 Hey, hello everybody and welcome back to the Think Tech Hawaii studios for another crazy episode of security matters. We're gonna have some fun today. This is a little bit of a version two from last week when we met some of our other scholarship awardees. We are really excited about this COVID era success story that the SIA Women in Security Forum orchestrated in a relatively short amount of time. Today we've got a couple more of our scholarship awardees. You are going to meet Ryan and you're going to meet Marguerite and we've got Dara with us from the grading committee so we'll hear about how that process went for her and Cameron's with us also from the donor committee which we were all afraid we wouldn't get a penny because of COVID was crushing our industry but we actually did really really well and were able to give out some great awards. So I'll shut up and I will kick this around to our panelists so they can get introduced for those of you who don't know them and Marguerite we'll just go ahead and start with you just as much as you sort of care to share about your background for our industry. All right well thank you. My name is Marguerite Evans. I am currently in physical security event security leave for the Phoenix Sun and my background is very very very small actually this is my first security job. My military background though is what got me interested in industry. I am 15 year veteran of the Army Reserves this will be my 16th year just this month and I got interested in security because of someone else I know in the Illinois National Guard who had gone to a security school set for international out in San Diego. He told me this is probably probably the best industry to use my skill set which comes from hospitality, customer service, 20 years in customer service actually, my military background and he said it's a culmination of my skills and I'll be able to use it use every skill that I have in this industry. So I in fact actually ended up going to Cover Six Security Academy last year less my government job with no clear indication of how I was going to enter the security industry except for the connections that I made with the school but because of COVID everything switched up and now actually delving into physical security and learning from some of the best that the NBA has to offer when it comes to security. That's awesome I love the success story out of COVID there. Raeanne go ahead and give us your background there and bring us up to speed how you found the women's security forum. Yeah well thank first off thanks for having me my name's Ryan Burke I am with Identives. I am the partner marketing and events manager there. I focus on our global events and I also manage our partner programs marketing initiatives and activities. Been in the industry about five years which is pretty short compared to most people in the industry when I first joined it became very clear that most people that enter the security industry don't leave it and most people are in you know 20 plus years so still in the in the beginning stages. As far as finding the SEA Women's Security Scholarship I'm pretty active with SEA just the association as far as trade shows and events and partnering initiatives there and I saw the email come in and thought I'd take a look and I talked to one of my colleagues who's very involved with the Women in Security Forum and she told me to go for it so I did and I'm very happy I did. That's awesome thank you so much and let's meet Deira. Deira was part of the grading committee so we'll see and I don't know if she happened to grade your folks. I know you guys graded several maybe you can tell us about some of that Deira when you get. I'll never tell. Okay let's get some of your some of your background out there for our viewers as much as you care to share with them thank you. Great sure so I'm Deira Bluestone. I have an MBA and significant experience in senior management primarily devoted to procuring business within the federal government civilian intel and DOD. I'm currently the senior business development manager for PAE and I love them I've only been with them about a month but I love them. I have always been active in diversity and inclusion specifically with the organizations that I've worked for. I came to SEA through a partner organization that I work with called the National Capital Legion Security Forum and I am their director of communication and marketing and we also helped to get SEA members. I was real interested in getting more involved which was when I was recruited to become a part of the grading committee for the scholarship program. I was thrilled to be a part of it. This is the first year that we passed the program and it was very exciting. We awarded $6,600 to over 12 it was 12 scholarship awardees. Yeah amazing work and in a very short timeframe maybe I'll talk about that a little bit maybe. And our last panelist today Cameron Javdonis with us he's been on my show before he's the president of sound design but our sound secure is it sound design? Sorry Cameron but he was also part of our donor committee which I helped out with and we were really afraid we wouldn't be able to raise a penny like we had our doubts. So Cameron welcome aboard go ahead and let our folks you haven't met you learn a little bit about you and then we'll get into the show. Thanks Andrew it's good to be back with you. I'm the president and co-founder of Sound Secure. Sound design works too if that's what you want to call me. The background spans almost a decade now and I've been working on the audio side of technology for almost that entire period. Got involved with SIA back in maybe 2011 or 2012 and then much more recently with the Women in Security Forum I believe at the ISC West 2019 forum that was held. When I was asked initially to participate in the donor committee I think this was the early part of March when Maureen Karlo reached out to me and I said sure let's let's do it and then just a few weeks later it felt like the entire economy shut down around late March early April so I certainly felt the stress that you described on the committee to say how on earth are we going to raise funds for for this effort when