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2017… Another Record-Setting Year for The FCS

2017 Highlights:

The Financial Communications Society was founded in 1967 as the Advertising & PR Association of Wall Street.  In this our 50th Anniversary year, we’re proud to have hosted 50 events across the U.S., including content-driven, social, and charity fundraising events in:

Most recently, we staged our 12th Annual FCS Financial Marketer of the Year Gala, honoring Andrea Riley of Ally Financial; and we also awarded the 2nd Annual FCS Jamie E. DePeau Leadership Award to Caroline O’Connell of BNY Mellon.  PHOTO GALLERY.(use password FCS2017)

In Charlotte, we staged an important, timely luncheon on “Seeking Transparency in the Digital World.”  Read a related article and watch an informative video from one of our speakers.

In Chicago and New York, we shined a spotlight on “Marketing Financial Services to Women.”  Read a recap of the Chicago event and the research report for the keynote presentation; Listen to audio recordings of both the presentation and the panel discussion.

“Fearless Girl” was one of the highlighted marketing campaigns that took center stage at our monthly CMO luncheon series in New York.  In addition to Stephen Tisdalle of SSGA, other featured speakers included:

  • Lou Paskalis, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
  • Jaime Kalfus, JP Morgan Asset Management
  • David May, AIG
  • Patrick McLean, TD Bank
  • Lea Stendahl, E*TRADE Financial
  • Jill Kremins, BNY Mellon Wealth Management
  • Matthew Quale, Brighthouse Financial

During our FCS Exchange evening, we heard three personal talks from Denise Karkos of TD Ameritrade, Colin McConnell of Prudential, and Berta Aldrich, winner of the inaugural FCS Jamie E. DePeau Leadership Award.

In San Francisco, we staged a record number of events, including breakfast series covering Content Marketing and FinTech, as well as our first West Coast Young Members Circle (YMC) event.  In New York, YMC held four events, setting a new annual record for ticket sales.

From three CMOs featured at our Philadelphia fall event to our Boston panel tackling how economists are dealing with a new White House, our focus has been on the quality of the talented professionals on our stage.  This was especially apparent at our two summits:  in October we presented “The Power of Culture in Financial Branding,” and in March, we partnered with the UN Foundation to present “Brands for Impact.”

Overall, we welcomed 180 speakers in 2017, including 109 clientside senior professionals, representing 63 brands, as well as 54 agency executives and 17 media partners, who typically served as panel moderators.
Managing attendance of 1,500+ unique visitors at our events was greatly improved with our new website, which launched last January, and has been instrumental in helping grow our dues-paying membership by more than 10% this year.

Of course we could not produce all of our fantastic events without the generous support of our sponsors.  In 2017 we had a record-setting 94 companies participate as sponsors.  We thank them all for their continued support of the FCS’ mission of Education, Community and Philanthropy.

Having raised and donated more than $2.3 million since 2000, we remain committed to directing the prosperity of our growth to benefit our selected children’s charities from coast to coast.
And that begins on January 4th, up at Stowe, and on January 10th, when we open the Call for Entries for the 24th Annual FCS Portfolio Awards.  The awards gala will be held on Thursday, May 10th at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City, where we’ll announce our charitable donation for 2018.

On behalf of the FCS National Board of Directors, our Regional Board of Directors, and all the volunteers on our many committees, we wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.