The mega conference began Tuesday, March 25, with the 8th Annual Marketing Forum. In the Forum's first general session, Building Customer Relationships with Multicultural Consumers, Scott Roskowski, vice president of sales and marketing for Univision National Sales and Joe Castro, executive vice president of Zubi Advertising discussed a variety of cultural, logistical and practical factors that need to be considered when developing campaigns for the multicultural markets.

The session on Challenges and Issues Affecting Credit Reporting, Tony Hadley, director of Government Affairs for Experian, Rob Hogan, senior vice president, Data Management and Customer Service for Equifax, and Barry Botruff, executive vice president of TransUnion discussed an array of issues, including upcoming legislation related to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), identity theft and data quality.

Another session dealing with the latest in e-commerce gave the audience an opportunity to ask the speakers (and each other) questions, share insights and offer their views on the still-emerging area of e-commerce. Speakers for the session was George Halloran, vice president, strategic planning office, Ford Motor Credit Company, Dan Barnett, director, consumer lending e-commerce, Household Finance Corp. and Brad Wamsley, senior vice president, Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing.

The luncheon speaker was Reggie Williams, vice president of Sports and Recreation for Walt Disney World Resort.

Marketing Forum participants participated in consecutive roundtable discussions on auto finance, home mortgage, and personal loan marketing. The Forum concluded with a roundtable summary discussion.

The 7th Annual Auto Finance Forum & Exposition began with a welcoming reception on Tuesday evening, March 25. On Wednesday morning, Richard Mossburg, chairman of the AFSA Auto Finance Division and senior vice president and general counsel of AmeriCredit Financial Services, Inc. gave a report on AFSA initiatives for the Auto Finance Division. Susie Irvine, president and CEO of the AFSA Education Foundation, gave a report on consumer education initiatives relating to vehicle financing.

Dennis McCuistion, host and executive producer of the award winning McCuistion Program on PBS, returned this year to facilitate the CEO panel of specialty and prime auto lenders who shared their views on current marketplace issue and challenges impacting their business. Panelists included: Brent Burns, president, World Omni; Don Gottwald, managing director, Saab Financial Services Corp.; Steve Lambert, president and CEO, Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp.; and Walter Menezes, president and CEO, Household Auto Finance Corporation.

John Freeman, vice president of E-Standards for AFSA, along with panelists Daniel Doman, vice president general counsel, RouteOne LLC; Michael Jurecki, CEO of RouteOne LLC; Mark O'Neil, president & CEO, DealerTrack, Inc.; Joseph Sack, executive vice president, Bond Market Association; Howard L. Tischler, president and CEO First American CMSI; and Mark Zalewski, director of E-Standards for AFSA, briefed participants on AFSA's initiatives to develop standards for electronic contract management systems in a session on The New World of Electronic Auto Contracts: Impact on the Auto Finance Industry and Your Company. More information

AFSA's vice president of state government affairs, Rick Covert, vice president of federal government Affairs, Monique Gaw, and Muzette Hill, chair of the AFSA Auto and State Government Relations Committee and counsel, Strategic Initiatives for Ford Credit discussed the emerging legislative issues affecting both specialty and prime lenders in the areas of privacy, vicarious liability issues and perspectives on subprime lending at the federal level.

The afternoon started with a lunch with the exhibitors followed by a session on dealers' perspectives on e-merging issues in the new e-era of auto financing led by Andrew Koblenz, chief operation officer, Industry Affairs at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA). Panelists included Joe Chavara, president Central Florida Lincoln Mercury; Mike Collier, president Collier Jaguar; Paul Monarch, vice president, Finance and Insurance, AutoNation, Inc.; and Jay Rosario, president, Rolling Hills Ford.

Participants had a chance to meet in a round table discussion to recap the issues of the day. The afternoon ended with Thomas Hudson, senior partner, Hudson Cook LLP and Christopher Taravella, vice president, general counsel, DaimlerChrysler Services North America giving the latest developments in arbitration, fair lending, credit reporting, privacy and consumer education in a session on E-Merging Legal Issues Impacting Auto Financing.

The 20th annual Independents Conference and Exposition began Wednesday evening (March 26) with a welcoming reception for Independents Conference attendees and exhibitors.

Jeff Snyder, president and chief operating officer of Mission Financial Services, gave the Section address Thursday morning followed by the keynote address by Ann Coulter, political analyst, author and attorney. During the opening session, Barbara McFadden, chairman, Motorists Acceptance Corporation, was awarded the 2003 Outstanding Independent. Mike Cameli, vice president of Harris Trust Bank, Russell Cross, president of Wells Fargo Financial Preferred Capital, Terry Keating, senior vice president of LaSalle Bank, Jerry Kopitsky, vice president of Bank of America, Lori Mitchell, senior vice president of Hibernia National Bank and Tom Pagnani, investment officer at CapitalSource participated in a funding panel moderated by Dennis McQuistion. After lunch, participants had the opportunity to visit informally with the representatives from the funding companies who participated in the panel. Each company conducted its own informal Q&A session in individual meeting rooms.

On Friday, AFSA Chairman of the Board, Ray Biggs, president and chief operating officer of Security Finance Corporation of Spartanburg, gave an update on current events facing AFSA and the financial services industry. Read speech.

Members of the AFSA government affairs department along with Phil Hitz, vice president, Government Relation for EquityOne, Inc., gave a federal and state legislative update. During the operations round table, participants had the opportunity to discuss issues at the branch and headquarters level including: the RSM McGladrey annual survey results of their annual financial performance survey for AFSA Independents and other independently-held finance companies across the U.S.; marketing to the Hispanic community, profitable ancillary products; and voluntary standards for auto finance contracts.

On Saturday, the last day of the conference, Rocky Bleier, legendary NFL running back with the Pittsburgh Steelers was the guest speaker during the "Breakfast of Champions." The 2003 Outstanding Independent Employees Award presentations were given during breakfast. The morning ended with round tables discussing personnel issues, how to use the AFSA legislative database, mergers and acquisitions and an open discussion on any topic.