Beyond Consultants at GSX: Why Marketing and Other Departments Should Be There
/Meet Your Trusted Advisor's Trusted Marketer
Over the past 4½ years, I, Parker Stalvey, have proudly served on the marketing team at Safeguards Consulting, Inc. I began my career with the firm as a Marketing Intern, progressed into a part-time Marketing Operations Specialist role, and now serve as the full-time Marketing Operations Lead.
Throughout those years, I have gradually stepped into the waves of security knowledge and expertise through my role. I have developed a general understanding of many of the concepts our firm works with, particularly in areas such as access control and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). I have written about our services, researched industry topics, supported our involvement with professional associations, and helped communicate the work our consultants perform for our clients.
However, there was still a gap in my understanding...
I do not believe I ever fully understood the complete circle of the products and technologies our consultants evaluate and advise clients on, nor did I fully understand the business development side of the security consulting industry.
That changed considerably when I attended my first Global Security Exchange (GSX) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
Before GSX: Understanding Security from a Marketing Perspective
Before GSX, the only professional conferences I had personally attended were the American Marketing Association (AMA) Southeastern Collegiate Conference and the Society of Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) Southeastern Conference.
Both experiences were valuable in their own ways, but neither provided the same exposure to the security industry that I experienced at GSX. One was focused solely on marketing, and the other on architecture, engineering, and construction industry (A/E/C) marketing.
That said, I had attended several security networking events during my time with Safeguards Consulting, so I was not completely unfamiliar with the professional community surrounding our industry. From a marketing perspective, I have also spent years consistently writing about our firm's role in the security industry and the various professional associations, manufacturers, vendors, connections, and organizations with which we interact.
However, much of my knowledge about our vendors and their products had previously been limited to individual research and specific product tasks. It never gave me a chance to fully explore or to see the products function in person.
If I needed to write about a particular company, technology, association, or industry topic, I would research it, gather the information I needed, and incorporate that knowledge into whatever marketing initiative I was working on. Which is useful knowledge, but it is different from experiencing the industry and its representatives firsthand.
How GSX Sold Me as a Marketing Employee
When I attended GSX, I finally had the opportunity to bring many of those individual pieces of information together: all the product research, company tagging on social media, the memorization of names and company roles from our customer relationship management (CRM) system, etc.
Instead of researching a manufacturer from behind my computer, I could walk into the exhibit hall and meet representatives from the company.
Instead of reading about security technology, I could see it demonstrated.
Instead of writing about industry professionals and organizations, I could meet and speak with them.
Instead of hearing about the products our consultants encounter, I could see the larger ecosystem of technologies and solutions surrounding our industry.
For the first time, I could begin connecting the dots between what I had been learning through my marketing role and how those products, companies, technologies, and relationships fit together within the broader security consulting environment.
That perspective was incredibly valuable and sold me on my attendance as a marketer was worth the investment for both me and our firm.
You Cannot Promote Yourself or Your Firm to the Industry Without First Understanding It
I am not a security consultant. My role is in marketing, and much of my day-to-day work centers around content, communications, branding, strategy, and supporting our firm's overall marketing efforts.
So, why should someone in my position attend a security conference, and why should anyone outside of consulting and sales attend?
After my first GSX experience, I believe the answer is simple: because effective marketing of yourself and your firm requires understanding the industry you are marketing to.
It can be easy for marketing employees to become removed from the technical or professional services their organizations provide. We spend our time thinking about messaging, campaigns, social media, websites, content, and engagement. Meanwhile, our consultants are focused on serving clients and applying their expertise within the security industry.
GSX helped bring those two perspectives closer together.
Walking through the exhibit hall, attending sessions, speaking with industry professionals, and seeing security technologies firsthand gave me a much better understanding of the environment in which our firm operates.
I was able to see the products, technologies, and solutions that our consultants encounter in their work. I also gained a better understanding of the terminology used throughout the industry and the conversations taking place among security professionals. Much of this was due to our consultants, who happen to be industry experts and leaders, explaining each booth and our relationship to the company and asking for product demonstrations. Outside of gaining direct knowledge and access to asking them first-hand questions about the products, this interaction with our consultants also promoted bonding across our team branches.
