SIA, SecuritySpecifiers announce new CONSULT Scholarship

SILVER SPRING, Md.—The Security Industry Association (SIA) and SecuritySpecifiers have announced the new CONSULT Scholarship program for rising security consultants, designers and specifiers.

The program will offer three scholarships in 2025 for recipients to use to attend CONSULT, the security industry’s only event for technical security design consultants, taking place Oct. 3-6 in Denver.

“I applaud SIA’s efforts in working with SecuritySpecifiers to recognize, develop and educate younger security designers and consultants,” said Ray Coulombe, founder and managing director of SecuritySpecifiers. “By co-sponsoring this scholarship for the CONSULT Technical Security Symposium, several outstanding young professionals will have the opportunity to get a broader view of their profession and the industry in general.”

“SIA has led the industry in recognizing young professionals, through programs like our RISE community and our AcceleRISE conference. We’re also strongly committed to attracting the next generation of talent to the entire security industry,” noted Geoff Kohl, senior director of marketing at SIA. “We’re proud to expand this commitment to furthering the careers of young professionals with the SIA-SecuritySpecifiers Scholarship to CONSULT, which has long been established as the annual peer-to-peer gathering for technical security specifiers.”

SIA and SecuritySpecifiers created the CONSULT Scholarship as part of their shared dedication to growing the next generation of security leaders; broader mission to attract, develop and retain a talented workforce that ensures the long-term success of our industry; and belief that attracting and retaining young talent in the areas of security system design and specifying is vital to delivering technology systems that keep people, businesses, assets and critical infrastructure safe.

The CONSULT Scholarship program will award three scholarships in 2025. The inaugural class of awardees will each receive a full ticket to CONSULT 2025 (valued at $800); access to all sessions, meals and events in the symposium program; a one-on-one mentorship-focused meeting with the architecture and engineering (A&E)/consulting program leaders from the scholarship program sponsors; dinner during the conference with one of the scholarship sponsors; and an invitation to participate in SIA RISE, a community designed to help emerging security industry leaders grow.

CONSULT is the only non-captive venue exclusively devoted to specifiers of electronic and physical security. The event has been developed specifically for technical security consultants. From cyber security to spec writing and design issues, the environment that security consultants and engineers face is constantly evolving. The design challenges are shared. CONSULT attendees have the opportunity to stay current on critical issues, improve their design skills, write better specifications, expand their professional networks, earn education credits, network, learn and more.

To be eligible for the CONSULT Scholarship, an applicant must be aged 35 or younger at the time of CONSULT 2025, must be engaged in security design or consulting full-time at a security consulting or A&E firm and must have worked in the security industry for at least 12 months. Preference will be given to applicants from SIA member firms. 

Applications for the 2025 CONSULT Scholarship must be submitted by Tuesday, July 15. Learn more and apply here.