there's so much uncertainty that's going on with with COVID and the near-term future is so uncertain but what was very inspiring to see was how the industry rallied together and despite all that uncertainty said yes we're going to contribute funds to this initiative because inclusion and diversity is so important for us and so to see the the industry leaders who have stepped up over that time period this spring to make contributions despite all the uncertainty in their own business it was inspiring to see and I'm so fortunate to have been a part of it now that what that means is that there's a high bar for us next year to head because presuming that COVID is in a rear-view mirror and fingers crossed that it is we'll have our work cut out for us but the way the industry responded to this initiative was just it was a fantastic effort to be a part of that's awesome yeah we we really did have a short fuse the president of SEA Don Erickson gave us launched this effort and said okay you've got about 60 days to get it all done and we're like what so we kind of went we kind of went crazy but what we really did receive we we we more than doubled our our original effort so our goal we more than doubled our goal which was incredible and that allowed us to get out a lot more a lot more awards so let's go back to our awardees real quick what was your time frame once you learned about it that you were able to apply was it I don't know when it I'm not sure from when it got announced to when you had to have your application in um was was there adequate time for you to to apply did you feel like you were able to put your like best foot forward down in your applications and we'll start with Ryan yeah and so the the second I got the email I kind of started the process I wanted to you know make sure I had enough time I mean the last time I filled out something like that I was you know 1617 and I remember it being a gruesome gruesome process this was a much nicer process but uh you know I know that they even extended the the deadline so I felt like I had adequate time but I also jumped on it right away so um you know and I think some people did need a little more time uh hence the the extension but I thought I thought it was great um I know you guys didn't have a lot of time to pull it all together on your end uh but thank you for doing so yeah it's one of our one of our awardees last week I think it was Erin she put hers in on the last day just so she was she was debating whether she had enough information it was kind of interesting her story um Marguerite how about yourself uh when did you learn about it and how much time did you have once you got started so I did forget to say that I am a CIA student member which is how I found out about okay I'm in security form and um with that I've been getting the emails and as I'm going through things trying to look over what I can I finally actually clicked into an email the first week of June and it said that the scholarship deadline June 14th and I kind of pinned because at that point I'm like I could do it but I don't know if I have enough time to write us 1,100 word essay so when I clicked into the website it said there was an extension and I just took a collective mental and physical sign like I can do this um I had connections to or not connections I had mentors who were willing to write um recommendations for me I actually had three and the minimum was two and I was overcome with joy about that as well I was no collective sigh but um the most interesting part was meeting the uh when I came to meeting the deadline was making sure that I was well versed enough in my essay so I believe it was adequate time even with the extension it was plenty of time just basically proving myself on paper as opposed to having in person interviews that kind of made kind of through the balance for me well I like the idea of the in-person interviews I wonder if we could add that next year that'd be fun um hey dear so so you got you I don't know how many you had to grade I know you guys passed them around there were several graders of each one what uh what struck you when you first started looking at the ones that you had um what what was the the first thing that came to mind about about the applicant well I I will definitely say that the applicants it was a diverse group of wonderful women and they were they were all anxious to be trailblazers with a goal you know towards increasing diversity and inclusion within the security industry I mean they were terrific I mean you really got to know the individuals through the questioning process so the questions that they asked were were completely on target and I thoroughly enjoyed the process I thought it was a lot of fun um there there were a lot of uh eligibility requirements that everybody had to be or abide adhere to like you had to be a student see a student member or a uh see a women in security for a member or a see a member company employed by a see a member company and um there was you know it was it was a tough questionnaire so I really I applaud uh the diligence uh by which the the candidates that that actually were awarded the the scholarships I I applaud their efforts they did a tremendous job and I you know I was thrilled to be part of the process and get to know the individuals through this application because you didn't see the photos you didn't know who they belong to I mean you're just looking at this random application and uh they were terrific everybody had great ideas very inspiring yeah and I think about 75 of our applicants did uh meet the meet the scoring there was a minimum score right you had to achieve is that correct yeah yes and it was uh yeah it was not it was the uh the memberships as well as the quality of the the the essays and then it was you had to have a certain amount of years of professional experience and um be enrolled in accredited programs and things of that nature it was to better the future and shape the future generations to come in security and leaders yeah well I think we're well on our way judging by the we had two essays we've got two this week um 12 12 new leaders for our industry that we're helping to promote so I'm looking forward