The 2018 ALTA SPRINGBOARD “Take Your Business to the Next Level” was held on March 20-21 at the W Midtown Hotel in Atlanta, GA. Several MLTA members attended the SPRINGBOARD this year and not only enjoyed the conference but also walked away with some very valuable information. They were collectively contributors to this report.
The events were kicked off on Tuesday morning by ALTA President, Steven Day, NTP, with the theme of “We Lead, We Deliver and We Protect”. Steven reminded all of the attendees of concepts like – Let your employees set their own goals; culture is huge in our industry; look at how Ritz Carlton created their culture and the importance of having a core value team. Steven then brought Atlanta-based rapper, Brandon Blue, on stage who help everyone “Find their Rhythm” which was a great way to kick off the conference.
During the opening session of the Ideas Festival Bill Svoboda, owner of CloseSimple, talked about staying customer-focused and reminded the attendees that with “Experience: You don’t need to Advertise a Good Party.” Bill also offered four tips to help companies succeed and ensure they are delivering a customer experience worth talking about. “Make their Customers Butt Look Good,” “Take off their Cape,” “Make Some Wins” & “Own Their Block,”
As the Ideas Festival continued our own MLTA President, John Bommarito, co-presented with Tamara Strickland from Fidelity National Financial, Inc. to talk about “Digital Closings Finding the Smart Path”. They discussed concepts from traditional wet signing; eClosing with in person, face-to-face with 100% digital documents and eSignatures; eClosing hybrid, again in person, but with some paper documents and lastly eClosing with Online Notary, transactions via webcam with 100% digital documents.
The Ideas Festival continued on Wednesday morning with Cynthia Blair, NTP, of Blair, Cato, Pickren and Casterline, LLC co-presented with Dawn Moore, of Allegiance Title Company, to talk about “Wire Transfer Frauds – Fool me Once”. Topics of discussion included Business Email Compromise (BEC); Phishing; and Social Engineering.
Brain Dating was held throughout the conference during breaks, lunches, etc. and was the concept of imagining if you could pick anybody’s brain at a conference what would you want to learn? Would you like to seek knowledge on best business practices; look for advice from fellow attendees, or find a new business solution? Many attendees set up Brain Dates with other attendees and found that this concept was a true added value to an already knowledge filled event. Added bonus that they made some new friends along the way.
Thank you to Michelle Korsmo, ALTA CEO, the ALTA Staff and Faculty and Steven G. Day, ALTA President and the ALTA Board of Governors for putting together another great conference and for consistently presenting essential information in our ever changing industry