Tag: Tourist Site

Digital Threshold Live powered by Evolv – “The Transformation of Security in Modern History”

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What is Digital Threshold Live?

Digital Threshold Live is a webcast series hosted by Evolv interviewing security leaders across a variety of verticals bringing you security trends, best practices and thought leadership to help you provide a safer tomorrow. It’s time we make everywhere safer.

Watch Digital Threshold Live powered by Evolv – “The Transformation of Security in Modern History”

How has the scope of security changed in 2021? What is driving this transformation? What do we see on the horizon for 2022? As you start to think about how to move your company down this path, listen to two security leaders about how they have started the security transformation.  

Four Key Takeaways

Transforming Your Business

Setting a clear vision for the company, establishing trust and confidence, and creating a safe environment for your employees to take risks are all necessary to transform your business.

Predictive Data

The pandemic has illustrated the need for security data to make business decisions. In preparation for all future unknowns, predictive data allows businesses to feel better prepared and be able to pivot faster.

Digital Transformation

Even in this age of digital transformation, security will always have a physical component, so when looking at successful security businesses, those that blend both physical security and data will be the most successful.

Audient Shift

We are seeing an audience shift in the industry with security decisions moving up to the c-suite level experts which are elevating the importance and influence of security professionals.

About STANLEY Security

STANLEY Security, a division of Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK), is a global provider of integrated security, health and safety solutions and services. With more than 200 locations, serving six continents, we’re trusted by customers across the globe for innovative solutions; seamless installation and integration; reliable maintenance; 24/7 monitoring; and insightful analytics. At the heart of our business is a vision for creating safer, healthier and more efficient environments – guided by a purpose to help the world progress.

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About Evolv

Evolv Technology provides touchless security screening that delivers safety without sacrificing the visitor experience. Evolv Express® spots concealed weapons and other threats using advanced digital sensors and artificial intelligence. It’s incredibly accurate and can screen up to 3,600 people per hour – 10 times faster than traditional metal detectors. Our customers include L.L. Bean, Six Flags Theme Parks, Wynn Las Vegas, and hundreds more.

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Report: Guns in America: A Survey on Public Violence, Anxiety, and Threats

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“Guns in America: A Survey on Public Violence, Anxiety, and Threats” is a new report that quantifies not only the impact Americans’ anxiety around guns has on their everyday lives but also demonstrates the choices they make – and the businesses they patronize – are affected by the level of risk or threat Americans perceive those places to have.  

Download this report to learn more about the mental toll gun violence, shootings, and terrorist events are having on Americans across the country. 

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eBook: Five Ways Data Improves Physical Security

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Summary

Access to digital information is changing the world dramatically, and physical security is no exception. Leading venues across sports, entertainment, theme parks, industrial workplaces, schools, healthcare, and places of worship can improve their security posture by leveraging better information about visitor curves, alarm rates, and threats across their venue during specific events … if they know where to find it.

Evolv Express® screens your visitors for weapons threats while they simply walk through at a natural pace. It also captures and presents critical information about visitor flow rates, alarm rates, and threat items in its companion, web-based application, Evolv Insights™— improving the data available for evidence-based decision-making across venue security and operations teams.

Fill out the form below to download the eBook and learn about five ways to utilize data to improve your physical security.

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Modernizes City’s Theaters with Evolv Express

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, mass shootings in the United States increased. In fact, shootings doubled in July 2020. And for the entire 2020, gun violence and gun crime led to the highest death toll in over 20 years with more than 19,000 people killed, according to the Gun Violence Archive. 

As COVID-19 slowly moves into an endemic state and we get more comfortable going out, we’re also more acutely aware of the potential for an active shooter to be present. Before the start of an event or performance, our ability to spot the venue’s exit signs has become second nature.  

Meanwhile, in the event community, the downtime during the pandemic prompted many theater owners to reconsider how they would manage the safety screening process when patrons returned. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is among them. A nonprofit arts organization, the Trust promotes economic and cultural development in downtown Pittsburgh. 

