April 20, 2016
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

 

Retail Analysis

Dennis Cantalupo, Creditntell

 

The session will include a comprehensive review of the current retail landscape, providing valuable insight into recent retail trends and the financial health of high interest retailers such as Sears/Kmart, Best Buy, Toys R Us, hhgregg and others.  Below is an outline of the discussion topics:

 

         i.            Economic Trends Impacting the Retail Landscape: An analysis of the economic trends that impact the retail sector including: unemployment, consumer confidence, personal   savings rates, the stock market and other measurements.

         ii.            The Creditntell Retail Bellwether Index:  The Creditntell Retail Bellwether Index tracks the sales trajectories of leading retailers such as Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Kroger, Amazon, Costco, TJX Companies, and others as a means to analyzing the broader trends across the retail industry.

         iii.            Growth in Online:  Tracking the continued consumer migration to shopping online.

         iv.            Spotlight Retailers:  Analysis of high profile retailers such as Sears/Kmart, Toys R Us, Best Buy, Amazon, and hhgregg.

         v.            Who’s Opening/Closing: A glimpse into which retailers are opening and closing locations, and the impact it is having on the competitive landscape.

         vi.            Warning Signs of Troubled Companies:  A review of how Creditntell analysts identify potential warning signs of troubled companies, using real life examples such as Sports Authority and Target Canada.

---

April 20, 2016
6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

 

Networking Dinner Event

"McGillin's Olde Ale House"

 

McGillin’s Olde Ale House threw open its doors the year Lincoln was elected president. That’s shortly after the Liberty Bell cracked and long before ground was broken for Philadelphia City Hall. The beer taps have been flowing since 1860 — making it the oldest continuously operating tavern in Philadelphia and one of the oldest taverns in the country. The Travel Channel names McGillin’s one of the Best Irish Bars in the U.S. Come and join us for dinner and camaraderie at this wonderful, historic location!

 

---

Thursday

April 21, 2015
8:30 –11:30 a.m.

 

Click file to download

Five Reasons to Set Your Hair on Fire and Five Reasons to Chill

Dr. Chris Kuehl, Armada Corporate Intelligence

 

The year started with a series of crisis situations and every month there has been something to add to both the sense of panic and calm. Dr. Kuehl, author of the daily BIB newsletter, talks about; Where are we now? What does the rest of the year hold - more of the same turmoil or will see some real recovery before the year ends?

April 21, 2015
12:45 – 2:00 p.m.

 

Click file to download

5 Ways for CFOs and Credit/AR Leaders to Reduce Bad Debt and DSO

Shankar Bellam, Sr., HighRadius

 

Credit and Accounts Receivable Departments are major drivers in improving company financials by controlling risk and bad debt, and by collecting on outstanding debts.  New technologies have enabled finance executives and credit and AR leaders to quickly empower these teams to achieve exponential improvement in performance, including strong reduction of DSO and virtual elimination of bad debt by realigning team resources and focusing them on making high impact decisions. This transformation has been enabled by new capabilities that have facilitated 90% automation in previously manual tasks.

 

In this session, you will learn how to:

• Free up and reallocate cash application resources to higher value activities such as collections and research by fully automating payment processing and cash application with Artificial Intelligence
• Realize immediate efficiency gains and cost savings by eliminating clerical data collection tasks across AR, including retrieving remittance advice and claim backup from customer portals and credit reports with Web Aggregation
• Minimize bad debt across thousands of customers by putting in place a proactive credit management process with credit management automation
• Eliminate trade deduction backlog and free up cash by automating processing and validation of trade deductions and matching to available programs and funds with trade promotion automation
• Improve collections effectiveness and get paid faster across all customers by eliminating manual effort to send collections correspondence to non-strategic accounts with correspondence automation

---

Thursday

April 21, 2015
12:45 – 2:00 p.m.

 

Click file to download

 

I Want My Money!! – Cashing in Receivables Through Collections and Litigation

Bill Creim, Creim, Macias, Koenig, & Frey, LLP & Jim McConville, Allen, Maxwell & Silver, Inc.

