The Financial Communications Society is proud to welcome fellow financial marketers and communicators from the IFCA.
Like the IFCA, the FCS has a long proud history of organizing professionals in our field with the goal of improving the standards of our creative and strategic work and building a community to help each of us expand our personal and business networks.
We invite you to explore our web site (it’s brand new, having launched on Jan. 23!) to learn all about the FCS. We’re sure you’ll feel at home with the familiar values our organizations share. But you’ll also see important differences, which we hope you’ll embrace as new opportunities for you, your colleagues and your company.
The FCS specializes in staging live events. In 2016, we hosted 45 events across the U.S., nearly all of them involving content on financial marketing and communications. We also stage two major awards galas – check out the pages on the Portfolio Awards and the Financial Marketer of the Year. And we get together just for fun, too – on the golf course, the tennis court, the ski slopes, and sometimes just a bar stool.
One of the biggest differences you’ll see is that the FCS is a not-for-profit association, with a strong philanthropic mission. We support children’s charities with total annual donations exceeding $100,000.
BUT WHAT WILL BE NEW?
In welcoming IFCA members (with a one-year free membership in the FCS!), we’re expanding our footprint to now include Canada. And we’re committed to hold our first Canadian event in Toronto in 2017. Laurie Swinton, past president of the IFCA, will chair our Toronto event committee. We’re also going to adopt best practices from IFCA’s webinar series and introduce additional online programming (including podcasts) to complement our live events and deliver content to a maximum number of FCS members.
For 2017, we expect to stage more than 50 events in these cities:
- New York (home to our headquarters)
- Chicago (active chapter since 2010)
- San Francisco (active chapter since 2013)
- Boston (events since 2010)
- Washington DC (events since 2013)
- Charlotte (events since 2015)
- Philadelphia (first event held in 2016)
- Los Angeles (first event held in 2016)
- Denver (inaugural event in 2017)
- Toronto (inaugural event in 2017).
As you can see, we’re on a roll… and with your involvement, we can continue to grow.
I encourage you to reach out to me, or anyone listed on the Leadership page of our web site, to learn how you can get involved… and how the FCS can best serve you and your brand. Check out our Committtees — every event and activity is driven by a volunteer committee. And if you're under age 35, our Young Members Circle offers discounts and exclusive events.
To take advantage of the one-year free membership offered to IFCA members, email us at [email protected]. (This offer has been extended to 4/1/17.)
Cheers to the IFCA, we salute your storied legacy.
Today, we invite you all to join the FCS and make history with us.
Kevin Windorf
CEO, Financial Communications Society
