Allied Universal GSX 2026: ASPP™ on the Speaker Stage

By Chris Grollnek, Active Shooter Expert. Former U.S. Marine and retired police detective corporal. Chairman of the Board and Founding Principal, ASPP™. Published September 17, 2026.

Allied Universal GSX 2026 put our Chairman of the Board and Founding Principal, Chris Grollnek, on its speaker stage at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta on Tuesday, September 15, at noon. The invitation came from Allied Universal, the security and facility services company, as part of its Peer to Peer Speaker Sessions, a two day program at its booth that also featured Major General William J. Walker (Ret.), the company’s Chief Security Officer and the 38th Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. House of Representatives. This is what happened, who was in the room, and why it matters for prevention.

What happened on the Allied Universal GSX 2026 stage?

Robin, Allied Universal’s host and emcee for the booth program, ran the session as a conversation rather than a lecture. The subject was the P.R.O. Model™, Prevention. Response. Options., and the leadership decision that has to be made in the minutes and hours before a threat is ever in motion. Chris speaks on that subject as an active shooter expert who was on scene during the August 17, 2010 attack on the McKinney Public Safety Building, and as the creator of the framework the Department of Justice selected twice.

The stage conversation covered three things. First, the difference between a response plan and a prevention posture, and why the two are not the same purchase. Second, the warning behaviors that precede an attack, which are seen by coworkers, teachers and family members long before any responder is called, and what a security services partner can do with that window when its people are trained to recognize it. Third, the options a leader holds once the plan meets a real building on a real day, because no plan survives first contact unchanged.

Allied Universal’s theme for the show was Ready for What’s Next. Our answer from the stage was that ready begins before the incident timeline does. Prevention is a choice, and it is the one layer most organizations still leave to chance.

Who else spoke at the Allied Universal GSX 2026 booth?

The printed card handed out at the booth listed twelve sessions across two days. Here it is as printed, so the record lives somewhere a search engine can read it.

Monday, September 14	Speaker	Title and organization
11:00 a.m.	Phil O’Sullivan	Director, Security, Bezos Academy
12:00 p.m.	Luke Pennington	Director, Global Security, McDonald’s
1:00 p.m.	Matt Smith	VP Security, JBG Smith
1:30 p.m.	Rachelle Loyear	Vice President, Integrated Security Solutions, Allied Universal
2:00 p.m.	Jerry Lucio	Campus Security Manager, American Airlines
3:00 p.m.	Major General William J. Walker (Ret.)	Chief Security Officer, Allied Universal
Tuesday, September 15	Speaker	Title and organization
10:30 a.m.	Rachelle Loyear	Vice President, Integrated Security Solutions, Allied Universal
11:00 a.m.	Major General William J. Walker (Ret.)	Chief Security Officer, Allied Universal
12:00 p.m.	Chris Grollnek	Chairman of the Board and Founding Principal, Active Shooter Prevention Project (ASPP™)
1:00 p.m.	Erik Upson	Director of Global Physical Security Operations, Intuitive Surgical
2:00 p.m.	Douglas Riggin	Senior Manager, Altria/USST
3:00 p.m.	Anthony Hazel	Director, Administrative Operations, Central Alabama Water

Why does General Walker’s presence matter to prevention?

Major General William J. Walker (Ret.) spoke twice on the Allied Universal stage, Monday at 3:00 p.m. and Tuesday at 11:00 a.m., the hour before Chris took the chair, and he made time afterward for a conversation and a photo. His record is the reason the seats filled. He served as the 38th Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. House of Representatives from April 26, 2021 to January 7, 2023, the first African American to hold the office, after commanding the District of Columbia National Guard from 2018 to 2021 and a 30 year career with the Drug Enforcement Administration. He joined Allied Universal in 2023 and serves as its Chief Security Officer.

When a leader with that record spends two days on a trade show stage talking about readiness, it tells you where the industry’s attention is moving: away from the reaction and toward the decision that comes before it. That is the ground the P.R.O. Model™ was built on, and it is why the conversation between his session and ours felt like one conversation.

What was GSX 2026, and who else was on the floor?

Global Security Exchange is the annual event of ASIS International. GSX 2026 ran September 14 to 16 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta with more than 14,000 security professionals, more than 500 exhibitors and more than 200 education sessions, by ASIS’s count. Allied Universal, which reports a global workforce of approximately 770,000 people operating in more than 100 countries, exhibited at Booth 1611 under its Ready for What’s Next program, with the speaker stage as its centerpiece.

