the tables.

Ron 1:03:10
You guys had a whole nother list of to do lists, than then the rest of us that were just there to enjoy the conference. But on that note, you know, to wrap it up. What do you think, is important for people to know about next conference, or if they released anything, you're on the board? What kind of is timeframe for people that are going shoot? I missed this one. But I really want to make the next one. What are some things I can look out for?

Travis 1:03:38
So I can't speak to a specific timeframe. But I can tell you, we're definitely looking to have something very similar next year, around the same time, same caliber of speakers. And actually, we have a meeting this weekend, to go over and after action and really kind of analyze, hey, what went really well, what are areas where we can improve. And that was actually a topic of, really, at the end of every night when all the board members were together. That's exactly what we were talking about. Really like areas of improvement, everything from pre conference materials, to the format of the conference, the format of the presentations, the mixers themselves. So I really can't speak too much of the details of what will take place at the next conference. But really, it can only get better. And for the most part, I heard almost nothing but good things about the conference. And we even got a lot of really good feedback for small tweaks that we can make to improve the experience for attendees for sponsors for the speakers themselves. So while I can't give you a ton of details about the what the next conference will hold, I could definitely tell you it'll be even better than this one. And we had already gotten some awesome some awesome feedback about this one, but as far as following the conference, I would say definitely follow the website. So EP dashboard.com O R G, so you can follow everything there, you could also, we're very easy to follow on LinkedIn. So if you go to the board of executive protection professionals on LinkedIn, you can find our LinkedIn page, follow the page itself. And then also, you can follow any of the board members like myself, who will be actively posting about it. So you'll definitely hear about an agenda ahead of time dates ahead of time. And then hopefully, we can get some early, hopefully, we're gonna get put out like a deal to sign up early and get a discount on tickets for the upcoming year. So definitely look out for those so that you could learn about speakers ahead of time, the location, I really enjoyed Kansas City, kind of hope we go back and that hotel was great. Also,

Ron 1:05:41
I know that there were a lot of people who were hoping that this would be at a Vegas or Nashville or in Orlando, where there was a lot of other side attractions. And just as somebody who attends a lot of conferences, and you end up in empty ballrooms and empty spaces, because a lot of people are ditching to go do these cool things they otherwise wouldn't. I really thought that was that said a lot about the BPP. And where their heads were at, in terms of conference location, right? Not to say that Kansas City is a dead city by any means. There's a lot of cool stuff that goes on there. And I, I opted not to stay at the conference, hotel. Just because that's kind of what I do. I always kind of stay off conference. And that allows me because I'm usually pretty embedded in what's going on in the conferences, it gives me that space to go walk or take an Uber home or, you know, just kind of separate myself at night. And the city has some cool things nice. But again, I think you guys picked a conference location that benefited the conference attendees in really focusing on the conference itself. There were not a lot of distractions, aside from a Joel Nichols conference that happened for the hot country nights that I stumbled into on the way home. So you know, but largely, it was all focused around the conference. And I don't think that you would have that if you went to a Vegas we went to in Orlando or New York or somewhere with a lot of other distractions. And I think you saw that in the dedication of the attendees, everybody was there for every single speaker, every single networking event people were there for. And so I thought that was pretty cool. I think if you guys want to take any survey from myself, I'd say go back to Kansas City, there's a lot of benefit. Easy travel is in the middle for everybody. So that's my two cents on location. And I think you guys nailed it, that from a lot of people. They all were saying the same thing.

Travis 1:07:36
Yeah. And I think and that was a rationale. Exactly. Because, like I'm even from Vegas. But do I get the most out of a conference when it takes place in Vegas, there's just so many distractions. There's distractions everywhere, there's casinos, there's entertainment, there's music, there's everything. So I think being in a place with a little less distractions, just encourages people to stay more on task just to get out there and network more with their peers, not necessarily stay out until 6am, like an hour before breakfast is being served at the conference. So I do think it's also it's perfect because it's in the center of the country. So yes, if you're in California, you still have to stop to fly almost the same amount as anyone else on the east coast. So I think it's fair to attendees where everyone has to travel to get there. So everyone has skin in the game, there's less distractions. And then Kansas City is just a cool town in general. So around the hotel, you had tons of restaurants, tons of bars, plenty of like convenience stores, if you need anything else, you really had everything that you needed within walking distance. And then also there's like other bigger downtown areas with plenty of entertainment and restaurants as well. And I think if we do go back to Kansas City, that might be a really good sponsorship opportunity as far as hosting networking events down there as well. So I think, yeah, Kansas City has my vote.

