The American Association of Commercial Finance Brokers wrapped up its virtual Commercial Financing Expo on May 7. The AACFB designed the annual expo to be fast-paced, with a variety of educational programming that ranged between 20 to 45 minutes in length as well as a trade show component allowing the more than 175 attendees and 33 exhibitors to network and connect.

The three-day event featured 15 educational sessions, a speed dating program, an hour of exhibit time each day, a trivia match and a happy hour. Thanks to the hard work of the planning committee, attendees learned about everything from marketing to legal issues.

The 2021 AACFB Virtual Commercial Financing Expo planning committee included Dan Casanta of Cardinal Business Financing, Cindy Downs of Heartland Capital Group, Laura Estrada of Preferred Capital Funding, Steve Felt of Creative Business Finance, John Igo of NewLane Finance, Wally Keane of American Lease Insurance, Charles Peterson of Calvert Commercial Financing, Carrie Radloff of American Financial Partners, Vickie Rocco of Entegra Capital, Anne Roslin of First Business Growth Funding, Kalah Sprabeary of HUB Funding Solutions, Brian Trebels of Equipment Leasing Group of America and Amanda Zeken of Smarter Finance USA.

Those who participated in the speed dating session got a sneak peak at plans for the 2021 AACFB Annual Conference. The conference will be the first live event for the association since September of 2019 and will be held at the Grand Hyatt in Nashville, TN, from Sept. 8 to Sept. 10.

“I was able to get some much-needed face time with my current lenders and meet some great new contacts,” Chet Zeken, an expo attendee, said. “The platform you all chose was amazingly easy to use and navigate. It was all very well put together.”

“While we can’t wait to get back to in-person events, the virtual expo was a great opportunity for our members to learn and touch base,” Monica Harper, executive director of the AACFB, said. “The 90s trivia game was a fun way for us to continue celebrating the association’s 30^th anniversary and the happy hour was quite entertaining, as our guest bartender, Hamilton Gilberg, demonstrated how to make signature cocktails. Hamilton is the brother of our happy hour host, Mae Philpott with Quality Leasing Co., Inc., so the atmosphere was casual and inviting with a lot of laughter. It was great to see so many familiar faces and welcome new ones.”