When its event venues were closed due to the pandemic, the security team at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust used the time to assess the screening process throughout its various properties, which span the city’s 14-block entertainment district. Prior to COVID-19, they welcomed more than two million people at over 1500 events annually. 

The security team decided it was time to address their time-consuming, labor-intensive screening process that consisted of magnetometers and wands. Specifically, while long queues and tables for checking bags reflect today’s safety protocols for entering public places, they interrupt the magical experience of going to the theater. Not to mention the impact the entire safety screening process has on staff, requiring them to spend more time on alert and less time greeting patrons. (The delays can also affect profit from the theater’s concession stands.) 

Based on their analysis, the security staff at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust realized that its processes were not designed for the future safety and comfort of guests. That future is one that requires advanced weapons detection and screenings – without compromising the patron experience. Further, they realized that safety screenings are not just about the process of screening patrons. When you add data and artificial intelligence to the process, you get a more comprehensive security picture for an entire venue. For example, integrating data from foot traffic and scans can provide insights that inform threat category analysis, alarm statistics, and visitor arrival curves. This data helps security better manage and mitigate  all potential threats before patrons arrive. 

After evaluating Evolv technology, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust selected the Evolv Express Single-lane and Dual-lane Systems, along with Evolv Cortex AI and Evolv Insights for both employee and guest screening. Now, entering one of their theaters is fast, easy and safe. Guests move quickly through the kiosks (no more waiting outside in the rain!), while staff spend more time moving the flow of foot traffic, creating great customer experiences, and taking care of other non-security related tasks. In the future, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust will integrate the Evolv Express systems into its security operations center for a comprehensive view into physical and cyber security threats. 

Pittsburgh theater goers now have even greater confidence in the safety measures that have been put in place as they return to the venues.  

To learn more about The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s strategy behind the reopening of its theaters, read the full case study.  

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Creates a Secure Digital Threshold That Bolsters Guest Experience with Evolv Express® Systems

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With approximately two million guests visiting its various properties in a 14-block entertainment district, the board of trustees for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust commissioned its executive team to assess security screening across its various properties after the Paris bombings. After doing a deep analysis of security technology on the market, their CSO – along with other members of his team – evaluated several different security screening solutions before choosing Evolv Technology to secure their venues. By enabling Evolv Express, PCT was able to achieve the following:  

  • Maintain rigorous weapon detection standards
  • Eliminate screening queues that force guests to wait outside venues in inclement weather
  • Optimize security and customer experience staff utilization

Case Study Video

Watch how the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust increases their visitor experience with Evolv Express®

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Read the case study to learn how you can start your journey to a more secure and guest-friendly security screening solution today.

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Georgia Aquarium Transforms Guest Experience While Improving Security with Evolv Technology

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At the Georgia Aquarium, the guest experience was detrimentally impacted by the manual and outdated magnetometer security systems that welcomed more than 2.5 million guests a year. With tons of guest feedback expressing their frustration with security queues, the aquarium implemented Evolv Express, which enabled them to achieve the following:  

  • Improve guest experience scores from 4.0 to 4.6 (scale of 5)
  • Shrink security system lobby footprint by 50% 
  • Optimize operations and marketing programs with guest tracking
  • Reduce security staff attrition – saving time and budget for training and onboarding
  • Reallocate 50% of security staff to other areas in the aquarium

Case Study Video

Watch how Georgia Aquarium transforms guest experience while improving security with Evolv Technology

Read the case study to learn how you can start your journey to a more secure and guest-friendly security screening solution today.

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View more of our case studies on our resources page here.

The New Standard for Workplace Safety

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One of the first responsibilities of an employer is to provide a safe workplace. It’s just the right thing to do. It’s also a good business decision, and a regulatory requirement (see OSHA Section 5). The COVID-19 pandemic has tested employers’ commitment to workplace safety. Many employers have passed the test and kept their people safe from the virus. However, as the virus yields to gradually rising vaccinations and workers return, they are being greeted by a second, often forgotten pandemic: workplace shootings. 

