 Hello, everybody. And welcome back to the Think Tech Hawaii Studio for another exciting episode of Security Matters. I'm Andrew, the security guy, and I have not one, but four guests with me today. And we are going to berate you for donations to the Women in Security Forum Scholarship Fund, the brand new scholarship thing we got going on. Cameron D'Avdani is with me, Nicole Kopaszewski is with me, Min Curianis is with me, and Kevin Friedman is with me. Thank you all so much for joining me today, and thanks for helping out on the committee. Thank you. Thanks, Andrew. Good to be with you. Thank you. I'm trying to see if we have a, do we? Yeah, so I guess we have our all five views. This will be quite confusing for Andrew today. So, I usually like to do intros, and I know y'all are well known in the industry, but let's, for those folks who may not have met you before, let's start with men. Maybe just kind of take us through your history, and then as much as you'd like to share how you got around the security industry, and then how you found the Women's Security Forum, and what do you think about that so far? Definitely, and thank you, Andrew. Put me in a hot seat right there. So my name is Min Curianis. Thanks a lot, and I'll pay back later with that one. I've been in the industry for 25 plus years, but it's a combination of both security and technology as well. Mostly a lot of networking. So I've been obviously vested in this because 25 years ago, there were really not many organizations that's out there assisting women out there. And in fact, because of that, I've kind of maneuvered 20 plus years of a very male-dominated industry from the IT world to physical security, sis security, also cyber security now, if you think about it. And that being said, I've been very interested in actually seeing more women obviously progress and actually developing more women to actually have the ability and giving them the platform to actually speak openly and challenge men and the others, obviously. And SIA Women's Security Forum is not the only one I'm actually involved in. I'm also involved as co-president of Women in International Security. So that being said, my foot is actually both in the private sector and also in the public sector. So thank you, Andrew. That's awesome. Nicole, give us a little bit of your history if you would, as much as you would care to share with us today. And maybe you're, how you got introduced to the WISF and what you hope to, where you hope to take it. Absolutely, thank you, Andrew. So I came over from the telecom industry back in 2013, first started off in the integration world. And then got recruited into the manufacturing world by Brevo, which where I'm at today. I happened to stumble across the Women in Security Forum when they first started. It was actually an ISC East and I got to join in for a breakfast. And I was just utterly moved by the opportunity to join like-minded women in a very male dominated space, really promoting the growth and the careers and the involvement of diversity within the security industry. So for me, it's a personal thing. I find it to be very rewarding to be able to get back to the industry, which has been very rewarding for me, so. That's awesome. Yeah, that first breakfast, I think we had maybe a handful of guys, but we did have Jim Henry in the room. And so that was an accomplishment, I thought. And we're not limited to only women in the Women in Security Forum, by the way. So today we have Kevin Friedman with us as well. Kevin, thanks for joining us and thanks for helping out with the committee. Maybe share with, share some of your background in the industry. And then kind of what got you interested in the Women in Security Forum and how you are hoping to help out. Absolutely, now I appreciate the introduction. Kevin Friedman, I've been working within the security industry about eight, nine years now. My company is called Maze Marketing and we're a growth marketing agency that uses different types of marketing tactics to reach the audience that the security industry is looking to create the biggest type of movement upon that is the end users, integrators. We understand the industry and it's an amazing industry to work in. Security Industry Association, I'm on their marketing committee and the Women in Security Committee is really an amazing growth platform. It showcases diversity and it definitely pushes women's values and rights and opinions way above this industry that maybe has fallen behind a little too much. Majority of my employees are women and I want to make sure that they have the strongest voice out there. They, not they, excuse me, women are as or more influential within this industry and it's very important to showcase this. Maureen Carlo really got me involved within this Women in Security and it's a pleasure to help create jobs, raise income and show, make sure that men and women are on the same level. There should not be any difference. That's awesome. Yeah, Maureen's hard to say no to, right? No. And Cameron, you've been on my show before but first time here representing the Women in Security Forum. So let's go ahead and give us a little bit of your industry history and then sort of what it meant for you to join up with the Women in Security Forum and now finally to help contribute with one of these committee efforts. Sure, Andrew, and it's great to be back with you. Like Kevin, I worked well with Maureen Carlo. I've known her for a few years and so when she brought up there's this Women in Security Forum. Can you get involved? The answer was of course yes. So I've been in the industry for coming up on just about a decade now and have been involved with the Security Industry Association for nearly all of that time. I remember my first event with the Women in Security Forum was last year at ISC West when Juliet Cayam spoke to the Friday morning breakfast at the show and coming out of that event how could you not be inspired and enthusiastic about the program? For me getting involved personally, at a time where everything in society seems so divisive and so contentious it's really been inspiring to see our industry come together with the goal to improve diversity, support opportunities for professional development and growth for people who frankly all too often haven't been given a chance to show what they can contribute and the value that they can provide to