Thousands of security professionals representing nearly 100 countries are converging on downtown Atlanta this week for the 71st Global Security Exchange, a sprawling conference tackling everything from workplace violence and cyberattacks to school safety and emerging artificial intelligence threats. The event runs through Wednesday at the Georgia World Congress Center, drawing a global crowd of practitioners looking to compare notes on the latest tools and tactics in the security field.
According to 95.5 WSB, the conference covers a sweeping range of topics including major event security, investigations and emerging threats, with a dedicated school security zone set up like an actual classroom. GSX 2026 spans September 14 through September 16 at the Georgia World Congress Center, featuring more than 200 educational sessions organized across nine specialized tracks covering site security, executive protection, intelligence and supply chain security, according to ASIS International.
On the exhibit floor, companies are showcasing physical building entry security products alongside AI-enhanced video search and facial recognition tools, WSB reports, with several vendors highlighting biometric features designed to protect users' privacy. The mix reflects a field increasingly wrestling with how to deploy powerful new surveillance technology without eroding the privacy of the people it's meant to protect.
A New Standard Built to Help Schools Without Costing Them
Among the conference's biggest debuts is a school security standard from ASIS International, offered free to schools regardless of their size or funding, and designed to help them assess and improve their own safety, per the station's report. The standard has been approved by the American National Standards Institute. The ANSI-approved ASIS School Security Standard, formally known as ASIS SSEC-2025 and released in August 2025, took three years to develop and involved a technical committee of 50 members that included school administrators, security experts, architects, mental health specialists and law enforcement officers, according to ASIS International.
Standards built under ANSI guidelines require multi-disciplinary consensus and open public comment periods, a process meant to keep safety frameworks voluntary rather than tilted toward any single vendor's hardware, as reported by CoSecure. That structure has been central to ongoing debate in the field over how far school security mandates should go and who should bear the capital costs of implementing them.
The Association Behind the Show
The host organization traces back decades. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, ASIS International was founded in 1955 as the American Society for Industrial Security and now represents more than 34,000 security management professionals across 155 countries and 240 local chapters, per Wikipedia. The organization rebranded its long-running annual seminar and exhibit event as the Global Security Exchange in 2018, a shift meant to reflect the growing overlap between physical security, cybersecurity and global threat management.
Secure Horizons is a small event for senior security executives. Educational sessions at GSX 2026 also carry professional stakes: attendees can earn up to 22 Continuing Professional Education credits toward board-certified designations such as Certified Protection Professional and Physical Security Professional, incentives that help explain why thousands of practitioners travel internationally for the gathering.
Familiar Ground for Atlanta's Security Apparatus
The Georgia World Congress Center Authority governs a more than 200-acre downtown campus with over 1 million square feet of exhibit space, according to Exhibit City News. Major events across the broader GWCCA campus, which also includes Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Centennial Olympic Park, generated more than $1.3 billion in total economic output for Georgia during Fiscal Year 2024, per the Georgia World Congress Center Authority.
This week's gathering brings security professionals to Atlanta.