The COVID-19 pandemic initially seemed to reduce gun violence, including workplace shootings. Based on the tragic headlines below, it now seems clear that the temporary lull is over: 

It feels ominous and tragic to me that we’ve had four workplace shootings in the first two weeks of October. Historically, there has only been about one workplace mass shooting per year. A recent Ontic survey of 300 security leaders at large companies found that nearly a fifth of them (18%) have had to deal with an active shooter event at one of their sites in the first five months of 2021 alone. It feels like something has fundamentally changed in the threat environment. 

What’s driving the change? Experts recently interviewed by NPR theorize that potential shooters have had a lot of extra time to plan attacks during the pandemic and that there are more targets available now that more people are back at work in more locations. I would add a few additional important drivers: the prolonged stress and isolation of the pandemic, rising resistance to mask/vaccination mandates, the spread of extremist ideologies, acute political polarization, widespread social unrest, and widely available firearms. It has all combined to create a tragically perfect storm. The DHS and FBI summarized the threat their May 2021 joint report, saying “The greatest terrorism threat to the homeland we face today is posed by lone offenders, often radicalized online, who look to attack soft targets with easily accessible weapons. Many of these violent extremists are motivated and inspired by a mix of socio-political goals and personal grievances against their targets.” 

Given the current threat environment, how can employers best fulfill their duty of care in providing a safe workplace? The most obvious way to prevent shootings in the workplace is to keep guns out of the building in the first place. Most employers have policies to prohibit guns on private property, but they have largely been unwilling to enforce their policies through weapons screening. Why? Because screening for weapons with old metal-detectors creates a prison-like experience for workers and leaves workers stuck in crowded waiting lines that are just unacceptable in a pandemic recovery environment.  

In an intensely competitive labor market, employers may feel forced to choose between a positive worker experience and a gun-free workplace, and when push comes to shove, they have often chosen worker experience. That choice is tragic because it is based on an outdated understanding of what’s technologically possible.  

AI is transforming every sector of the economy, and physical security is no different. AI-based weapons screening like Evolv Express® makes it possible to have both a great worker experience and a gun-free workplace. Reliable weapons screening that doesn’t require workers to stop and empty their pockets or surrender their bags as they walk through is a game changer.  

I believe this disruptive new technology is redefining the standard for employers’ duty of care to workers. Having a “no guns” policy without any effective enforcement is no longer an option. If proven technology to enforce a no-guns policy is broadly available, operationally feasible, and commercially affordable, it won’t be long before board members are asking why management is taking unnecessary risks. 

Sports stadiums, performing arts and entertainment venues, and tourist destinations were the first to discover and implement the new standard in weapons screening because visitor experience and safety are fundamental to their operation. Now that the leaders in these industries have made their move to AI-powered weapons screening, the followers are racing to catch up. The same pattern will likely play out in industrial workplaces, citizen-facing government offices, health care facilities, office buildings, and other workplaces.  

Now is the time for employers to reshape their workplace safety strategy to reflect the current threat environment and the technological disruption that is underway. The good news is that investing in meeting the new standard is not going to break the bank or be disruptive to normal operations. We’ve worked hard to innovate not only in technology, but also in our pricing model. Our customers (and their CFOs) are often pleasantly surprised by our subscription-based “security-as-a-service” pricing for Evolv Express. They also love that they can often train existing staff to use our equipment, so there isn’t a huge labor cost hurdle to overcome. As a mission-based company, we want to make it easy for employers to do the right thing for their workers. It’s a win-win-win situation.  

As the pandemic recovery continues and seasonal hiring surges this fall and winter, more workers than ever will be walking into workplaces that are unprepared for the current threat environment. We should all hope and pray for their safety, but we can finally do much more than that. If you are an employer who is ready to do more, let’s talk soon. 

