2023 ASIS International Annual Report

2023 Annual Report

ASIS International is dedicated to cultivating an inclusive environment where individuals are embraced, and security professionals worldwide can quickly and efficiently access information, expertise, and a global network. Your participation in ASIS events and initiatives, including the Global Security Exchange (GSX), as well as your membership, actively contributes to the enhancement of standards, guidelines, certification, and education. To ensure that security professionals across various disciplines and career stages effortlessly obtain the knowledge and resources essential for their success, ASIS is steadfast in its commitment to expanding and enhancing peer-to-peer connections, promoting best practices, and facilitating knowledge sharing.

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Membership

ASIS International continues to prioritize the member experience with the help of an incredibly passionate and dedicated group of over 1,900 global volunteers and over 240 chapters worldwide. In 2023, members established a chapter in Cameroon and launched a new global community focused on travel risk management, growing ASIS subject area communities to 39 online, global groups. Global, regional, and local efforts attracted over 9,000 new members in 2023 - more than 3,000 of which were directly referred by a current ASIS member, bringing our total membership to 34,600! Huge thanks to our community!

Global Security Exchange

Global Security Exchange (GSX) has been the world’s most comprehensive event for security professionals for 68 years. GSX 2023 offered discussion and idea exchanges about the most pressing challenges and issues faced by global security professionals. Attendance exceeded projections, with nearly 16,000 registrants from 95 countries along with more than 470 exhibitors demonstrating the latest security solutions, and 218 education sessions over this three-day event. The industry is excited for GSX 2024, taking place 23-25 September at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

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Global Events

ASIS regional leadership hosted several regional events in 2023. ASIS Europe brought together 1,072 participants, both online and in-person in the Netherlands, ASIS LATAM gathered more than 300 security professionals in Peru, ASX ASIS-OSPAs 2023 saw more than 120 attendees in Thailand, and more than 250 convened at the ASIS Sub-Saharan African Security Conference in Nigeria. ASIS International also partnered with the Security Industry Association (SIA) to host the first-ever Security LeadHER conference in June 2023. The event brought together 300+ security professionals of diverse backgrounds to advance, connect and empower women in security. The event will be returning for a second year in Phoenix, Arizona from 24-25 June 2024.

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Standards and Guidelines

As an accredited standards development organization, ASIS plays a key role in supporting the private sector to secure its business and critical infrastructure. In 2023, ASIS revised the PSC.1 private security company standard and began the development of four new standards on cannabis security, security risk assessment, school security, and executive protection. The cannabis security and security risk assessment standards are expected to be released in Q1 and Q2 2024. ASIS standards and guidelines enable security management professionals by providing the industry best practices to increase the effectiveness and productivity of security solutions, as well as enhancing the professionalism of the industry.

Certification

With 12,594 active and lifetime certificants globally, our certification numbers continue to perform at a high level. Interest in ASIS certifications remains strong, with a 2.5% increase in certificants between 2022 and 2023. Our research and the experiences of our members have taught us how important certification is in a variety of contexts. Being the best ambassadors, our members' voices will continue to be leveraged as we search for new ways to convey the value of our credentials throughout our network.

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Learning

In 2023, the ASIS Learning Team delivered 52 webinars and launched multiple learning resources, including:

New Essentials of Facility Security Design and Essentials of Executive Protection certificate programs
New PCI and PSP Review courses - both online and in-person
New practice tests for CPP, PCI, PSP
Revitalized in-person Facility Security Design course

These programs, alongside many others, contributed to 54,019 total hours of learning available to our members through the Learning Exchange. Additionally, together with the ASIS Foundation, we granted 17 Chapter Starter Kits for APP and CPP Certification Preparation.

ASIS Foundation

In 2023, the ASIS Foundation continued its important mission of helping security professionals achieve their career goals through scholarships and tough leadership research. The Foundation awarded more than 35 individual certification scholarships, 1 IE Business School Executive Program full scholarship, 14 IFPO certification scholarships, 1 Public-Private Partnership Excellence Grant in honor of Matthew Simeone, plus 17 Certification Starter Kit grants to ASIS chapters around the world, to support their own certification trainings. The Foundation released two new research reports: The Influence of Security Risk Management and Empowering Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Corporate Security. Thank you to the donors who made this work possible!

CSO Center

The CSO Center is dedicated to advancing the role of senior security executives around the globe. In 2023, the CSO Center focused on creating additional value and engaging members. First, developing the new CSO Development Pyramid, a library of tools and resources to address common challenges, which contributed to a 12% increase in access to online content this year. The CSO Center bolstered connections between members during virtual programs, Huddles, and in-person meetings, such as the debut annual Secure Horizons conference. 2023 was also the third year in which the CSO Center saw an increase in female members.

Security Management

ASIS’s award-winning publication went digital in 2023, bringing the magazine’s prized journalism to every member, everywhere, at the same time. Security Management published more than 600 pieces of content this year, including a brand new series of videos designed to help outside viewers learn more about security and to connect with ASIS members in a different way. SM’s new content package model enables readers to dive deeper into robust and complex topics with multiple viewpoints.

Security Management won 16 journalism and design awards in 2023, including a 2023 APEX Award for Publication Excellence for Best Website.

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Finance

It should be noted that the organization-wide sense of fiduciary responsibility is the cornerstone of ASIS International's operations and activities. To recap our financial operational performance, fiscal year 2023 was a very successful year where we exceeded our expectations to essentially break even ahead of the fiscal year 2024 goal. This has set the stage for us to move forward with our updated, new strategic plan. This was only possible due to the hard work and partnership between staff and volunteers, including the Global Board of Directors, Budget, Finance, and Audit Committee, and the Investment Committee.

In 2023, all four ASIS certification programs earned DHS Designated renewal status as a Qualified Anti-Terrorism Technology (QATTs) under the Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies (SAFETY) Act of 2002. ASIS certifications are among DHS’s exclusive list of officially approved products for homeland security. The DHS SAFETY Act provides incentives for the development and deployment of anti-terrorism technologies while establishing liability limitations for claims resulting from an act of terrorism where QATTs have been deployed.

The annual ASIS Awards of Excellence honor the important work and accomplishments of ASIS members worldwide. ASIS award recipients model best-in-class behaviors, initiatives and programming throughout the course of the year. This year, ASIS honored more than two dozen individuals with awards and scholarships and recognized 12 different chapters for their outstanding work.

ASIS continues to improve and expand the Security Leaders Mentoring program, which security professionals at any point in their career can use to find, connect, and share experiences with others. The program has seen a significant increase over the past year, with more than 20% growth in usership, and nearly 2,000 members in the program right now. In 2023, the program facilitated more than 200 new mentor-mentee matches.