While each department has its own area of focus and expertise, we ultimately function as one organization. I often think of a firm much like the human body: it is made up of many different parts, each with its own distinct role, but every part must work together and communicate effectively to sustain the health and growth of the whole. In the same way, every branch of a firm must understand how its work connects with and supports the work of others. When those areas operate in alignment, the organization is better positioned to grow, adapt, and fulfill its mission. You will quickly find that I have quite an adoration for metaphors.
As a marketer, I am responsible for helping communicate who we are, what we do, and why our work matters. To do that effectively, I need to understand the industry we serve and the work our firm performs. The more I learn about the security industry, the better equipped I am to communicate our services accurately, meaningfully, and authentically. That knowledge also allows me to better guide our marketing team and ensure that our efforts remain aligned with the company's broader objectives, goals, and mission(s).
You Do Not Have to Be a Consultant to Learn From a Security Conference
One of my biggest takeaways from GSX was that you do not have to be a consultant to benefit from attending a security conference. Most of our marketing team attended the conference, and each person I followed up with stated they felt more equipped and knowledgeable after leaving the conference. Our interns that attended also agreed that they gained more experience in one day at the conference than they had ever experienced inside a typical classroom setting. Our operations intern also agreed.
In fact, bringing employees from different areas of a company can create a more well-rounded conference experience.
Our team included marketing employees, operations employees, interns, and consultants (overall security, physical, and cyber). While each group approached the conference differently, everyone had something to learn.
Our consultants could focus heavily on technical solutions and professional education. Our marketing team could pay attention to industry trends, messaging, technology, content opportunities, and relationship-building. Our younger employees could experience professional networking and an industry conference for the first time.
We were all attending the same conference, but we were not experiencing it in exactly the same way.
Experiencing the Technology First-Hand Changes the Way That You Market It
One of the most valuable parts of GSX for me was walking through the exhibit hall.
Before attending, I could read about security technology, look at a product website, or hear a consultant explain a solution. However, there is something different about seeing those technologies demonstrated in person and speaking directly with the companies developing them.
Exploring the exhibit hall helped me create and inspire content that is more informed. As marketers, it gives us better questions to ask our consultants. It helps us recognize potential topics for future content. It also allows us to better understand what our audience may actually care about.
Additionally, it helped me to better understand how other companies in the industry were promoting themselves and their services/products. Marketing security is very different than how you would market soda, clothes, or nail appointments.
Simply put, industry exposure gives marketing context that cannot always be gained from behind a screen.
Developing My Understanding of the Business Development Side
Another area where GSX expanded my perspective was business development.
As someone who works in marketing, I have always understood that relationships and visibility play an important role in supporting a firm's growth. However, GSX gave me a much clearer view of how those relationships develop within the security industry.
The exhibit hall was not simply a collection of booths and salespeople.
It was a place where manufacturers, security professionals, consultants, integrators, and other industry representatives were building relationships and having conversations about their work.
Watching those interactions helped me better understand the relationship between marketing, networking, business development, and technical expertise.
Marketing does not operate independently from the rest of the business.
The more I understand how our consultants build relationships, how our firm interacts with vendors and industry organizations, and how security professionals identify challenges and solutions, the better I can understand how marketing supports those efforts and why it is vital we invest in those interactions.
Promoting Professional Development
Another important lesson from GSX was that professional development is not limited to formal training.
For me, some of the most valuable learning happened through conversations.
I spoke with professionals I had never met before, learned about different organizations, listened to conversations about the security industry, and gained a better understanding of the professional community surrounding the work we do.
For younger employees and those early in their careers, these experiences can be especially meaningful. Our firm experienced this firsthand as we took half a dozen first-time attendees to GSX this year.
Attending a conference teaches you how to introduce yourself, start conversations, ask questions, navigate professional environments, and build relationships. Those are skills that extend far beyond a single conference or industry.