Download our workplace violence infographic to learn more about how violence in the workplace is persisting and on the rise in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic.

The Future Is Here: Smart, Connected Venue Security with Evolv

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Senior security leaders across multiple industries, surveyed in a joint study by Microsoft and Accenture, cited “reactive threat management” and “intuition-led decision-making based on subjectivity” as top challenges in physical security. The technologies predicted in the study to transform these challenges? “Artificial intelligence and signals processing” at the venue’s threshold; the power of analytics to “sift through overwhelming amounts of data”, and Internet of Things-connected sensors and devices to “collect intelligence in real-time.”

These once sounded like the stuff of science fiction: so-called “smart cities” with “smart venues” that screen visitors unobtrusively, only stop potential threats while letting everyone else pass through, and stream business intelligence back to security teams to improve decision-making and enable a more proactive security posture.

Hello world! With Evolv Express AI-powered security screening and its companion analytics application, Evolv Insights, this future is here. In the latest software release launching this month, new capabilities for connectivity and analytics improve five important dimensions of physical security:

1 – Balance Physical Safety with Visitor Experience

Security screening with Evolv Express is powered by advanced sensors, cameras, and artificial intelligence to distinguish weapons threats from everyday items. It moves guests through a venue’s entryways up to 10 times faster than metal detectors: up to 3,600 visitors per hour at normal walking speed. No stopping to empty pockets or hand over bags means screening is less obtrusive, improving the visitor experience. And no stopping or queuing up means Evolv Express is safer than traditional methods, virtually eliminating the threat of “soft target” scenarios for mass casualty events.

As a connected device, dare I even say an IoT device, Evolv Express captures critical information such as visitor flow rates, alarm rates, and threat types detected at every venue entrance, making this data available for consumption and interrogation across multiple business dimensions—date, time, location, entrance, and event type—in its Evolv Insights analytics platform.

To maintain the highest degree of guest experience and physical safety, Evolv Express offers a range of settings, and the new What-If Sensitivity Setting Analysis in the latest release of Evolv Insights lets security professionals use historical data to see how the system would have performed on an alternate setting. This helps security teams refine their concept of operations (ConOps) strategies and further reduce nuisance alarms, improve guard performance, and improve the guest experience without compromising visitor safety.

2 – Know Your Vulnerabilities

New features for Alert Categorization and Analysis in the latest software release advance the system’s ability to report on what threat types are found at a venue. Security teams resolving issues at the Evolv

Express system simply “tag” alerts with a single, one touch icon set to indicate threat items or nuisance items.

Using this information, new dashboards in Evolv Insights let users drill down into where and when each type of alert appeared, across entryways, times, and events. Armed with this knowledge, security leaders can better focus staff training, deploy more experienced staff when and where they will be needed, and improve overall staff preparedness.

3 – Improve Venue Operations

Better data can help teams beyond security improve visitors’ experience—with ticketing, concessions, retail, ushers, guest services, guides, and more—because the better informed these teams are, the more seamlessly they will operate. Information gathered at every Evolv Express system and available in Evolv Insights analytics will help venue operations improve decisions about staff to guest ratios, staff deployment at different locations and times, along with other resource decisions to boost efficiencies and reduce waste.

To better understand how security and operational needs differ across types of events, the latest release of Evolv Insights introduces Event Type Analysis. Different types of events—think rock concerts, sporting events, corporate events, speaker series, and family productions—will likely exhibit very different characteristics across dimensions like threat types and frequency, alarm rates, visitor flow rates at different venue entrances.

Evolv Insights makes it easy to compare event types side-by-side to find commonalities and differences or to compare events of the same type to find and address anomalies, improving planning across many teams throughout venue operations—including security.

