Highlights from the 2024 National Campus Safety Conference

Here's a recap of the 2024 National Campus Safety Conference, a record-breaking event with several new offerings aimed at helping school safety leaders do their jobs better.
Published: July 25, 2024
View Gallery

The 2024 National Campus Safety Conference, held July 8-10 in Atlanta, brought together more than 450 K-12 and college campus protection professionals to share ideas, learn from subject-matter experts and each other, and enjoy some well-deserved downtime.

At this year’s event, CSC attendees had access to sessions on topics such as reunification, the intersection of technology and school safety, stress and its impact on behavior, securing funding and buy-in, increasing community engagement, and tabletop exercises, just to name a few.

Over 50 solutions providers also showed off the latest and greatest safety and security technologies in the sponsor showcase, and several conducted product demos right on the show floor.

View some photos from the show and check out a detailed recap below.

CSC Attendees Discuss Campus Protests

Photo: The Photo Group

In place of a traditional keynote, CSC kicked off the first full day with GroupProjects Live, an interactive session we implemented several years ago to bring attendees together to candidly discuss safety and security topics impacting educational institutions. This year, attendees were broken into small groups to brainstorm how colleges and K-12 school districts can effectively address campus protests. They shared lessons learned, struggles experienced, and strategies used to maintain safety and security while protecting First Amendment rights when demonstrations and controversial speakers come on campus.

Following small group discussions, the whole group came back together to share some highlights from their discussions, including how to effectively set up barriers, crowd control methods, holding alternative events, and managing the media.

Multiple Receptions Bring Together All CSC Attendees

Photo: The Photo Group

While education and information sharing are at the heart of CSC’s mission, our attendees always look forward to merited relaxation. On Monday evening, the welcome reception held in the sponsor showcase featured food and drinks, providing opportunities to mingle with other attendees and solutions providers in a less formal setting.

Day 2 wrapped up with another reception and a raffle — always a CSC favorite. Several sponsors gave away impressive prizes, including headphones, gift cards, a Solo Stove, and a free pass to the 2025 Campus Safety Conference!

——Article Continues Below——

Get the latest industry news and research delivered directly to your inbox.

UNLV Leaders Share Insights on Deadly Mass Shooting

Photo: The Photo Group

During a more traditional keynote on Day 2, leaders from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) shared insights into the Dec. 6, 2023 mass shooting that claimed the lives of three faculty members. Their candid discussion offered an inside look at lessons learned from the response to a campus emergency.

The panelists, Vice President of Public Safety Services and Director Adam Garcia, Chancellor Patricia Charlton, Assistant Director of Information Technology and Emergency Communications Mark Sakurada, Assistant Director of Threat Assessment and Emergency Management Louise Hardy, and Executive Assistant to VP and Clery Compliance Amberly Nelson, discussed the timeline of events, emergency management protocols, and the teamwork and coordination of staff, leaders, and government.

Campus Safety BEST and Director of the Year Awards Winners

Photo: The Photo Group

Each year, Campus Safety opens up nominations for its flagship awards programs, the Best Electronic Systems Technologies (BEST) Awards and the Director of the Year Awards.

The BEST Awards recognize superlative security, law enforcement, emergency management, and safety solutions for K-12 campuses, institutions of higher education, and healthcare organizations. Technology manufacturers and systems integrators are invited to submit their products and projects under various categories, including emergency communications, access control, incident management, and project management, among others.

Winners were announced at the event. Here are the 2024 winners and honorable mentions.

Now in its 17th year, the Campus Safety Director of the Year Awards honor the best and brightest executives in hospital, university and school security, law enforcement, and emergency management who surpass the call of duty with their outstanding leadership skills, inventiveness, and selflessness.

This year, the winner of the K-12/school category was Kelli Lotito, safety director at Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, Colo., and the higher education/healthcare award recipient was Linda Stump-Kurnickassistant vice president and chief of police at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Aaron Skrbin, director of safety and security at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit in Homestead, Pa., received the honorable mention designation. Read more about their accomplishments.

