Summary: James DeMeo, Sports Security Expert and Author of "What's Your Plan"<br> Hi I’m Brian Clapp, Director of Content for <a href="http://workinsports.com">WorkinSports.com</a> and this is the Work in Sports podcast.<br> <br> When 9/11 happened I was working at CNN Headline News producing the sports reports. It was a time frame I’ll never forget. Rumors flew, panic roamed the halls, we were all confused and disillusioned… it was as if we had been living in an impenetrable fortress which we just realized was penetrable.<a href="https://www.workinsports.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/eps10_cover.png"></a><br> <br> I remember during that time frame, all of us sports folks would say things like …imagine if this happened at the Big House on a college football Saturday – near 110,000 people in a confined space. Or what about The Super Bowl, or the World Series, with everyone watching.<br> <br> 9/11 was tragic enough, but immediately you begin to consider your own vulnerabilities.<br> <br> Pre-9/11 I could walk into a game without bag checks or metal detectors and stroll to my seat. Of course the worst we would smuggle in was Gatorade and French fries, but others could have done worse.<br> <br> Fast forward to current times and despite our diligence, there are still tragedies. Las Vegas was horrific. Manchester bombing at an Arianna Grande concert was stunning.<br> <br> What protects sports events?<br> <br> I told you all early on we will have entertaining podcasts, but we also weren’t going to shy away from real issues, things that need our attention. This is one of those conversations.<br> <br> Today’s guest on the podcast is security expert and author of the upcoming book <a href="https://gate15.global/personal-preparedness-whats-your-plan/">“What’s Your Plan”</a> James DeMeo – James was named among Security Magazine’s Most Influential People in Security in 2017, he is the Founder, President, and CEO of <a href="http://www.smeeventsecurity.com/">Unified Sports & Entertainment Security Consulting</a> (USESC), based in Raleigh, North Carolina and helped open the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn as a security supervisor.<br> <br> We will be talking about how to stay safe at sports events… but I’ll also tell you the most enlightening part for me, the amount of jobs connected to security in the sports industry. If you are interested in facility or event management – you better listen in. If you are looking for a way to break into team operations – you better listen in. If you are looking for entry level work that has a high career ceiling – again, you better listen in.<br> <br> There are opportunities connected to security – and just to drill that point home – when I search on WorkinSports.com for the keyword security – 402 jobs come up including a Manager, Major Events for the USTA. Which drives home my point – if you want to work in events, better know security.<br> <br> We’re switching up the format a bit now that we have gone to two podcasts a week and eventually three…we’re going to do fan mail questions on Mondays podcast and then stick to the deep dive interview on Wednesday…so if you have a question for Monday’s podcast – email me bclapp at workinsports.com!<br> <br> But now let’s jump into my interview with sports security expert and author of “What’s Your Plan” James DeMeo:<br> Questions for James DeMeo, Sports Security Expert<br> <br> * James let’s jump right into this – we’re going to talk a lot about recent security events like the Las Vegas shooting, but first I want to talk about jobs in sports security - with security issues at the forefront of society in many forms, there has to be a high demand for these types of jobs – if someone listening wanted to be a part of the safety and security of the sports world, how can they become involved – what type of training would they need and what kind of opportunities are there?<br>
