Exploring the Top Tech Drivers of 2022

If you’re like many equipment finance professionals, where you work and how you work have evolved considerably over the past two years—and technology has played a large role in that transition. To help you navigate the rapid-fire pace of continuous change, ELFA has unveiled plans for the much-anticipated 2022 Operations & Technology Conference, Sept. 12-14 in New Orleans. The conference is back in-person for the first time since 2019 and the planning committee promises it will be an event to remember.

“We’ve not met in person in three years, so the Operations & Technology Committee has been thinking about this conference for a long time,” says incoming conference Chair Tawnya Stone, Vice President, Strategic Technology, at GreatAmerica Financial Services in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She adds that in preparing the agenda, “We have had lively discussions… and have great sessions planned.”




”To have some tangible ideas that can be implemented when we all go back to our home offices is priceless.” 
Candace Reinhart, CoreTech Leasing, Inc.

Hot Topics

Since so much change has impacted the workplace and our industry in general, there is a lot of ground to cover, says Committee Chair Jennifer Martin, Senior Vice President, Sales Enablement and Initiative Support at Key Equipment Finance in Albany, New York. “We want to be timely, relevant and want people to feel like they learn something that they didn’t learn through other avenues,” she says. 

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the hot topics impacting operations and technology in the equipment finance sector that will be addressed at the conference:

Leveraging Change: The sheer proliferation of technology during the pandemic ushered in enormous changes to the way many people work and do business. New collaboration and videoconference tools allowed employees to work from home in numbers never seen before. “As we started to think about the agenda for this year, the committee really focused on a number of facets around this ever-increasing velocity of change, how to manage and cope with it, and even how to leverage it,” says planning committee member Denis Stypulkoski, Founder and Principal of Reimagine Advisors, based in Long Valley, New Jersey. The committee began to focus on issues like how organizations can embrace and prepare for the continuous delivery of new capabilities that are driven by technology. 

Keeping a Human Focus: Amid challenges in the labor market, how can you build a team that will help your company prepare for challenges and opportunities that lie ahead? Remaining human-centered in this dynamic technological age is increasingly important, Martin says. Sessions will discuss how to embrace the technologies that kept members operational and efficient during the pandemic, while maintaining the human touch to ensure the best possible customer and employee experiences. As members welcome employees back to the office full- or part-time, that challenge is more evident than ever. 

“We have some session activity around project methodologies and staying agile, thinking about how you organize your infrastructure, so that you can take advantage of tools as they become available,” Martin says. At the same time, other sessions cover how to keep the personalization and human-centered nature that appeals to clients, she adds. The event’s final session is about human-centered design and how to apply this popular and effective concept to various business challenges. (See more in the sidebar.) 




“In our day-to-day lives, we’re competitors…And then when you get together…we’re people in the same industry, willing to talk about things.” 
Keith Goepfert, Huntington Equipment Finance





Fostering Diversity: The conference is also focusing on increasing diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in the industry and has sessions, as well as other events, designed to promote making workplaces welcoming to all people. A new interactive “People Power Breakfast” will discuss mentoring, hiring strategies, workplace initiatives and more.

Maintaining Security: The risk of being digital is top-of-mind for all businesses today. Sessions will address some of the emerging and ongoing threats to ELFA members as they shift more of their tech platform to a concentrated set of cloud and other tech providers.

M&A Solutions: Members have seen an enormous amount of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the industry. In a session on managing M&A, planning committee member Keith Goepfert, Solutions Architect with Huntington Equipment Finance, will share first-hand and industry-wide challenges when two companies become one. Having gained perspective from each side of an acquisition, Goepfert will share a peek behind the curtain and offer answers that can help members find solutions. “I’ve been through three or four of them in the last couple of years, so it’s kind of been my life,” he says. “We’ll discuss the many hidden challenges that merging and acquired companies are dealing with.” 

Collaboration is Key

The Operations & Technology Conference is well-known for being hands-on and delivering important takeaways that members can apply to their businesses, says Operations & Technology Committee member Candace Reinhart, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Experience Officer at CoreTech Leasing, Inc. in Newport Beach, California. 

“Being in-person gives us the opportunity to collaborate in ways that are hard to do online. You can have those ‘sidebar’ discussions that you can’t really do on videoconferences,” she says. “It’s great to all be together, and then, to have some tangible ideas that can be implemented when we all go back to our home offices, is priceless.”

In addition to attending the rich collection of sessions, Martin says there will be opportunities to reconnect with colleagues and meet new ones. A newcomers’ reception will give first-time attendees a chance to connect with other first-timers. Hosted receptions will allow ELFA members to network with attendees of the Lease and Finance Accountants Conference (which will occur at the same time as the Operations & Technology Conference) and the People Power Breakfast will be open to all who are interested in improving diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in the industry. (Pre-registration required.)

The conference even has a 5K Fun Run on Tuesday morning before sessions begin and a New Orleans Ghostly Legends tour on Sunday evening. (Pre-registration required.)






“If you’re not thinking you need to be here, think again.” 
Tawnya Stone, GreatAmerica Financial Services

Get the Most Out of the Conference

How can you get the most out of the conference? First, register and attend, Martin says. She says members are overwhelmingly enthusiastic about meeting in person in such an exciting city. “When we were planning, we kept coming back to, ‘How do we get people talking?’ It wasn’t about presentation after presentation. It was, ‘How do we get people networking at the tables? How do we get them to be more engaged? How do we fit in time for them to openly network?’” she says. The conference is designed not just for learning, but for connection. 

Goepfert emphasizes the importance of connecting or reconnecting with others. “In our day-to-day lives, we’re competitors. It’s all about the competition. And then when you get together, in my mind, we’re people in the same industry, willing to talk about things,” he says. 

Review the conference agenda and think about the sessions that will be most useful to you or in which you’re most interested, Stypulkoski says. Reinhart also suggests planning to share what you learned with others in your office to deliver even more organizational value from the conference. 

“If you’re not thinking you need to be here, think again,” Stone says. “I’d hate to see anyone miss out on everything that will be going on at this conference.” 

To learn more about the event and register, visit www.elfaonline.org/events.