to learning more about all of them just security matters um we're talking to some of our women's security forms scholarship awardees today we've also got members of our donor program members of our grading program and we heard it uh uh was was a wonderful thing to view let's get the awardees perspective on the questions just for a second what was um maybe the most difficult question that you recall from your application and margarine we'll start with you believe it or not the most difficult question I had was about women who had come or examples of leadership that I had before me and it's not that it was difficult the requirement for that was a hundred words so the examples that I used the people that I used were um sergeant majors that I served under in the armed reserves how can I fit it to phenomenal women who were at the top of the level of experiences not commissioned officers until a hundred words there were two different women and they had two different leadership styles and they both influenced me to be the person that I am as a non-commissioned officer myself so a hundred words is super concise and I think I ended up going to they were the best examples outside of relatives that I have that I could use to show why I want to be a leader and how I've been influenced that's awesome I love that strong leadership from women you know coming out of the armed forces I served under I was in the Navy but I served under a lot of strong women myself so it's really good stuff great role models all right and how about yourself what was um what was your most difficult task there that you recall you know I I didn't find the questions difficult I actually found that I benefited from working through the exercise of answering the questions um you know just having to put on paper you know how you see where you see yourself in 10 years and and how you're going to use the scholarship and what it means and I found that that exercise was extremely helpful because I have an idea of what did I what I wanted to do but it really required me to you know put down some specifics um you know some timelines and that sort of thing and how I plan to continue growing within the industry and within the craft uh that I'm choosing so I didn't think it was necessarily hard but it definitely is a little difficult to take that extra step and really look inward and step back and and put it out all on paper and you know polish it up so that it's readable that's awesome I love it that you both took it like seriously you know took it to hard and had to had to put some you know some that work that was in I think that's what dear I think experience and I heard that last week from our other grader uh which was Gloria Salmaron who said that the what she learned about the applicants was like so real and so I think that's a testimony to the stuff that that you ladies put in there so Cameron was how they had to talk about how they were going to be advocates for others and what they were going to do throughout their career and continue to do and it was it was terrific so so Cameron you're a woman in security forum guy along with myself there's a few of us as you go around the industry and you work with the women that are in our industry now and they're you know highly underrepresented we know that what roles do you see them in that maybe you didn't see them in five years ago or or previously or what roles it seems like it's wide open to me but you are on the mainland you get around a lot better than I do so what what have you seen you know from from that perspective that maybe these women have to look forward to yeah it's been a interesting and positive trend Andrew and when I started in the industry in 2011 you mainly saw women in roles like marketing uh or or office type type roles now we see women taking the lead in sales roles we see them taking the lead in engineering roles in in market facing roles that are in positions of leadership in high-level decision-making organizations uh and growing beyond the the proverbial glass ceiling that might have been applied to them in marketing or HR type positions so to see the the industry adopt and frankly evolve after uh much too long of a time to start this trend it's it's fantastic to see I would like to see it continue to accelerate and I'm thrilled that one of the questions on the application was about paying it forward and my ears are open and Andrew I'm sure yours are as well as to how people who've been in the industry as long as we have can continue to adapt and make new opportunities available but I would say today it's a much more wide open frontier than it was when I began that's not to say that we don't have more work to do but we are on a positive trend yeah and I think Cia's sort of setting an example with this form I mean as it has a great women's group some are stronger in certain parts of the country as well they're women in security groups good but we're Cia I think I think just because of its position in the industry I love that this effort's just taken off it's only been going for what a year you um if if there was something that you wanted from the industry um Mario I'll go back to you you know what what type of mentorship or what type of doors can we open that would that you'd be interested in learning about other parts of the industry that you know you you see you go in these places and it's a you know a whole bunch of old guys right it's like hey dudes help me out here well my entire life I've heard find your seat at the table and that's as a double minority as a woman in the African American so the mentorship I would like to see would be beyond those borders having a male counterpart help me find the seat at the table that way I can help someone else that doesn't fit the demographic that I'm in or maybe does fit the demographic that I'm in have that same seat at the table a lot of times you've come across occupations that are centered around happy degrees and security is one of those industries where it's more certifications than degrees and I'm finding that on both the physical and the cyber security side and having an active mentor to be able to you know kind of open the doors for you help you build