July & August 2016 Credit Management magazine

CICM BRANCH NEWS
KENT BRANCH
CROSS BORDER CREDIT COLLECTIONS AND INSOLVENCY CONFERENCE
WORLD TRADE CENTRE LILLE
BLEARY-eyed but full of excitement, around
70 CICM members and guests filled up almost
two coaches on the first Eurostar train of the
day from London St Pancras for the Kent
Branch’s second visit in five years to the World
Trade Centre (WTC) in Lille. The event was
opened up to all branches and attendees came
from as far afield as Wales for a very interesting
and entertaining conference.
There was little chance for sleep on the
outward journey as the networking began
in earnest. By the time the train rolled in to
Lille-Europe around 9.30am local time, new
contacts had been established and friendships
formed.
Following the coffee and pastries at the
registration it soon became clear that the
CICM contingent had outnumbered our French
counterparts from the AFDCC (French Credit
Management Association) and it was decided
to run the conference in English (much to the
dismay of those who wanted to brush up on
their French language skills and listen through
CICM WEST
MIDLANDS BRANCH
SUMMER BBQ
THE West Midlands Branch held their annual
summer bbq on 1 June, at The Studio,
Birmingham. The event was kindly sponsored
by Badenoch and Clarke. Although there were
a few non-attendees on the night, a great
time was had by all, and there was plenty of
excellent food for everyone to enjoy.
Author: Richard Berger MCICM.
the dainty headsets!).
The conference opened with an enlightening
presentation from Nord France Invest on
key sectors, business opportunities and
the strengths of the region, which has seen
the third-highest total inflow of foreign
investment in France and is now home to
1,650 international companies with 97,000
employees.
Laurie Grzechnik, Operations Director, WTC,
then explained the role of the WTC before
Pierre Haincourt, Kent Branch Committee,
delivered a very informative explanation on
the new EU Cross Border Procedures for
debt recovery. The talk included a number of
handy tips for minimising the risk as well as
one or two anecdotes from Pierre’s collection
experiences.
Simon Paterson, Branch Treasurer then took
the conference to another level beginning with
a well-researched history of bankruptcy right
through to the modern day phenomenon of EU
bankruptcy tourism. As ever, Simon’s ‘tongue
in cheek’ talk was laced with incredible facts
and thought-provoking statements and was
well received.
The final two speakers were from the
AFDCC; Nathalie Roux, Vice President in
charge of international relations and Vincent-
Bruno Larger, Secretary General. Nathalie
explained the mission of the AFDCC, which
was formed in 1970, was to promote credit
management in France through its 13 regional
branches.
Vincent concluded the Conference with a
summary of a survey conducted in 2015 with
150 businesses on the subject of payment
delay, DSO figures and the consensus that
creditors would like late payment charges to be
made mandatory!
Judging by the incredible amount of thank
you messages received in the days after the
event it was certainly a great success; so much
so that Nathalie and Vincent from the AFDCC
will be attending the Turner Lecture in October.
Author: Kevin Artlett FCICM ACII.
The recognised standard in credit management
www.cicm.com July / August 2016 53