Each year following the DOY Awards ceremony, CSC hosts a panel of past Director of the Year winners. This year, the panelists shared various strategies they’ve incorporated over the years to foster internal and external stakeholder support for their departments, people, projects, and equipment.

This year’s panelists featured Kevin Wren, school safety advocate for A3 Communications and former director of safety, security, and emergency management at Rock Hills Schools; Anthony Pluretti, executive director of campus safety at Widener University; Danielle Stevens, director of safety and security for Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95; and Jason Schiffer, assistant vice president of campus safety and chief of police at Lehigh University.

New to Campus Safety Conference

Always looking to keep things fresh, CSC was thrilled to introduce several new concepts in 2024 that aim to help safety and security leaders do their jobs better.

The Scholars Program

Photo: The Photo Group

Now, more than ever, schools are purchasing new or replacing their current security systems, and in 2023, there were an estimated 11,311 security services businesses in the United States, according to IBIS. Campus leaders tasked with making security purchase decisions must choose what solutions they want to prioritize and then choose who they want to purchase them from. Campus Safety recognizes these processes can be grueling and also understands the limited time campus leaders have to source products. Enter the new Scholars Program.

During the inaugural Scholars Program, decision-makers purchasing safety and security products/services in the next 18-24 months heard directly from solutions providers and asked all the hard-hitting, campus-specific questions. They also met with other leaders during an exclusive Sunday evening reception and Monday breakfast where they shared challenges and successes regarding security updates or purchases.

The group also got a private tour of the Georgia Tech University Police Department. Chief Rob Connolly led the tour, giving attendees a behind-the-scenes look at its forensics lab, emergency operations center, and live scenario simulator. Non-Scholars Program attendees were also able to tour the campus on Wednesday.

1-on-1 Grant Consultations

Photo: The Photo Group

One-on-one grant consultations were also added to this year’s National Campus Safety Conference. Through countless discussions with Campus Safety, school and college leaders have shared their struggles of writing winning grant applications as many campuses do not have dedicated grant writers.

During 20-minute consultations, representatives with Grants Office LLC spoke with attendees about their grant writing challenges and offered support and resources to simplify the application process and improve grant writing abilities despite often limited resources.

Response Accelerator Award

Photo: The Photo Group

This year, CSC teamed up with CENTEGIX, an incident response safety solutions provider, to present the inaugural Response Accelerator Awards. The program recognizes organizations that have prioritized reducing the time it takes to respond to emergencies.

Prior to honoring the award winners and finalists, a panel of district leaders shared how they accelerated incident response through a layered approach, using both technology and people.

See You at CSC at EDspaces and CSC 2025!

We would like to thank each and every attendee, speaker, and sponsor for making CSC 2024 an amazing event and we are beyond excited to see what the next year holds.

Missed this year’s national conference? There’s still time to sign up for the upcoming Campus Safety Conference at EDspaces, happening Nov. 12-14 in Houston. CSC will offer the same caliber of sessions as the national event but with the added advantage of being co-located with EDspaces, an event that provides insights into how the physical learning environment can meet the pedagogical needs and technology demands to support an educational institution’s mission of student success and well-being.

Now in its third year of co-locating, these two events open the door to more resources for school and college administrators, campus security executives, law enforcement, and emergency management professionals, delivering new insights to architects and distributors in the education design market.

EDspaces and Campus Safety Conference will offer an expanded Campus Safety Pavilion and additional safety and security educational content. The final agenda will be released in the coming weeks so keep an eye out or register now. Here are some highlights from last year’s CSC at EDspaces event.

Looking to attend next year’s national conference? Save the date for July 21-23, 2025, in Austin!

Strategy & Planning Series
Strategy & Planning Series
Strategy & Planning Series
Strategy & Planning Series
Strategy & Planning Series