General Session

This year's General Session opened with a lively and hilarious performance from Cher impersonator, Heidi Thompson, who fooled more than one attendee into thinking she was the real deal! Thompson even brought a number of Credit Congress attendees up on stage with her to participate in her act, which frequently left attendees in stitches.

The morning continued with an introduction and welcome by NACM-National Chairman Phyllis Truitt, CCE. "On behalf of the national Board and the national staff, I would like to welcome all of you to the 114th Credit Congress, our annual, national gathering of credit professionals," said Truitt. "All here are connected through the NACM organization, and for the next three days, we share the same goal: to sharpen our knowledge about commercial credit—the currency of today's global business economy."

Truitt presided over the morning proceedings, presenting the Board of Directors, including Chairman-Elect Kathy Tomlin, CCE, before turning the podium over to Honors & Awards Committee Chairman Dave Beckel, CCE, who presented this year's awards. Beckel himself was also honored at the General Session, both with a plaque from his fellow NACM-National Board members, in gratitude for his leadership as NACM Chairman through 2009, and also with the National Credit Executive Award. Beckel noted that his National Credit Executive Award would be the last one given by NACM, because beginning in 2011, the award will be renamed the O.D. Glaus Credit Executive of Distinction, in honor of O.D. Glaus, CCE the father of NACM's professional accreditation program who passed away earlier this year. "We can think of no better way to both memorialize and honor O.D. Glaus than to continually identify and honor those that possess the attributes and aspire to meet the goals that O.D. epitomized," said Beckel.

After the awards portion, Truitt then welcomed Chester Elton, motivation and recognition specialist and co-author of New York Times best-seller The Carrot Principle. Called the "apostle of appreciation," Elton delivered a rousing presentation to a room of rapt attendees, eager to take advantage of Elton's unique insights into the world of recognition-based management.

Elton implored attendees to engage their employees in a deeper way. "Engagement makes sense," he said. "It's just flat out good business." He also noted that, contrary to conventional wisdom, money isn't really the best motivator. "The average raise is 3%," Elton noted. "Is 3% life changing?" Instead, managers should work to recognize the best in their employees and make them aware of it. Employees want recognition and celebration, and Elton warned that general praise has no impact. It must be specific and timely he said, such as "I know you took extra time to finish this. Thanks." Elton added, "People may forget what you said or did, but they will not forget how you made them feel."

In addition to his motivational and, at many times, comical and even inspirational words, Elton punctuated his presentation with video clips, songs and audience participation, and threw out stuffed toy carrots and The Carrot Principle frisbees to the delighted crowd.