Ron 1:09:06
Yeah, definitely as mine too. And and I look forward to see you kind of what you guys put together for the next year. Obviously, there are more people that are interested in that than just myself. And I think you're gonna have to raise that, that maximum attendance from 300 to you know, maybe five or six for next year because I think a lot of people are hearing about it. The information is coming out now. And and I look forward to seeing kind of how you guys package your number two, because the inaugural year was a hit. I mean, I think you guys knocked it out of the park. Of course, there's always small tweaks, but you know, none of them impacted the actual conference. And I mean, things flowed smoothly. So I think you guys did a wonderful job with

Travis 1:09:46
that. Yeah. And really, we're just getting started. I think as far as planning for the conference, I think we are planning for roughly six months and typically for a conference like this, you want to plan close to a year if you can. So really this conference This can only get better, we can only get high quality speakers, high quality attendees, and then also even better quality learning materials for all the attendees. So for every attendee that showed up, you got a copy of the presentations, the speaker bios, any branded literature from our sponsors. So I think really, now that we set the bar, we can only improve from there. So yeah, I'm absolutely looking forward to next year. And hopefully, I could see more of the listeners that are listening today as well.

Ron 1:10:30
Absolutely. And one of the guidelines for the packet I've actually got right in front of me was setting a new standard. And I think you guys did that even with just the conference. And I look forward to seeing what what the new new standard is for the conference next year. And I have no doubt that it's going to be worthwhile attending. And I would encourage both of our listening groups, whether you're a jspg, podcast listeners, security student podcast listener, that you jump in, and, and take the time to go and experience this conference. And then but also, take a look at the board of executive protection professionals and see what they're doing in the space of executive protection to raise the standard. And if you feel that you can contribute to that go ahead, reach out to Travis or myself, and I'll connect you directly with either Travis or the board members. And Travis, maybe we can wrap up with you talking a little bit about what you guys are doing. And I know they talked about at the conference, still taking on individuals for some of the working groups as you work to set this national standard.

Travis 1:11:34
Yes. So currently, right now we have a working group and a technical committee working together made up of about really close to 200 people. And so they do all the hard work when it comes to developing the standard itself and then revising it continually within a cycle. So currently, that is taking place right now. And I can't really speak to when the standard will be complete, because it's kind of a continual process for now. So I think later on in the year, we'll have a better idea for for really like the date that we might be aiming for when it comes to finishing the standard. But also for people out there who are interested in contributing on the working group, maybe they have specialized knowledge in one area, maybe they're have specialized knowledge when it comes to advances or tscm, or vehicle operations, or any number of these areas, they can all go to the Board's website, and they can fill out a form there. And they can join the working group from there if they want, if they're really interested in contributing. So yeah, if anyone out there is really passionate about executive protection and helping us develop the standard, we absolutely want you to come to our website, fill out the form or reach out to me or any of the other board members and we could help that process along. The more people we could get involved, the better.

Ron 1:12:55
That's awesome. And in the nature of how we enter podcasts. How can people find you travel?

Travis 1:13:00
So I am easiest to find on LinkedIn. If you type in Travis law shock, guess what, there's only one of me. So I will be the first one to pop up. So I'm easy to find on LinkedIn. I'm consistently posting stuff there. Also, you could follow the podcast at the security student.com. Or if you just Google the security student podcast, you will find it there as well. I think up to about 23 or so episodes, I think this would be number 24. So yeah, check out my podcast. If you want to give me feedback, shoot me a DM or leave feedback on Apple podcasts. I'm always interested in proving

Ron 1:13:38
awesome. And for everybody, you can find me same thing, Ronald J over on LinkedIn. And you can find our our podcast page jspg global security protection group podcast, it's on our LinkedIn, a company page is also on LinkedIn. And then much like Travis can find us on Apple podcast, Spotify, really wherever you listen to your podcasts. And we look forward to hearing from you guys. And really, I mean, get out there, share this content, share your own experience from the conference as well, if you were an attendee, we're starting to see them trickle in there on social media. And it's very interesting to see kind of what other people are thinking about this as well.

Travis 1:14:18
And, Ron, I really appreciate your support, because really, the conference is not possible without professionals like you attending and showing up and really just being just being part of the conference being helpful to the other attendees, connecting them with others participating in the conference itself. So thank you for your support. It's really not possible without attendees like you without our sponsors, without our board members and speakers. So thank you very much for your support.

Ron 1:14:46
I appreciate that. And I gotta tell you, it was nice to just attend a conference. Once I think I finally broke my streak of being sucked into speaking or emceeing and you guys might get me to do that next year, but it was very Nice to be able to just kind of sit in and experience it, and especially this inaugural conference, I'm glad and made the time and effort to go do that. So you guys did a great job. Appreciate you and your time coming on here today. And for all those listening, we appreciate you guys tuning in to both the global security protection group and Travis's security student podcast, and we look forward to having you as listeners on more of

Travis 1:15:25
our episodes. Thanks, Ron. And thanks, everyone for listening. All right, have a good day

Ron 1:15:29
and everybody be safe.

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