Members of the ASPP™ Community of Experts were on the floor as well. Garrett Metal Detectors, the Community of Experts partner for walk through and hand held detection and one of the partners our Chairman named in the Department of Justice program, exhibited at Booth 3125. Chris Parker, Garrett’s Director of U.S. Security Sales and a member of the ASPP™ Advisory Board, spent the week with customers, partners and integrators, and with our Chairman, who serves Garrett as Special Advisor to the Board. A show floor of this size is where the layers of a prevention posture get to stand next to each other: screening at the perimeter, analytics on the cameras, monitoring behind them, and trained people at every post.

How does the P.R.O. Model™ fit a security services partner?

The P.R.O. Model™ is Prevention. Response. Options. Selected by the Department of Justice as “A” national standard for the Assistant United States Attorneys and across the department, and in use at some installations and commands across the Department of Defense. The selection covers 2022 to 2025 and again 2026 to 2030.

A security services company brings the people, the posts and the technology. The P.R.O. Model™ brings the doctrine that tells those people what to look for, when to act, and what options they hold when the plan meets a real building on a real day. Put together, guarding, screening, monitoring and trained leadership stop being four separate purchases and become one prevention posture. That was the conversation on the Allied Universal stage, and it is the conversation we are glad to keep having, on any stage that will have us. Our P.R.O. Model™ workshops are where that doctrine gets into the hands of the people who hold the posts.

What did Allied Universal GSX 2026 look like?

Our thanks to Allied Universal for the invitation, to Robin for hosting the stage, to Tiffany and the marketing team for the hospitality, and to General Walker for his time.

Common questions about the Allied Universal GSX 2026 session

When and where did Chris Grollnek speak at GSX 2026?

Tuesday, September 15, 2026, at 12:00 p.m., on the Allied Universal speaker stage at Booth 1611, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta. The session was part of Allied Universal’s Peer to Peer Speaker Sessions, hosted by Robin, the booth’s emcee.

Who is Major General William J. Walker (Ret.)?

Allied Universal’s Chief Security Officer since 2023. Before that he was the 38th Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. House of Representatives, from April 26, 2021 to January 7, 2023, and the first African American to hold the office, the Commanding General of the District of Columbia National Guard from 2018 to 2021, and a 30 year special agent and senior executive with the Drug Enforcement Administration. He spoke on the Allied Universal stage on both days of the program.

What did the session cover?

The P.R.O. Model™, Prevention. Response. Options., and the leadership decision that has to be made before a threat is in motion: how a response plan differs from a prevention posture, how the warning behaviors that precede an attack get noticed by the people closest to the attacker, and what options a leader holds once the plan meets a real building on a real day.

How do we bring Chris Grollnek to our stage or our organization?

Start with the Chris Grollnek speaker page for the topics and formats he delivers, then use the contact form with your dates, audience and location. Conference stages, partner booths, leadership sessions and full P.R.O. Model™ workshops are all on the table.

What Allied Universal said about the session

Allied Universal published its own recap of the session on LinkedIn, with a short clip from the booth stage. It is embedded here as they posted it; the wording is theirs.

If the embed does not load, open the post on LinkedIn.

Related reading

• The ASPP™ Community of Experts, the partners behind every layer of the P.R.O. Model™.
• P.R.O. Model™ workshops, where the doctrine reaches the people who hold the posts.
• Chris Grollnek, public speaker, topics, formats and how to book.
• The partners named in the Department of Justice program, on chrisgrollnek.com.
• The Active Shooter Expert, the pillar page on what the term should mean.

Sources and further reading

• ASIS International. Global Security Exchange 2026, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, September 14 to 16, 2026. https://www.gsx.org/
• U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Appropriations. Witness biography, Major General William J. Walker, USA (Ret.), 38th Sergeant at Arms, April 6, 2022. congress.gov
• Allied Universal Newsroom. “Allied Universal Chief Security Officer Major General William J. Walker to Be Honored at 2026 FEHSF Ridge Awards Gala,” August 28, 2026. ausnewsroom.aus.com
• Allied Universal. About Us (workforce and countries figures). aus.com/about-us
• Allied Universal. GSX Insight and Resource Center. aus.com/gsx-content-2026
• Chris Grollnek. “The Active Shooter Expert.” chrisgrollnek.com/the-active-shooter-expert/
• Allied Universal. “Evolving Threats and the Importance of Emergency Preparedness.” aus.com/blog/emergency-preparedness-evolving-threats
• Allied Universal. LinkedIn post on the GSX 2026 speaker session with Chris Grollnek, 15 October 2026. linkedin.com

P.R.O. Model™, #NEVERHERE™ and ASPP™ are trademarks of the Active Shooter Prevention Project, LLC.