our industry. So I was beyond thrilled to lend my voice, to lend some of my experience to creating those opportunities and so now working with the scholarship fund for the Women in Security Forum we're excited to see this industry come together for such an important cause. Yeah, I am looking forward to that. We baited our audience a little bit with all this scholarship information which I promise you we will get to but I wanna talk a little bit about to a point you made and then made there's obviously the nation's struggling right now with some division, some diversity issues and as security folks I've always felt that we should be leaders in our communities obviously. I think security is always something to be shared our perspective needs to be shared. Do you think the Women in Security Forum can lead sort of help to lead this group in being leaders within the community? Is there a voice there that maybe the Women in Security Forum can find to help maybe just show some unity or some example of unity within an industry that wants to be leaders in the community? Men, I'll kind of take that to you first. Sure and definitely I mean the fact that Kevin and Cameron are sitting here itself and speaking on behalf of Women in Security Forum is actually very extremely relevant and critical because I think that partnership itself is what's gonna drive others to kind of change that mindset and actually assist in that growing, I guess the growing pains of women not having to support previously. With that being said though, I think there's still a lot of challenges that we still have to kind of jump over. I mean, in the past year I've been speaking in a lot of forums and also panels and one of the front of the joke is that it's a mantle or it's typically run by men who are bolding white men in a suit with a beer belly. And I use that as a comedic effect in one of the instances when I was up there moderating a panel but the reality is it's still the truth. We see that quite often. So I think in that respect, the Women in Security Forum, if we can get a lot of partners like Manipita people to stand together and actually talk about it more openly and more accepting and listen to women that's out there, intelligent women, passionate women, I think there's more of an opportunity to actually kind of converge in that idea and allow the women to have that voice to speak on that platform. So I think it's going in the right direction, especially with this forum like this, you're allowing us to speak openly about it and actually having partners on it. Awesome. Yeah, Nicole, for your part, do you think we all have biases, right? We all bring biases to every discussion that we have. Do you think the Women's Security Forum can open up a sort of a bias aware discussion that we can all have with mutual respect? Is that a challenge? Maybe we can take up. I really believe so. I mean, for me, I've always been in the tech space, transferring into the physical security space. I was not surprised to see that it was mostly men and typically you'd find the women in the back office, making sure that the orders got pushed through in the calendar for manage. But for me, I want to challenge the status quo. I really want to see more female leaders, leading the charge and setting great examples for others who may fall into this industry like us, by chance. So I think it's a great opportunity to really put this to the center of conversation and bring some awareness. And what I love about the opportunity with the Scholarship Fund is we're not only to have that conversation, but really help the development of women and men who are looking to get into the security industry and grow their career. Because it's a great industry to be in. It's been very rewarding for me personally. And not only just challenging the status quo, but really helping folks develop their careers. To me, that's very impactful. And I think now, especially with the challenges in the world, it's ever so important to keep these positive initiatives flowing because we can't stop, we can't hold back just because the world's in crisis. I feel like now more than ever, it's when we should be pushing forward with positive messages, positive initiatives, so. That's awesome. Hey, Kevin, you said you worked with a lot of women already. Do you, so with an initiative like the Scholarship Fund that we're doing, having initiatives like the Women's Security Forum, have you heard them comment? Is there some empowerment for them there? Is there some willingness to engage and help kind of move this, I don't know if it's a difficult conversation, but move this conversation further along? Is it safer maybe for them? Or have you heard those types of discussions? To answer your question, absolutely. And this is not an overnight sensation. And how we, even in marketing, let's just do, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. And within trying to create awareness and create growth, I keep talking about growth, for women in security is not an overnight sensation. It's something that we continue to talk about. And especially it's very relevant to today's environment that we are in. How do we showcase the ability of women in security? And it's not just security, it's all these different verticals. If it's education or transportation or safe or smart cities, there's no reason that a woman that is coming out of college should ever think that they cannot do what a man can do out of college within any industry, but specifically the security industry. I really find it just mind-boggling that there are still individuals out there that may think different. And if I encounter these people, I will use my voice, but this is the way we're using our voice to create awareness, create a scholarship and showcase the talents of everybody. 