DALLAS, Texas – Mark Herrera, President and Chief Security Strategist for Global Awareness Professionals, LLC (GAP) announced an expansion into the company’s international security training arena with recent keynote sessions for national security summits in Mexico and Australia.
“The challenges faced in crowd management are no longer local, they are global,” said Herrera. “Whether training teams in the United States, speaking in Mexico, or working with organizations across different regions in Australia, many of the patterns of critical security issues are consistent and directly related to the world’s changing threat environment.”
On April 14 Herrera delivered a keynote address at Congreso Nacional AMEREF 2026 in Acapulco Mexico, speaking to an audience of event leaders, and professionals from venues across the country. His session focused on shared vision, trends, innovation, and opportunities to continue strengthening the national event ecosystem. He encouraged fostering collaboration and exploring innovation for large-scale events by highlighting critical themes for venue management around the globe: behavioral awareness; empowering front line staff; building resilient cultures; and relational security.
As experts at the conference compared security challenges across regions, a clear pattern emerged: crowds don’t fail, systems do: subtle warning signs go unrecognized; staff hesitate or lack confidence to engage; communication breakdowns occur in critical moments. These are not isolated issues, they are universal challenges facing security teams and they are preventable with front line staff training and regional security agency collaboration.
“Across the globe, venues and event organizers are navigating an increasingly complex environment: higher crowd densities; evolving and unpredictable threats; increased expectations for safety and guest experience,” noted Herrera, “all while front line teams are expected to make rapid, high-stakes decisions.”
In July Herrera will present to an elite gathering of safety and security professionals at the Venue Safety & Security Exchange (VSX) 2026 Conference in Australia. VSX is billed as a platform for venue and event security innovation that provides global industry experts with opportunities share concerns, brainstorm solutions and plan program expansion to meet today’s critical security challenges. Major event safety and security leaders across multiple countries will be identifying the growing convergence of threats impacting venues, conferences, stadiums and mass gatherings.
The most common concerns on the agenda include hostile drone activity, cyberattacks targeting event infrastructure and communications, politically motivated protests, lone-actor terrorism, misinformation campaigns, and the increasing complexity of managing crowd behavior in highly charged social environments. International events such as Eurovision 2026, the FIFA World Cup preparations and global security conferences have all highlighted the need for integrated security planning, intelligence sharing, layered screening, cyber resilience and rapid incident response capabilities.
According to VSX Chair Eddie Idik, “One thing consistently heard from venue and event leaders globally is that the threat environment is no longer isolated to one country or one issue. Whether it’s cyber disruption, drone incursions, politically motivated protests or lone actors, the same challenges are appearing across multiple jurisdictions.”
“The reality is that major events now require a far more integrated approach between security, safety, intelligence and operational resilience than ever before,” Idik added.
ArtsQuest is one of Pennsylvania’s largest nonprofit arts organizations and is committed to providing access to the arts for all, while enriching the community through music, festivals, visual arts, film, comedy and educational programming. ArtsQuest is affiliated with the Levitt Family Foundation, an organization dedicated to funding the development of venues all over the U.S. that activate underused public spaces and foster more healthy, equitable, and thriving communities one city, and one concert, at a time.
In March, ArtsQuest partnered with Herrera to develop customized training for both leadership and front-line staff across its event venues. GAP has been training ArtsQuest teams for several years resulting in real-world incident response and emergency evacuation outcomes.
Three good examples of this include:
- The 2019 SteelStacks climber incident, which required prolonged operational coordination and crowd management
- The 2022 Musikfest shooting response, where rapid decision-making and crowd control were critical to preventing further harm
- The 2025 Christkindlmarkt power outage, impacting thousands of attendees and requiring organized evacuation and communication
Across each of these incidents, teams executed large-scale responses with no injuries and minimal disruption, demonstrating the direct impact of preparedness, coordination, and
trained decision-making. This is an important distinction, not only are teams implementing plans, but they are successfully operationalizing them under real conditions, reinforcing what security leaders across the globe are finding in today’s threat environment: training is only valuable if it translates into effective action when it matters most.
“We developed and provided the Emergency Operations Procedures template to the Levitt Family Foundation at the request of the Executive Director of Levitt-Bethlehem to be used as the Emergency Operating Procedures (EOP) template for all Levitt Pavilion venues nationwide,” said Jason Frisch, director of event services ArtsQuest. “This EOP template was developed using the models that were taken from our GAP trainings.”
Herrera summarizes the emerging global threat ecosystem like this: “across the countries we work in, one thing is clear, the threat environment is evolving faster than most organizations can adapt. During events, today’s security threats come predominately from targeted violence, civil unrest, opportunistic crime, medical incidents, and infrastructure disruptions. Today’s threats are dynamic, unpredictable and unfold in seconds.” He adds: “This requires preparedness that is not only in planning, but is also, most importantly, in execution.”
About Global Awareness Professionals
Global Awareness Professionals (GAP), is committed to preparing people, strengthening teams and protecting communities through risk assessment and staff training, because when organizations are prepared, lives are protected. Established in 2015, GAP is now expanding the scope of clientele from event venues to also include schools, churches, hospitals and other venues with vulnerable populations. GAP is rolling out recalibrated security training frameworks nationwide in 2026, with expanded offerings that integrate emerging technology, scenario-based learning and cross-sector preparedness strategies. Visit online at gapglobaltraining.com
