You’d know if you were at ACA International’s 2019 Convention & Expo. If you couldn’t be there, don’t worry-we’ll catch you up.
9/17/2019 8:30
Close to 1,000 attendees, including guests from nine countries, left San Diego energized for what’s ahead in the accounts receivable management industry after ACA International’s 2019 Convention & Expo in July.
The annual event combined valuable education and networking opportunities with direct interaction and insights from ACA’s legal and advocacy staff, who are hard at work on the judicial front and on Capitol Hill. Members also shared their expertise in a legal education series targeting technology, litigation trends, bankruptcy issues and more.
Of course, several of the education sessions analyzed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed rule for the debt collection industry as speakers attempted to answer attendees’ many questions about how the rule would apply to specific situations they often see in their collection businesses.
Panelist John McNamara, assistant director of consumer credit, payments and deposits markets, for the CFPB, had one consistent response to these questions: send comments to the CFPB.
The comment period ends Sept. 18 and at press time more than 9,000 commenters shared their feedback on the bureau’s proposed rule.
At convention, McNamara said stakeholders should describe not only what debt collection scenarios they believe the proposed rule doesn’t account for, but also how long they think it would take their company to implement the changes called for in the proposed rule—and at what cost.
Bringing the Industry Together
ACA’s Convention & Expo attracted several big-name speakers. Carey Lohrenz, the first female F-14 fighter pilot in the U.S. Navy, helped kick off the convention with her keynote talk on leadership. In 1994, when Lohrenz was deployed to the USS Abraham Lincoln, there were fewer than five female aviators on a ship of 5,000 male crew members. In a presentation sponsored by LucentPay, Lohrenz dug into what she learned though this experience and how she adapted to an ever-changing environment.
Another of the convention’s celebrity speakers, best-selling author Will Bowen, explained to the crowd how we can reframe our attitude about complaints. He told attendees that the average person complains 15-20 times a day, often without even realizing it, and his goal is to help people practice healthy communication skills. This includes speaking to people who can resolve your problem rather than speaking with (aka complaining to) people who can’t.
These are just some of the highlights from the 2019 Convention & Expo. Convention attendees also had a chance to give back to people in the local community and beyond through service projects and activities supporting the ACA International Education Foundation, ACPAC (ACA’s Political Action Committee), and the California-based nonprofit Operation Gratitude, which sends care packages to deployed troops, veterans, first responders and other service members.
Read more coverage of the event in the September issue of Collector magazine. This year’s hugely successful event will be a tough act to follow, but planning is already underway for ACA International’s 2020 Annual Convention & Expo, which will take place July 15-17, 2020, in Chicago. Mark your calendars!
Subscriptions to the Collector magazine digital edition and email notifications for each new issue are available for ACA International members by logging in to ACA International’s website here. Members and nonmembers can also purchase a print subscription. Nonmembers can create a guest profile on ACA’s website to subscribe to available publications.