Keynote
The 2025 Small Business Lending Forum is thrilled to welcome leadership advisor and author, Diana Chapman as its keynote speaker.
Diana Chapman is an advisor to exceptional leaders who has worked with over 1,000 organizational leaders and many of their teams. As a founding partner at Conscious Leadership Group she has created and implemented professional onboarding and ongoing programs—based on the comprehensive body of work she developed with CLG co-founder Jim Dethmer. In addition to facilitating forums in the Bay Area for founders, venture capitalists, and CEOs, Diana facilitates Young Presidents Organization (YPO) Forums and Chapters worldwide. Diana co-authored the best-selling book, The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success, in 2015. She has been a speaker at TEDx, Mindful Leadership Summit, Wisdom 2.0, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Haas School of Business, YPO, and Kauffman Fellows. Diana lives in Scotts Valley, CA with her husband.
An Introduction to Conscious Leadership
In this interactive session Diana Chapman will introduce us to the meaning of Conscious Leadership and the key steps to be a more responsive leader versus a reactive one. You will get a chance to identify some of your own personal patterns that you can then be on the lookout as you lead yourself and others.
Registration
The Small Business Lending Forum is an invite-only event. If you received an invitation from Orion First, please click the link to register at Eventbrite. If you haven’t received an invitation and would like to attend please contact us.
Thursday, February 13
Opening Reception
› 6:00pm | Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass
Join us for a cocktail hour from 6pm – 7pm followed by dinner from 7pm – 10 pm.
Friday, February 14
Small Business Lending Forum
› 8:30am | Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass
Our forum this year includes notable presentations and multiple breakout sessions focused on current issues facing our industry.
Evening Event
› 6:00pm | Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass
Saturday, February 15th
Optional Charity Golf Tournament
› 9:00am | Whirlwind Golf Club
This year’s tournament is hosted on site at the beautiful Devil’s Claw course, designed by Gary Panks. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the Gila River landscape, you'll navigate through cottonwood, mesquite, saguaro, and palo verde trees, alongside native grasses and rolling terrain. Enjoy a day of friendly competition among colleagues and friends.
Forum Agenda
8:30am - 9:45am
Opening Remarks
Dave Schaefer, Executive Chairman and Founder, Orion First
Mark Johnson, Chief Executive Officer, Orion First
Keynote: An Introduction to Conscious Leadership
Presented by Diana Chapman
10:00am - 10:45am
Artificial Intelligence’s Impact on Financial Services
Explore the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence in the financial services industry. This session will delve into the future state of AI, examining how emerging technologies could revolutionize business processes and reshape the industry. Learn about the anticipated advancements in AI, from enhanced decision-making and predictive analytics to more sophisticated customer interactions and personalized services. Discover how these innovations could make financial services faster, more accurate, and more accessible. Understand the potential implications for businesses and individuals, and how the balance between automation and human interaction might evolve. Join us to envision the future of financial services and the profound impact AI could have on the industry.
Strategies for Successful Portfolio Sales and Purchases
Efficient portfolio purchases and sales are the lifeblood of our equipment finance industry. Mistakes in execution can be costly to all involved -- buyers, sellers, and servicer. Come listen to best practices from each perspective and ensure you're getting the most from your portfolio.
11:15am - 12:15pm
Leveraging Orion First’s Insurance Service to Help Your Business
Getting your deals closed quickly is critical in this competitive environment. Not having to worry about insurance as part of the workflow in funding contributes to the speed in closing deals. This session will focus on the benefits of the insurance program provided to Orion clients. The program allows Orion clients to not have to worry about insurance as part of workflow process when funding a deal; enabling clients to fund their deals faster with security that their interests are secure.
A Deeper Dive Into Conscious Leadership
In this session participants will dive deeper into the key steps and questions to ask yourselves to become a Conscious Leader. We’ll take a look at how to eliminate drama in the workplace and focus energy on constructive activities that increase the productivity of ourselves, our peers, and our organizations.
1:15pm - 2:15pm
Predictions in an Uncertain Environment
A new year with new administrations nationally and in many states brings uncertainty. In this session we’ll learn from industry leaders what their view is for the year ahead and the outlook for their companies.
2:45pm - 3:45pm
Enhancing the Customer Journey
Take a short journey with us as we walk through several strategies in leveraging AI tools, KPI growth, and employee development that have dramatically improved service levels and Portal Adoption in the last year, plus even more tools Orion has on tap to further this success in 2025.
Best Practices in Loss Mitigation
Loss mitigation is critical to portfolio performance and profitability. This interactive session will focus on participant experiences and best practices, compliance issues to be ready for, and trends in portfolio performance.
Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass
This luxury resort is just 11 miles from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), acting as the perfect gateway to Arizona attractions and the desertscape. Resort amenities are indigenous-inspired, from their Aji Spa treatments to their world-class Native American cuisine at Kai restaurant. Two championship golf courses were designed by renowned golf architect Gary Panks and feature original challenges with scenic desert vistas.
Take advantage of our exclusive room block, click the link below to secure accommodations at a special discounted rate for the conference.
Thank You Sponsors
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