New for GSX 2026: Ask GSX — your AI assistant for recommendations on sessions, exhibitors, and everything on the show floor.
You must be registered and logged into My Show Planner to save recommendations.

ASIS has designated MCI USA as the only housing provider for GSX 2026. There are fraudulent companies that will try to present themselves as official partners of ASIS and offer you a potential room that might not be guaranteed or available. Should you be contacted by someone other than MCI USA or ASIS, please let us know.

20 - 22 September 2027
ORLANDO, FLORIDA, USA

Innovation Through Automation

By Steven Reinharz and Mark Folmer, CPP

Innovation should be viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs.

Put simply, innovators win. Innovators provide superior solutions at greater value than their competitors, and they manage an organization’s risk better. On both the security officer side and the integration side of the security service industry, there are many pain points, everything from pricing and compliance stress to staff engagement headaches and low perceived added value. To innovators, pain points are opportunities.

The best way to innovate in the sector is by asking 3 questions as you consider the assets that are being protected.

  1. Can the function be automated? Evaluate if a standalone device could do the initial assessment and sort between issues and nonissues?
  2. Can it be remote? Be sure to challenge yourself when answering this question! If we learned anything from the current pandemic, with predetermined workflows, much triage can be based offsite.
  3. What else can the service do and how should it get done? Consider the delivery of the service, making it nonconfrontational, unbiased, and scalable.

Try something new. You may be able to provide superior value to your organisation. Automation will put your security team on the map, optimize your resource deployment and do so efficiently.

Steven Reinharz is the founder and CEO of Robotic Assistance Devices, and Mark Folmer, CPP, is vice president, security and industry. Folmer will be leading a GSX+ session on Tuesday, 22 September on How Top Technologies that Enabled Digital Transformation Affect Security.