We can’t believe the ACT Annual Conference is almost here…and we’re excited to share with you news on new content and new formats! Preparations for the event are now in full swing and we will soon be ready to share the event brochure with the treasury community.
This year’s theme – STRONGER INFLUENCE, SMARTER INNOVATION, links to how treasurers are increasingly expected to plan for global instability in their organisations, make sense of technological innovation and take a strategic lead in navigating their business through risky disruption.
We had a chance to catch up with one of this year’s speakers, who will join us in Liverpool from Denmark. Here is his take on the event theme.
Rasmus Camborda Meilvang
Treasury Manager, Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia
Conference attendees will be able to read your official speaker biography on our conference app - tell us something about yourself that won’t be on your bio.
“I began working out recently and despite of almost 10 years of absence, I really enjoy the exercises even though my body struggles to find rhythm, which is actually pretty strange taking into consideration I’m partially from a Latin family. Besides from that I’m always up for a good glass of red wine and have been on numerous vineyard visits around the world and collect wines for my cellar selection.”
The theme for next year’s conference is Stronger Influence, Smarter Innovation. In your experience, what is the key to making innovation in treasury a reality?
“I hold a strong belief in RPA as a platform to release employees to use more time on what humans are born to do best, which is analyse, generate ideas and work together. This is where smarter innovative platforms like RPA will create an opportunity to either save FTE’s or allocate human resources to other important tasks. The big tasks for smarter innovation is to explain to your employees exactly what benefits the company will gain from implementing RPA in treasury, and equally as importantly what role the affected employees will take up once the implementation is done. My job as a manager is on one hand to implement smarter innovative treasury solutions, and on the other hand to motivate my employees to remain as important assets but with new tasks and responsibilities. I started with small processes and low hanging fruits, where everybody could see the benefits and the buy-in from the beginning was very easy. That way I had ambassadors, who would automatically understand the transformation benefits when taking on heavier changes.”
Continuing the discussion on the conference theme; there is a lot of discussion as to how the treasurer has become more strategic. How can treasurers ensure they are strong influencers in their organisation?
“I believe the most important role for a treasury manager (as any manager) is to grab the future and its technologies, so that whatever you and your department do is not only aligned with treasury responsibilities and deliveries, but also executed in the most effective way. With the financial crisis came tons of country / institutional regulations and restrictions alongside corporate governance risk focus, which in a way forced the inevitable process towards a strategic minded treasury function. I think that being RPA first movers within a company, you automatically position yourself at a strategic level, as RPA is something every company needs to grab on most levels.”
You’ll be joining us from Denmark at the conference next year– have you ever been to Liverpool?
“I haven’t been in Liverpool since the end of the 80’s visiting family, so I really look forward spending a few days together with other treasury experts in this lovely city.”
Find out more about the ACT Annual Conference by visiting the conference website here.