100%, 100%, I love it. Cameron, we're gonna have to take a break before I get your comment on that. You'll have a moment to ponder it, sir. We're gonna pay some bills. We'll be back in about one minute. Thanks everybody, hang around. Aloha, I'm Lillian Cumick, host of Lillian's Vegan World, the show where we talk about veganism and the plant-based diet located in Honolulu, Hawaii. I'm a vegan chef and cooking instructor and I have lots of information to share with you about how awesome this plant-based diet is. So do tune in every second Thursday from 1 p.m. Aloha. Hey, hello everybody and welcome back to Security Matters. We are having a really cool discussion today with our scholarship committee. This is the donation side of the committee this group that's here today, but Cameron, I wanted to ramp up real quick with just your thoughts on our ability with the WISF to impact this bias discussion that there's a lot of examples of it, but from your perspective, what do you think we can do to help lead a little bit of inclusivity and diversity as a security industry body? It's a great question, Andrew, and I think back to what Min mentioned just a few moments ago about us having such a male-dominated industry. And if you walk around any trade show in the industry, you're gonna see the stereotypical person for our business, which is typically a older white male and no offense, Andrew, but they're probably gonna have a goatee and maybe a receding hairline. And so the ability for SIA to facilitate this kind of organization, be it the Women in Security Forum, be it the RISE committee with a new generation of leaders in our industry, the inclusivity that I think our industry is trending towards is absolutely critical for all of our success. So when I hear Kevin talk about growth and I hear Min talk about the changes needed in who shows up in these industry events, it's absolutely critical that we do both. So my hat is off to SIA for creating these platforms and I think it's incumbent upon all our members, be it a SIA member, a Women in Security Forum member, a RISE member, get involved, lend your voice to the effort because it is mission critical for our industry to have these kinds of programs and have all sorts of people involved in our business. Yeah, I keep prompting all the old guys to retire. Like we need to give it up and I wanna retire but my wife just honestly won't pay me if I do. So I'm trying real hard, I tell you. But we need to open up those seats. You know, we gotta provide opportunity and I think a lot of us stay in these seats too long. So let's, the impact that I think we're hoping to have aside from the voice impact, the inclusivity discussions, the bias discussion, with this particular scholarship opportunity or efforts, you know, we're looking to show, really demonstrate the power of the Women in Security Forum as a group itself to create new opportunities for people and we chose to do that with a scholarship, which wasn't awarded. It's gonna be funded by the Women in Security Forum member companies and this group here has chosen to work and go work on chasing down those donations. Now, when we agreed to do that, we didn't know it was gonna be during COVID and everybody be broke. So that's not as easy as it sounds, let me tell you. So let's talk a minute about some of the discussions that we're having and Nikola, I'll start with you. I saw your name on the board, you know, we're tracking who's all, calling who and you've been quite busy. What are you hearing out there? Is there a desire to wanna help and people are frustrated because they can't help more or give us your take on what you're coming across? Well, let's be honest, you know, asking for donations during an economic crisis is not an easy task. But, you know, there's a silver lining here. I mean, we're investing in our future, we're investing in our future leaders within the security industry. So no matter what our challenges are currently today, there's still a severe importance to continue that investment and continue the awareness and continue to drive our future. So, you know, the way I look at it is every little dollar helps, you know, whether you can give a lot or give a little, it all adds up at the end of the day. So that's why we welcome donations of all sizes, just knowing that, you know, every little bit helps when we're looking to make an impact on our future. So, I mean, definitely a challenge, Andrew, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, but there is a strong drive to help push this forward, this new initiative forward so we can help influence and help others in a very impactful way. Yeah, I've had some feedback so far that, you know, it's, hey, we're gonna find a way to help. We're gonna find a way to do something. So people are working and their gears are turning. Kevin, how about yourself? Have you been in the trenches there, made a few calls? What are you seeing? Yeah, you know, the keyword that Nicole just said is investing in our future. It's really what the message that we're trying to push across is, of course, first and foremost is women and this award and or the scholarship, excuse me, but it is difficult talking to these smaller companies that are struggling. We do have empathy with the state of our economy. And just like Nicole said again, is any little bit can help. We are investing in our future. And even with student membership that SIA has been very, very, very delicately trying to push, these are the individuals that we want to attract and have them come, have them see that the security industry is not just about cameras. It's not just about audio. It's not just about artificial intelligence. There is so much to it that is so, excuse me, but it's amazing. How can we make sure that our future is educated and our future is taken care of? Because like Cameron was saying, and Andrew, you look at everything that's out there and it's a white man that is going down the trade show floor and we want to get away from that. It has to show diversity and it doesn't matter if it's someone's skin color or someone's gender, it's very important that this is pushed across but right now it's women in security. Awesome, Cameron, saw a finger there. Yeah, Kevin's comment sparked my mind and as we keep talking about the opportunities for women in the industry or I bring up the Rise program for a new generation of industry leadership, these programs aren't to the exclusion of folks who are already in the business. We want to add more people. We want to be more inclusive of the number of people in the industry. So creating opportunities for women does not neglect or doesn't diminish opportunities for men in the industry. We have a mindset that two plus two equals five. So we find ways to collaborate, to build upon what each of us can contribute and in doing so, we find that everyone's better off. So when I've been reaching out to member companies, I have not heard that response to, no one has said to me, well, if I