4 – Transform Security from Cost Center to Value Driver

Keeping venues secure not only protects people; it safeguards the brand—for venue leadership, their corporate sponsors, and the talent they attract. But security is too often seen as a necessary evil: a cost center rather than a value driver. I found this callout in the aforementioned Microsoft and Accenture study spot on and worth noting… No matter which metric the organization prioritizes, a data strategy will be required to optimize the outcome. An effective strategy will enable physical security to become the core intelligence platform of the organization, transforming from a cost center into a value hub. I could not have said this better myself.

With Evolv, the power of data and analytics at every visitor entrance means security teams can provide a high degree of value to executive leadership by providing transparency and visibility with accelerated, streamlined, reporting capabilities.

Evolv Insights offers both pre-defined and flexible dashboard views that users can save and return to, share with colleagues, print to file, and export to work with adjacent analytics packages. And in the latest release, subscribed users automatically get “pushed” Post-Event Summary Reports, without a separate need to access the Insights application.

5 – Adopt a Proactive Security Posture

When venue teams need critical data about their venue in the moment, wherever they’re located, the latest software release from Evolv offers the MyEvolv Portal mobile application. Teams can now access analytics, scanner monitoring, and management, and proactive communications from any device, including Android- and iOS-equipped smartphones and tablets, to facilitate faster, better decision-making and respond in the moment to security needs across their venue before they become an issue.

Evolv prioritizes connections between venue staff and its security systems both through analytics and through communications technologies like Request Assistance—a discreet, one-touch alert from the operator tablet to additional venue security to help resolve an incident at the system.

The latest software release extends this connectivity and communication with new Remote System Management in the MyEvolv Portal. Available in both the mobile and web-based application, system administrators can now remotely log into Evolv Express systems and interact as if they were co-located with the system for monitoring, troubleshooting, and configuration changes. And whenever critical changes to the system occur, subscribed users receive new Proactive Notifications via text, email, or in the application.

Conclusion: The Digital Transformation of Physical Security is Here

While much has been imagined about the benefits of a future world—with “smart venues” powered by connected products and better data to improve visitors’ experience while making everywhere safer—Evolv brings that future to life today. It enables venue security and operations leaders to access better data for evidence-based decision-making, ensure connectivity between people and security technologies throughout a venue, and improve the guest experience while maintaining the highest standards in physical safety both today—and tomorrow.

The Boston Marathon Bombing: A Moment of Fear and Clarity

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The Boston Marathon marks its 125th event anniversary on Monday. It’s the world’s oldest annual marathon – an event that now attracts more than 30,000 participants and upwards of 750,000 spectators each year. At its centennial in 1996, close to 36,000 people finished the race. That day, more than a million friends, family, and race fans converged along the 26.2-mile route from Hopkinton, MA to the Boylston Street finish line to celebrate this Boston institution and its dedicated participants.     

Then, crashing into this venerated race in 2013 was something that shocked our nation. It also personally impacted me in a way that would set the course of the rest of my working life. Just 45 minutes before the first bomb detonated, my wife Jane had finished the race and I and my three kids ages 11, 9, and 5 were at the finish line to celebrate with her. We shared lots of excitement, hugs, photos, and well wishes. On the ride back home, Jane was describing the course challenges and highlights when her mobile phone started pinging with text after text. It wasn’t until we were back home and watching the TV that we realized how close we’d all been to the madness that killed three and injured 264 that day. 

One of the injured that day was John, a good friend who worked on Boylston Street. He stepped out of his office for a few minutes to watch the race finishers. Down the street to his left, the first device went off. Then, the second device detonated close to him. I went to see John at Mass General and found him—a big, strong rugby player with wounds up and down his body. He recovered, but today still carries shrapnel in his body. Madness.  

I call it madness because it is. Two young men had researched propaganda on the internet about how to assemble and detonate bombs, then strategically did just that in the Back Bay. They took lives, damaged the psyches and bodies of hundreds, altered families forever, and once again reminded the whole world that the face of terror is as close as where we live, work, eat, shop, play, and go to school. We don’t ever see it coming. And that’s the madness.  

