In early December, I attended the 2018 insideARM Women in Consumer Finance (WICF) event in Baltimore, Maryland. I was also joined by my fellow colleagues DeAnna Busby-Rast, Tracey Bannochie and Martha Hanson from DCM Services. This year was the first time this event had taken place, and the experience was met with rousing reviews from attendees! The crowd was comprised of women of all levels from across the consumer finance industry; collection agencies, law firms, banks, specialty vendors and any number of financial services organizations you can imagine.
The forum provided an opportunity for attendees to break away from their own day-to-day grind to focus on personal development through reflection and hands-on learning in a supportive environment. In the words of Amy Perkins, Chief of Content & Industry Intelligence for insideARM and the conference chair,
“Every woman’s professional journey is unique… but if you have had honest conversations with your colleagues, you know that we are more alike than different.”
It was refreshing to sit in a room with many other talented women who share similar passions and career aspirations. One of my favorite parts of the event was simply listening to other women share their stories, advice and lessons learned throughout their careers. The collective environment supported our collaboration, group reflection and open-mindedness, each an essential piece in the strengthening of our industry. New friends were made, and just as importantly, new mentor-mentee relationships were formed.
Martha, DeAnna, Vanessa, and Tracey enjoy the night in Baltimore at the WICF conference.
As attendees, we were lucky enough to experience an inspiring and thought-provoking keynote address by Joanna Bloor. Joanna is a TED veteran who helped us to understand that the way in which we talk about ourselves and our work has tangible influence on how we are perceived by others. Joanna’s inspiring keynote helped us identify ways to better speak holistically about ourselves in ways that will work to advance our careers.
Overall, it was a fantastic journey full of networking, collaborating and problem solving together. I returned from the event with new confidence, new ideas and new friends.
About the author
Joining DCM Services in 2004, Vanessa Anderson has worked with the organization for 13 years serving in several key roles, dedicating the last 8 years to the DCMS Business Development department where she leads our Probate Finder OnDemand®, implementation, and marketing teams. Utilizing her expertise in project and relationship management, Vanessa continually uncovers key client opportunities that maximize value as well as problem solve unique matters on client portfolios. Vanessa holds a Bachelor of Arts from St. Cloud State University in Political Science