Infusion of youth making the industry better

One thing we can all agree on is the importance of attracting young and diverse talent to the security industry, a mission we here at Security Systems News take very seriously. Our “40 under 40” award program (formerly "20 under 40"), which is going on now for more than a decade, has allowed us to shine a light on, and help propel forward, the next generation of security industry leaders. There is nothing more gratifying than to see the dozens and dozens of past 40 under 40 winners go on to even greater things.

The most recent example was seeing Brian Duffy named President of Per Mar Security Services. And there are so many stories like Brian’s on the integrator side, as well as within the end user category, and I am sure the same will be true for the newly added (last year) consultant category.

And it is heartwarming to see industry associations doing their part to inspire and attract young talent to the industry. The Security Industry Association’s (SIA’s) RISE program, for example, is doing just that, and recently announced the winners of their latest round of scholarships. We applaud SIA for their efforts!

SSN is also proud to have SIA sponsoring, for the second year, our “40 under 40” Virtual Award Reception on Feb. 24, at 4:15 p.m. ET, as part of our SecurityNext Virtual conference, held over two afternoons, Feb. 24-25. This will be the first year doing the awards virtually, and I am excited to see so many of our winners together and honor them the best we can! Plus, we will also be honoring our second annual Security Legend Award winner Jim Coleman.

It really is nice to see many past 40 under 40 winners speaking at SecurityNext this year and in past years, as well as participating in the SIA RISE program and speaking at SIA’s AcceleRISE conference, which is dedicated exclusively for developing and supporting the RISE community of young professionals. SIA also just launched a new mentorship program, another great program to help propel young careers forward.  

One of the ways that we here at SSN are growing our "40 under 40" program is by running features of the 2020 honorees all year long, in every issue, allowing us to shine a bigger and brighter light on them all year long. Please check out their profiles from the January and February issues, and please check out the “40 under 40” tab on the website, as we will be adding their features there as well all year long.

And don’t forget to nominate yourself, or one of your peers, for our 2021 “40 under 40” award, which we will be opening nominations for this Spring.

The more we can help lift each other up the better!