BUG 2018 Recap
Another great year! Here’s to BUG 2018!
This past week, we hosted our 14th annual Banker’s Toolbox User Group (BUG) conference at the Hotel Van Zandt in Austin, Texas. We had a great time learning, networking and sharing best practices with other members of the Banker’s Toolbox family on how to stop financial criminal minds together.
The beautiful Hotel Van Zandt!
We kicked off the week with our Pre-BUG product workshop on Monday and Tuesday before our welcome happy hour at Max’s Wine Dive on Tuesday evening. The conference officially started Wednesday morning with a keynote speech from Steve Rizzo that was as funny as it was inspirational. He reminded us that change is inevitable, and we need to find our “humor being,” the funny in every day. Then, we settled in for the next 2 and a half days of education with our industry and product experts, leading general and breakout sessions, panel discussions and roundtables, covering a variety of industry hot topics.
Steve Rizzo was a great start to the conference.
The always entertaining Chuck Lewis, CRCM, joined us to talk about compliance – where it has been to where it is going. Special Agent Cara Rose discussed human trafficking and the role financial institutions play in helping stop it. Experienced law enforcement officers Stacey Ivie and Steve Gurdak, CAMS and attorney Elliot Casey talked about properly filing SARs to indicate money-laundering activity – and how to make sure your SARs get read. Chris Groshong and Joe Ciccolo, CAMS, CFE, AMLCA led two sessions to help attendees understand how bitcoin and cryptocurrencies work and what to expect as cryptocurrencies continue to disrupt the traditional financial system. Our own expert staff led a handful of panels and discussions on BAM+ tips and tricks, detecting fraud and the impeding beneficial ownership deadline, among other topics.
Between each session, attendees had time to network and reconnect while grabbing a small bite to eat or a fresh cup of coffee (how great were these Beneficial Ownership coffee collars?).
Here’s what some of the attendees had to say about this year’s sessions and speakers:
-On 16 Days Out Beneficial Ownership – “Jessica [Caballero] is an asset to your company. She is incredibly knowledgeable and willing to answer any and all questions on the topic.”
-On compliance with Chuck Lewis – “He was excellent. One of the best speakers I have heard. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a compliance topic so much. It made it easy to retain the information.”
-On using the right language in your SARs- “It was great to get SAR advice from an IRS agent. Most times it’s FBI and the IRS wants and needs different things. We really appreciated hearing from him.”
-On Risk Assessment – “Terri [Luttrell] is amazing. She’s so knowledgeable and entertaining as an instructor. Her materials and examples are pertinent and helpful to better understand the subject matter. She is able to hold the attention of her audience. All of the speakers are excellent, but Terri is definitely one of my favorite speakers to hear.”
On the overall conference:
-It was my first BUG and it was an awesome experience! There was lots of great information and the food and drinks were definitely a plus.
-I loved the customer gifts this year. The conference was informative and always great training.
– Another awesome conference put together by Banker’s Toolbox Staff. Very thankful for the opportunity to attend this great event annually.
-The Customer Dinner was so fun! I loved the slow-mo video/camera that was there.
Thank you to all of the attendees, speakers and Banker’s Toolbox staff who helped make BUG 2018 such a wild success. We can’t wait to see you all back in Austin next year for BUG 2019, April 8-10!