Give New Perspectives an Opportunity to Participate
I also believe there is value in having marketing employees and other employees that are non-consultants at a security conference because we naturally look at the experience through a different lens.
While a consultant may immediately recognize the technical significance of a product or solution, a marketer may be thinking about how that technology should be explained to an audience that does not have the same technical background.
We may notice a messaging opportunity, a content idea, a potential partnership, a social media opportunity, or a question that a prospective client might have. As an example, I created 3 blog ideas simply from attending a quick and free industry session in the exhibition hall - this blog post being one of those ideas.
Hear My Sales Pitch: Consider the Investment
Every organization must make its own decisions about how to allocate conference opportunities and resources, and these can be very difficult and awkward decisions. However, after my first GSX experience, I believe there is value in considering employees beyond the traditional conference attendee - executives, consultants, and salespeople.
Marketing employees, operations employees, administrative professionals, interns, and other non-consultant team members can gain something different from the experience:
They can develop industry knowledge.
They can build professional connections.
They can better understand the work their colleagues perform.
They can identify even more opportunities that support the organization as a whole.
Yesterday, I returned to work not only with photos, new connections, and content ideas, but also with a better understanding of the industry that Safeguards Consulting serves and a spark of inspiration (with plenty of emails to catch up on as well). As a side note, the content that our marketing team developed during the conference made the investment worth it alone.
A Conclusion on Marketing Security
Over the past 4½ years, I have grown tremendously, both personally and professionally. However, I also recognize that professional growth does not happen in isolation. If an organization wants its employees to become valuable contributors, it must be willing to invest in them as well.
At Safeguards Consulting, that investment has taken many forms. One of the most significant has been the willingness of our President and Principal Consultant, Mark Schreiber, to share his industry knowledge with me and with the rest of our non-consultant team. His mentorship has helped prepare us for important industry discussions, professional interactions, and the marketing campaigns and decisions we make on behalf of the firm.
Our consultants also play an important role in developing employees outside of the consulting side of the business. They do not simply consult with our clients; they also serve as mentors to the rest of our team. They have helped create a trusted and supportive working environment where employees feel comfortable asking questions, seeking clarification, and learning more about the industry and how their individual roles contribute to the firm's larger mission. We take our role as trusted advisor very seriously, both externally and internally.
That said, as mentioned earlier, mentorship has been incredibly important to my own development.
Without the willingness of our consultants to share their knowledge, many of us on the marketing and non-consultant side of the firm would have a much more limited understanding of what Safeguards Consulting actually does and how our work connects to the broader security industry. Thus, leading to a struggle in our roles.
However, there is still a difference between learning about an industry and experiencing it firsthand.
That is where opportunities such as GSX can make a meaningful difference.
As marketers and other non-consultant employees, we can sometimes experience a knowledge gap when we enter highly specialized industry discussions or participate in initiatives centered around technical expertise. Even with strong internal mentorship, there are simply some things that are difficult to fully understand without being immersed in the environment where those conversations are taking place.
Being surrounded by security professionals, manufacturers, integrators, consultants, and other industry representatives allowed me and my other non-consultant team members to see the conversations we support from a different perspective.
It gave me an opportunity to take the knowledge I had gained through years of mentorship, research, and marketing work and connect it to the larger security industry in a tangible way.
For me, that combination of mentorship inside the firm and firsthand industry exposure outside of it is what made GSX such a valuable professional development experience.
Promote the Attendance of Your Marketers and Other Non-Consultant Team Members
So, when your next conference opportunity arises, I hope you will consider promoting your marketing team and other employees when it comes to discussing the attendance of your team.
To read more about our team’s experience at GSX, visit:
From Peaches to Promising Opportunities: Safeguards Consulting Wraps-Up GSX 2026
Sincerely,
The Trusted Marketer for Your Trusted Advisor, Parker Stalvey,
Marketing Operations Lead at Safeguards Consulting, Inc.
