Since 2004, we have provided the teams that set up, clean up, and protect fans at Alberta's concerts and music festivals, sporting events, and mass gatherings.
Today, we help businesses keep their people, property, and brand image safe with progressive security guards and training solutions that empower people to make great decisions.
It started at a rock show in 2004.
We were founded as Backstage Support Services Ltd. to provide stagehands to local Calgary shows. A year later in 2005, we entered the security guard business with a focus on crowd management and live entertainment. We quickly began to zero in on calm, compassionate de-escalation as our core principle for how we managed high pressure situations. As the music festival scene in Alberta grew, so did our team, and by 2008, we were the go-to security vendor for notable music festival properties like Virgin Festival at Fort Calgary, Monsters of Rock at McMahon Stadium, and Sonic Boom at Edmonton Northlands, among others.
In the beginning, the goal for starting this security agency was simply to make a better guest experience for the concertgoer. That was it. The thinking was - who could better manage these crowds, than the actual people that make them up? We never set out to be deliberately diverse. In fact, we primarily set out to hire security guards based on who had the right attitude. Therefore, nothing else mattered above how well the potential candidate could empathize, communicate, and learn. Most importantly, could we trust them to always do the right thing? Security experience and a license was largely unimportant - experience could be earned, and a license acquired. What resulted over the course of the next few years with this hiring philosophy in mind, was an incredible team of over 200 that was diverse, LBGTQ+ inclusive, aged between 18-70, and almost half female that represented the province's largest entertainment facilities and the world's largest concert promoters.
Nearly 20 years later, we are XA Security.
In 2016, the company re-branded to XA Security. We wanted to focus on who we are, rather than what we do. So after some amazing discussion about what makes us tick, we realized that what we love to do most is be helpful and facilitate great experiences for people. So we became XA - short for Experience Ambassadors.
Today, we extract the most professional and personal satisfaction out of making someone's day better. We just don't buy into the idea that security somehow must be synonymous with tough. We believe security should be synonymous with smart. We are here to support our public safety partners by being proactive, observant, and taking great notes. We celebrate how many non-physical de-escalation interactions we achieved in a shift.
Whether we are working in loss prevention, retail, construction, office, night patrol, or stage front at a show...
We excel because we know that for every one issue that needs a security response, there are ninety-nine that need a human response.
It's this awareness that is our difference.
President, Founder
Chris’ path into crowd safety and major event management began at the University of Calgary where he was Vice President Events on the Students’ Union in 2001. It was here that he was exposed to the fundamental values of tolerance, patience, and diplomacy in difficult crowd situations. In 2004, he founded the company to staff local live events. In 2005, he brought the company into the security industry and over the following 15 years, grew the team to over 800 with offices in Calgary and Edmonton, and has established the company as a recognized crowd safety leader.
Today, in addition to leading the XA Security team, Chris is also a respected production manager of concert tours, music festivals, and major ticketed events with global experience. Among his many roles, Chris is the Production Manager for Grammy Award winning recording artist Zedd, and the Festival Operations Director for the annual FVDED in the Park music festival in Surrey, BC which hosts 25,000 music fans annually.
His strong relationships with government agencies and regulators are a result of his collaborative approach to site operations and crowd safety, and his successful management of large, ticketed events on government properties.
He is the Vice-Chair of the Event Safety Alliance Canada, and a vocal advocate of elevating global event and crowd safety standards. He is driven by ethics, social responsibility, and community building.
General Manager
Establishing his work on a foundation of integrity, Graham Larkin is a longstanding finance/accounting professional who aims to help drive new levels of sustainable growth and team unification. As the Manager of Finance at XA Security, Graham features an extensive background involving the intricacies of strategic bookkeeping, accounting relations, and money management and enjoys leveraging that dynamicity to continuously help push the entire XA Security organization forward.
Throughout his career, Graham has built a strong inventory of industry progressions that have ultimately led to his current endorsed standing. To date, Graham earned an accounting diploma from Bow Valley College, began his career in the world of commission sales, and collectively spent numerous years supporting the bookkeeping and accounting sectors. During this time and prior to joining XA Security in 2020, Graham worked for a property management firm where he supported the accounting department, specialized heavily in analyzing income statements, and tapped into the small business realm where he guided numerous businesses towards achieving advanced financial scalability.
Off the clock? Though Graham loves what he does, when he is not working you can often find him weightlifting and powerlifting, BBQing, and spending time with his wife and two kids.
If you value safety, learning, and diong the right thing, a career with us might be for you.
We have great perks, like above average earnings, access to Alberta's best live events, and a management style focused on coaching, development, and growth.
We Plan. We Adapt. We Smile.
