Christine Murphy Peck, CAE, Chief Learning Officer, ASIS International previews GSX 2026, taking place 14-16 September at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia.
What’s new for this year’s event?
What attendees will find compelling this year is how the exhibit hall has been transformed into a learning environment in its own right.
The Threat Intelligence Zone in particular is something attendees will undoubtedly pay close attention to as actionable intelligence is no longer a nice-to-have in the security profession – it is operationally essential.
Having dedicated programming that connects intelligence practice to decision-making is exactly what practitioners need.
The X Stage brings innovation directly to the floor, which is a format for busy professionals who want exposure to solutions without committing to a full session.
Three new Interactive Workshops are built for hands-on engagement, including a Hands-On LLM Security Lab on building threat intelligence and malware analysis workflows, addressing a skills gap teams are scrambling to fill.
We’ve chosen the Georgia Aquarium as the setting for ASIS Celebrates! – a fitting backdrop for an evening built to inspire. With more than 10 million gallons of fresh and marine water and hundreds of species on display, its centrepiece is the Ocean Voyager Gallery.
For more than two decades, this aquarium has welcomed over 50 million visitors worldwide, and we’re excited to bring that same wonder to GSX attendees for a night to remember.
What are the main topics being discussed at this year’s event?
There are nine tracks including: Executive Protection; Governance; Information Security; Intelligence; Investigations; Organizational Resilience; Site Security; Supply Chain Security and Personnel Security, which reflect key issues facing the profession right now.
These disciplines do not operate in isolation: EP professionals need to understand threat intelligence; corporate site security directors need to think about supply chain vulnerabilities; investigators need to understand information security.
GSX is one of the few places where you can move between those worlds each day and start connecting dots that your day-to-day work does not always give you the space to connect.
That cross-disciplinary exposure is something attendees have come to appreciate.
Another great example of this will be on full display in the exhibit hall, where we’ve assembled experts to take on issues challenging the profession, like school security and our Career HQ sessions.
GSX sessions are built to give attendees at every career stage – from those just entering the field to those stepping into executive roles – practical guidance on building skills, advancing their careers and leading effectively within organisations.
Why were the Keynote Presenters chosen and what are the key themes they will be exploring?
Each year, ASIS International conducts a comprehensive assessment of the security landscape, identifying the most pressing challenges and issues facing global security professionals and strategically selecting Keynote Presenters best positioned to deliver the insights, expertise and perspectives that will help drive action in various security settings around the world.
The Keynote line-up this year is exceptionally well-curated for this moment in the profession.
Peter H. Diamandis, MD, Founder, Executive Chairman, XPRIZE Foundation and Executive Founder and Director, Singularity University, opens the event with a lens on exponential technology and what it means for security; if you work in this field and are not thinking seriously about how emerging technologies are reshaping both the threat landscape and our response to it, you are already behind.
Cassie Kozyrkov, CEO, Kozyr; Fmr. Chief Decision Scientist, Google brings something I think is genuinely rare to this year’s stage, which is the ability to make AI and data-driven decision-making accessible and actionable for practitioners who are not data scientists.
That translation matters enormously right now.
Travis Mills, Retired US Army Staff Sergeant will close out GSX on Wednesday, which is Military and Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.
His story, surviving as one of only five quadruple amputees from wounds sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan, is remarkable, but what will resonate most for security professionals specifically is the leadership dimension.
Security professionals operate in environments where things go wrong, where conditions change without warning and where you must find a way forward.
His lessons on resilience and adaptability under extreme adversity speak to that reality.
Is there something that you are personally excited about?
The EP and intelligence tracks are examples of how GSX responds to current trends and needs within the industry.
The threat environment for high-profile individuals has shifted in ways that demand the profession to take a look at how it operates in this new era.
The conversation has transformed into an intersection of public perception and personal safety. GSX is where those conversations are happening at the highest level, among practitioners who are at the forefront of the industry.
Additionally, we have a special game-changer session in store this year: ‘The Next Generation of Leadership: What Tomorrow’s Security Leaders Need to Know’.
This session examines key findings from The Clarity Factory’s annual CSO Survey, providing attendees with benchmarking data and insights from senior security executives on the challenges and opportunities shaping today’s corporate security landscape.
Through expert discussion and real-world perspectives, participants will learn how to leverage data to strengthen security programs, optimise resources, support organisational resilience and prepare for the next generation of security leadership.
In planning GSX, we’re also mindful that not everyone can join us in person, for reasons that vary widely, and we’ve responded by strengthening our digital offering for remote attendees.
Nearly 40 livestream sessions are available across three days, plus extended access to those sessions through the end of the year.
Once again, this year, we will offer real-time language translation for our digital sessions and sessions on the show floor.
What do you hope the key takeaways will be for attendees at GSX 2026?
It is our hope that our in-person and digital attendees leave this year’s GSX with a clearer picture of the threats they will be facing in the next 12-24 months, and a stronger sense of how to respond to them along with deeper connection with peers who can assist them in future endeavours.
Beyond the tactical and strategic mindset, I hope they leave being reminded of why this work matters and a more profound sense of what it means to be a leader within the security profession, their organisations and the communities they serve – bringing the ASIS vision to life.
Security professionals carry an enormous responsibility, for the safety of people, the continuity of business operations and, in many cases, the stability of communities in time of enormous upheaval, civil unrest and uncertainty. GSX has a way of reconnecting security leaders to that sense of purpose.
The education is strong, the exhibit hall is worth the trip on its own and the networking pays off long after the show ends. Ask anyone who has been to GSX what they walk away with, and it does not matter if they just entered the security profession, are hitting their stride mid-career or have been doing this for twenty-plus years.
They come back to the same thing – the ability to go home and do their job better. That, more than anything else, is what makes it worth the trip every year.
Chief Learning Officer, ASIS International