Build the Ideal Education Strategy for Credit Congress

NACM’s Credit Congress & Exposition is an annual conference established to bring credit professionals together from across the nation to network, learn about various topics in the credit industry and stay informed about the latest changes in the B2B credit world. But with the abundance of educational programs and professional growth opportunities, it can be challenging to know where to start—especially if it’s your first time.

Follow the NACM Career Roadmap

Credit managers can start their education strategy with the NACM career roadmap, which enables you to assess your professional accomplishments where points are awarded for both formal and continuing education, work experience, participation with your local and national NACM offices, as well as special activities in which you may be involved. Ronald Sereika, CCE, director of credit and client payment solutions at Mspark, Inc. (Helena, AL) earned enough points after completing his career roadmap to take the Certified Credit Executive (CCE) exam at Credit Congress years ago. “When I came back, I made the NACM career roadmap a requirement for any employees who wanted to move forward,” he said. “Employees who do this show me that they understand the basic credit principles, bankruptcy and can review financial statements. It made it easier for me to choose who I was going to hire once I knew what their designation was.”

John Zummo, CCE, CICP, senior manager of industrial credit at PCS Admin USA Inc. (Nutrien) (Deerfield, IL), who attends Credit Congress every year, has earned both his CCE and CICP designations. “Credit Congress was a great avenue to obtain my required CEU units,” he said. “Pick classes that’ll be applicable for your day-to-day credit role and classes on credit subject areas that you may not be responsible for today but might in the near future such as credit and business law. Apply what you learned into your daily responsibilities and let your manager(s) know what you’ve learned at the conference and how it’s helped you in your department. This can lead to promotions and higher leadership positions.”

Attend Sessions That Most Benefit You and Your Company

Each educational session has a detailed description that indicates how it could help you grow as a credit professional and benefit the company. For example, a credit analyst would benefit from attending a financial statement analysis course or a bankruptcy session. A young leader might benefit more from various leadership-focused sessions.

Sereika suggests credit professionals should first look at what their role is and what they’re currently doing and try to sit down with their boss to decide what educational sessions would be most helpful. “In order to express the importance of attending Credit Congress to your boss, take notes for each session and show what you’ve learned and the value of it for your company.”

It helps to look at the industry you’re in and then gear your course selection to what will benefit you and your company’s practices. For example, if you’re in construction credit, you’ll want to attend a session on mechanic’s lien laws. “No matter the sector you work in, learn as much as you can about the tools of the trade that will help you be the best credit manager fit for your company,” said Tracy Rosenbach, CCE, senior credit manager at Silgan Containers LLC (Toppenish, WA) whose company encourages her to attend Credit Congress. “I think education is vital for credit professionals. For those coming into the profession, take advantage of your local NACM affiliates, credit groups and attending Credit Congress offers many useful courses and networking opportunities.”

Select Sessions According to Your Level

Along with the certificate courses comes educational sessions that cover various topics from financial analysis and international trade to leadership and networking. Each session is labeled with its own level of difficulty so that participants know what to expect. “I really love that the topics are presented in different levels such as beginner, intermediate and advanced,” said Tracy Mitchell, AR senior team lead at Trinity Logistics (Seaford, DE) who attended Credit Congress for the first time last year. “So, if you’re coming in and you’re very new to credit, or if you’re coming in and you’ve been in credit for years, you know you can really tailor your experience to your skill level.”

Don’t forget to experiment and attend a session or two that you find interesting! You will be able to fit in some educational sessions for personal enrichment. “The fact that Credit Congress spans several days just really opens up those opportunities to take sessions that you find personally interesting as well as balancing taking sessions that are going to be more relevant to things that you’re experiencing in your own company right now and some sessions over both areas at the same time,” Mitchell said. “As far as monetary value, you can take that knowledge back to the office, build your own training space for your team and help the company reach its financial goals.”