The National Equipment Finance Association’s 2018 Finance Summit set an attendance record. The summit was held from March 14-16 in Las Vegas.

“I always enjoy meeting with the my fellow NEFA members,” said Tina Cawthorn of Orange Commercial Credit, who served as chairperson for this year’s Finance Summit. “So, it was a pleasure to be asked to be the chairperson for this event and especially for one which was so well attended.”

According to Gerry Egan, NEFA executive director and CEO, this year’s Summit set several new records.

“At just over 325, we registered the largest number of people we’ve ever registered for a NEFA conference. For our first time ever, we also had to turn away exhibitors because we ran out of space. We were also pleased to have a large number of first time attendees and new members attend this conference and we booked the most room nights we’ve ever booked at a conference hotel,” Egan said. “And on top of that, we had the most number of people stay until the very end.”

Mike Coon, of Amur Equipment Finance, NEFA’s president and board chairman, said, “This year’s summit was a very successful meeting on a lot of levels. The energy, confidence and optimism of the attendees was exciting to be a part of.”

On March 14, before the Summit kickoff, a golfing fundraiser was held to benefit NEFA’s Chris Walker Education Fund. Randy Haug of LeaseTeam, Chris Lerma of AP Equipment Finance, Nancy Geary of ECS Financial Services, Hugh Swandel of The Alta Group and Chris Enbom of AP Equipment Finance, the fund’s directors, organized the event, which raised roughly $5,000.

At lunch on March 15, Coon briefed the attendees about the current status of the association and the search for an executive director to replace Egan when he retires in October of this year. Egan also spoke to the attendees during the lunch on Thursday about the development and impact of NEFA’s Online Learning Center.