Jane, my kids, and John lit a fire  

The Boston Marathon bombing and active shooter tragedies in San Bernardino, Pulse Nightclub, Fort Hood, Sandy Hook Elementary, the Las Vegas music festival – and many more – forever changed those who were just going about their daily lives. This was happening in too many towns, in too many locations, to too many people.    

For me, the combination of stories from that terrible day became a driving force to do what I know how to do in business – go find the best technology, work with the best people, and solve a really hard problem. It was a needle in a haystack problem: how do we screen hundreds and even thousands of people as they continue walking without ever stopping while simultaneously identifying those few who could pose a threat? The concept is simple. Putting it into practice is hard.         

Partnering to reverse a terror epidemic    

Fast forward eight years from the 2013 Boston attack to today. In this time, I’ve been fortunate to co-found Evolv with Mike Ellenbogen. We’ve introduced a technology solution that is working to take the terror epidemic head on by identifying and extracting the few bad actors ready to do harm – from the 99.99 percent of good people who just want to enjoy life, attend events, and move freely and safely at the pace of life.   

We describe it as a secure and seamless screening experience. Essentially, we’ve fused advanced technologies including sensors, machine learning, cloud analytics, and a human centered design approach. Now, visitors to any public venue can keep moving – with no security lines, bag checks, or metal detectors to slow them down. Our Evolv Express® solution makes it easy for security personnel to spot guns, knives, and explosives more easily and with better accuracy. As of last month, our customers have screened more than 100 million visitors and stopped more than 10,000 weapons from entering public attractions, stadiums, casinos, hospitals, schools, entertainment venues, government facilities, houses of worship, and hotels. Only the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has screened more people than Evolv in the United States. 

Actively listening to those who know   

My role has been to partner with hundreds of venue owners and operators, guest experience professionals, and security leaders from a wide range of industries in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. I ask every single one the same questions: what threats are you most concerned about, how are you detecting them today, and ideally how would you like to prevent them from entering your facility in the future? It’s ongoing, global field research that continues to make our threat detection solutions better and better.  

I work with an incredible team. We all wish we lived in a world that didn’t need Evolv. But that’s not reality. That said, each of us is gratified and humbled to help make the world a safer place, one venue at a time.  And we’re just getting started.     

What matters most 

Jane, my three kids, and John are never far from my mind. They fuel what I’m about every day. The terrorist actions of the Boston Marathon and all the other horrible terrorist events only produced a stronger counteraction. These events inspired each of us at Evolv to equip security leaders, venue managers, and law enforcement with the technology they need to stop the madness from ever happening again. 

Sarasota Agricultural Fair Association Deploys Evolv Technology in the Aftermath of a Shooting

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On March 20, 2021, during the second day of the Sarasota Agricultural Fair, a gun went off inside the fairgrounds. An incident response plan was put into action and the park was ordered closed for the safety of visitors. The next day, a 15-year-old suspect was arrested for sneaking a handgun into the fair and shooting an 18-year-old acquaintance during an altercation.

And, just like that, a community that was once again gathering and celebrating together following a year of cancellations and isolation, was facing tragedy and more closings.

Re-opening would require enhanced security

To reopen the fair and welcome visitors back safely, the team needed to evaluate the Fair’s overall security posture and identify what gap led to a handgun entering the premises. During the assessment, it was discovered there was a breakdown with the bag checking process. Security checks would need to be enhanced and protocols would need to be changed.

A local Evolv account executive saw the news report and had an Evolv Express system on the site within days for the team to evaluate and test. They needed something that could handle the stream of visitors – 7,000 would pass through that gate over an eight-hour period; at peak times, waits at the security lanes were as long as 15 minutes.

Today, with Evolv, the security team is able to sustain consistent results through peaks and valleys, which is critically important when screening for weapons. They have also eliminated lines and reduced costs.

For more about how Evolv helped welcome visitors back to the Sarasota Agricultural Fair safely, see the full case study.