 

An entertaining presentation designed for credit professionals of all levels of experience. The program includes a comprehensive overview of all phases of litigation with emphasis on practical advice to maximize collections through quick and cost effective litigation. Topics covered include:

1. Identifying potential sources of collection

2. Analyzing collectibility

3. Determining the likelihood and possible effect of bankruptcy

4. Using workouts to improve your position

5. Beginning litigation

                        - Appropriate type of lawsuit

                        - Choice of courts

          6. Prejudgment remedies

                        - Replevin (claim and delivery)

                        - Attachment

          7. Keeping litigation cost effective

                        - Discovery

                        - Settlement analysis

                        - Trial

                        - Types of judgment

           8. Collecting on judgments

Each attendee receives a detailed easy to follow handout of the materials to be covered.

 

---

Thursday

April 21, 2015
2:15 – 3:30 p.m.

Jessica Butler, Attain Consulting Group

 

During this information packed session, Jessica Butler will share the results of Attain Consulting Group’s 2015 Customer Deduction Survey.  Over 500 companies across more than a dozen industry groups responded to questions covering topics such as deductions as a percent of sales, recovery success and keys to overcoming challenges.  Learn about the most current practices being used to manage deductions and hear the key differences across industries and company size.  Jessica will provide attendees with additional tools they can use to evaluate and benchmark their deduction performance, including her Deduction Management Maturity Model as well as Attain’s Deduction Benchmark Online Assessment Tool.  After entering 5-6 data points, this online assessment tool will automatically calculate a company’s performance against the 2015 survey benchmarks and provide improvement tips & suggestions.  All attendees will receive a copy of the Customer Deductions: 2015 Benchmark Survey publication.

April 21, 2015
2:15 – 3:30 p.m.

Joe McNamara, Equinox Global, Inc.

 

Over the last five years a significant proportion of big credit insurance losses have resulted from accounting irregularities. They are almost impossible to predict by any credit agency model or process and remain difficult to predict where they will strike next. Fraud does not discriminate. Improper revenue recognition is the most common type of fraud identified, followed closely by expense manipulation and improper disclosure at both bankrupt and non-bankrupt companies alike. We have sophisticated regulation in the US, such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), passed in 2002, to protect shareholders and the public from account errors and fraudulent practices, yet none of the regulations and rules have stopped fraud occurring.  The SEC’s push to step up its policing of accounting fraud has led to a surge of cases and investigations, new agency figures show an upturn, the SEC’s first year-over-year increase in such enforcement actions since 2007. In the last eighteen months alone we have seen a number of high profile cases notably the collapse of OW Bunker, one of the world’s largest marine fuel traders and Tesco PLC’s fall from grace.  No matter the size or reputation of a company, it will have vulnerabilities; nothing is risk free and unanticipated and unpredictable failures or fraud can and do occur.

April 21, 2015
3:45 – 5:00 p.m.

 

Click file to download

 

Keynote: War Stories on Increasing Sales, Protecting Future Receivables, and Surviving Bankruptcy

Bruce Nathan, Lowenstien Sandler, LLP & Wanda Borges, Borges & Associates, LLC

 

This program will provide credit professionals a rare glimpse into the development of strategy to maximize leverage and recovery and minimize risk from financially distressed customers prior to and following their bankruptcy filing.   Presented in a relaxed and entertaining story format, attendees will hear two of credit’s favorite attorneys recount some of their most fascinating cases in high stakes battles with debtors that are spiraling towards or already in bankruptcy. Creditors will learn how they may actually increase sales while protecting future receivables.   The consistent theme of each of these stories is how knowing your rights and responding appropriately can make high risk situations more manageable and profitable. From these stories and the real life lessons learned, credit professionals will discern the means to continue  to sell to financially distressed customers and minimize the risk of nonpayment of their claims through the use of various protections, including security interests, letters of credit, and guarantees.  You will learn how to turn potentially bad situations into ones where risk and expense is minimized and recovery is maximized. In each case, the discussion will begin with the creditor’s identification of early warning signs of its financially distressed customer’s potential future bankruptcy and the creditor’s use of that information to impose restricted credit terms and obtain protection from risk that increase the likelihood of payment of future receivables.  This program will include discussions about:

       The proper exercise of Uniform Commercial Code Remedies, such as