a network that's kind of what the bridge that I'm looking for and the bridge that I want to provide in the future that's awesome make sure you lean on our women in security forum group for that anytime the entire group Ryan how about yourself you know five years with Identive a big you know well-known company probably got a lot of a lot of different pathways I would think available to you at Identive if you wanted them what what does it you know look like for you what do you think we could do as an industry to sort of help you explore maybe whatever it is you your dreams would be inside of our industry well my I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier but my focus the way I'm using this scholarship is in a project management program that I started in at UCSD and I I decided to go that direction because I can apply project management skills and methodologies in many different areas of a company whether it's you know internal organizational wise or customer facing programs product launches that sort of thing so I'm still kind of keeping an open mind as to where within the company where I want to take those skills so as far as having you know a mentor an advocate within you know within the company or the industry you know I'd like to just figure out the best place for for me me to fit and and see and be able to have those conversations with male counterparts and and understand their roles and how I can fit in as well and bring my own you know unique skills to the table yeah camera and I are working hard to to teach these guys not to be afraid right there they have trouble mentoring women and I don't know what they're afraid of but this is an issue that that we've been challenged to help with that dialogue hey dear you've been very very successful in your career what advice would you have for these young women as far as you know ways to move around with the guys to get mentorship from the men where they where they might need it what would you tell tell them well the first of all the sky's the limit don't don't put any barriers on on or any limitations on what you're able to accomplish the sky is the limit but definitely take advantage of any and every situation that you have to get mentorship wherever it might come from because everything is valuable every every every little bit is a gem that you could take and utilize and and shape and I just that the future is so strong for you guys I'm so it's it's very exciting it is very exciting it's interesting how our our industry is is quite a growth industry and once people find it they're like wow these guys make money year after year we've been doing it for 30 years through all kinds of economic downturns all kinds of turmoil the security industry is good business it's a really good place to be Cameron what about yourself if um if there's a something we can do to open doors how do we go about educating our our male peers that are maybe standing in the way too long you know these guys that won't retire when they're 80 it's like dude stay home Andrew I think the biggest thing that you and I can both do and I'll speak for the rest of the the guys in the industry who are not accustomed to this positive trend we need to listen more than we talk and I'm sure you've been in plenty of meetings where it's a bunch of good old boys around the table who've known each other for 20 30 years or more and they've got a great relationship nothing wrong with that but when someone new comes to the table they're usually kept at arm's length so let's be welcoming let's ask about their history what they can bring to the table what they can offer what their contribution is I'll say the other thing in that a lot of companies will hire based upon cultural fit does this person fit with our organization I think when you have that mentality you're going to end up keeping people out and so rather than having the mindset of will this person fit here ask the question what will this person bring to us what will this person contribute to make our organization grow and by that small change in mindset I think you're going to find yourself with a wealth of new opportunities you're going to find yourself with whole new perspectives and whole new ways of doing things that are better and faster and maybe cheaper than you were doing them before so listen more than you talk and be open to new ideas and new experiences awesome that's good advice for the guys they are they all like to hear themselves ad nauseam i'm one of them my wife reminds me of that all the time um all right so we got a minute or so left final thoughts um marty what would you tell a woman that wanted to get into security industry it's an industry that is full of what you make of it um being here at a in a sports venue it's electrifying at times i'm very boring at times a lot of adults but every day i try to take something and internalize it see what i can do better to see how i can better serve the people that i work for in the building that i make so make it yours make it what you want make it the job you want to come back to and hopefully it's a learning experience wherever you go in the industry that's awesome ryan what about yourself what would you tell the women that want to get in our industry well um you know i came from this to this industry from the video game industry so a very different industry i was a little worried video game super fun really young you know lunches here in the fridge you know super exciting um but i fell in love with the people uh you know whether it's trade shows or you know our customers our partners my colleagues everyone in this industry is just awesome and i fell in love with the people all you know this industry is also very important so there's there's that feeling of doing something that is making a difference um you know protecting people and and really you know making a difference so i would say come on in join the industry i love it all right well camera and dirah thank you so much for participating on the committee again marguerite ryan um congratulations on your awards well deserved hope to see you at the next event when we can all get back together live take care everybody and have a great day aloha