Northfield, IL, October 9, 2014 – Richard Hastings, Macro Strategist for Global Hunter Securities (a Division of Seaport Global Securities LLC), will discuss the economic outlook for media credit at the BCCA Media Credit Seminar. Scheduled for Thursday, November 6, at the McGraw-Hill Building in New York City, the opening keynote address will kick off a full-day seminar focusing on high level credit-related issues offered by BCCA, the media industry’s credit association.
Hastings tracks and forecasts a wide range of trends in the energy markets, the stock markets, and in the domestic and international economies to provide GHS clients with insights into major inflection points. He monitors high level views on oil markets, natural gas, motor gasoline, fuel movements and demand, housing and construction, labor utilization, stock market macro forecasts in addition to other insights into key macroeconomic data and market trends.
“Richard Hastings has his finger on the pulse of the economic factors that are of particular interest to credit and collection professionals in the industry’s magazine, newspaper, television, radio, cable, out-of-home, interactive and digital media segments,” said Mary M. Collins, President & CEO of BCCA and MFM, the Media Financial Management Association. “Not only do developments in these sectors of the economy influence who will buy advertising, their health will affect the credit outlook of media customers whose businesses are closely tied to a particular segment of the economy, such as housing.”
Hastings is well known for his warnings in 2006 and 2007 regarding the housing market and subsequent financial crisis, and later for his early call, during December 2008, that the market was oversold and would enter a major bullish reversal starting in early 2009. Other important forecasts included his targets for the S&P 500 which accurately predicted the ascent of the broader stock market into 2014, and his views from 2012 that monetary policy accommodation and low interest rates would prevail longer than was the consensus view.
Hastings began his career as a credit analyst in the garment center in New York, as a senior analyst at Solo Credit, analyzing the textiles, apparel and retailing industries. He later worked as the Vice President and Senior Retail Credit Analyst for Bernard Sands, and served as the Economic Advisor for the Federation of Credit. He joined GHS in May 2008. In addition to being a guest speaker at industry conferences, Hastings’ comments appear regularly on CNBC.com, MarketWatch.com, Bloomberg News, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires and other business media outlets, both domestic and international.
Hastings’ discussion of the “Media Credit Economic Outlook: Now and in the Future,” will be followed by educational sessions addressing the latest developments affecting media credit and collections, including Going Paperless, Understanding & Leading a Multi-Generational Workforce and Digital Media Sales. There will also be sessions focusing on: legal matters affecting credit and collections practices; the advertising agency’s process; and the latest developments for EMCAPP, the industry’s Electronic Media Credit Application.
The event also serves as an opportunity for media credit professionals and executives from across the country to come together to share ideas and best practices for the ever-changing media credit and collections function. It will also feature a closing reception that is open to all attendees and reception-only registrants as well as a mini-expo for companies and organizations that support the industry’s credit and collections programs to provide updates on their products and services.
The registration fee is $295.00 for the first attendee from a media industry company and $205.00 for each additional employee from the same company. The full-day fee for industry vendors is $425.00. Seminar registration includes breakfast, morning and afternoon breaks, luncheon, cocktail reception, exhibits and materials. The fee for attending only the closing reception is $45.00. More information may be found on BCCA’s Web site, at http://www.bccacredit.com.
About MFM and BCCA:
Media Financial Management Association (MFM) is the premiere resource for financial professionals for media industry education, networking, and information sharing throughout the U.S. and Canada. More information about MFM is available on its Web site: http://www.mediafinance.org. Its BCCA subsidiary serves as the media industry’s credit association. BCCA’s revenue management services include a variety of credit reports on national and local media advertisers and EMCAPP - the Electronic Media Credit Application. More information about BCCA and EMCAPP is available at http://www.bccacredit.com and www.emcapp.com.