support women in the industry, what am I gonna do? And frankly, just by virtue of our industry demographics, most of the people I'm speaking with are male. But that said, everyone I've spoken to sees this as a worthy cause to get involved with. But that said, this is an economic crunch that we're in. A lot of companies are at a minimum and cost-saving mode. Some are wondering if they're gonna make it through. And so, frankly, I've had some folks say, hey, we've been shut down for eight weeks, 10 weeks now. We've been going without revenue for that long. We've been trying to pay our employees. We've just been trying to sustain things. So we fully recognize that it is a tough, tough time to make these contributions. So if you're not able to contribute financially, please find another way to get involved. You can make a phone call. You can make a social media post, that's free. So there are lots of ways to support what we're doing that are not monetary, but still make a big impact. Yeah, and we are trying to raise about $30,000. We've got about 400 members. It's a hundred bucks a member. If we worked it out that way, I know we're trying to really approach the member companies. So we'll get an update out to the industry, I'm pretty sure on how we're doing here pretty soon. We'll get a scorecard probably from Kim and Sia. Min, I know you had made some intros for us and you're not formally chasing down donations, but have you been able, have you had any discussions with any folks about this particular effort to collect money for the WISF scholarship program? I had actually, and in fact, I'm actually talking to some folks that are not necessarily members because there's a lot of discussions. In fact, I just got off with a conversation with another, not a competitor, but something in a building side because one of the things that they've been talking about is diversity inclusion. And like the security industry, like all the male dominant industries out there, they're seeing the similar challenges as there. So I have talked to them. My response is you don't have to be part of the Women in Security Forum trade members. I think if you really have the heart to actually see the next generation grow and get vested in what they wanna do, definitely feel free to just donate to the cause. It's a great cause because we really do need to support. I think this is why we are participating in this whole forum because we can also provide mentorship. It's not just necessarily providing funding or monetary amount to scholarships and allowing them to grow, but also the support of the members here who have longevity and have the expertise to kind of help them grow. So in that respect to Cameron's point, every little thing helps. It's not just the money. It's also mentorship that could be really, really impactful to any young individual that's coming into this. Yeah, and I think one of the unique things that we got pushed through is we're actually funding existing school loans. We're actually also, you can use this money for an industry certification or an industry class or an industry webinar that needs fees. So there's a lot of ways to look at it. I really would encourage everyone to go and I absolutely blew this, but I'll have an Eric put the link up there. But go to the CIA website, go to the Women in Security Forum. The scholarship is right there at the head. You can't miss it. The application page is there with the applicant guidelines. It is open, Kevin, to your point to the CIA student members as well. So I hope that they apply. And there definitely is the criteria is set up there. It's a 100 point system. It's pretty heavily weighted to writing of your essay. So when it tells you what essay topics to choose, need a couple of references, need to have been in the industry a couple of years. So it seems to me fairly wide open. And I think we're getting some, enough positive responses on the donation side that we're gonna pull this off as a success for the first time. We'll see you then obviously in tough times. We've got maybe a minute and a half minute left for some just some final thoughts or final pleas if you wanna beg for donations. We'll start with you. Go ahead, Cameron. Donate everyone and that can be monetary. It can be your time. It can be your experience in the industry with other folks, but please get involved. This is a very worthy cause. It is something that if we wanna have a vibrant future in our industry that we all need to pursue. So I'm thrilled to be involved with this. I am thrilled to work with Kevin and Min and Nicole and Andrew and everyone else on the committee who couldn't be here today. But please to everyone, member companies, member organizations get involved. Thanks, Kevin. Yeah, absolutely. Going to this, thesecurityindustry.org website, you will find everything that you do need within the security industry. So if by any chance women in security is not what you want to focus in on, there are so many different organizations and just anything that you find that is intriguing to you to help further push the security industry, absolutely you will find it on the website. But women in security is what we're talking about right now. And anything will help, again, to reiterate what Nicole had to say, we are investing in our future. Awesome, thanks, Min. I'd probably be repeating whatever Cameron and Kevin said is very important. But you know what, I can add on, if you feel that we have to barter something be to about the men that's out here and say for a price, we will give you the men here. That's on the screen. I love it. I love it. Nicole, your final thoughts? Whatever you can do to help, please, whether it be a donation, like Cameron said, getting a social message out there on social media, every little bit helps. We're investing in our future. We're investing in us as an industry. So to really count on tomorrow, we need to focus on today. So I appreciate and thank everyone for their support and their contributions, but we're not done yet. So keep writing those chats. Awesome, thank you. All right, thanks everybody. I really appreciate you guys joining me today. It was excellent. I hope our audience hung on long enough and learned a little bit and I hope they're clicking that link right now. I'll talk with all of you again soon and out there in the security land, we'll talk with you soon too. Aloha everybody, take care.