2025 International Pawn Symposium

The Pawnshop Consulting Group International Pawn Symposium is getting near!

Here is our tentative schedule of the litany of presentations we have lined up, and stay tuned for the social activity update coming on the next series of blogs. 

Tentative Schedule:

As most of you know by now who have been following our blogs, our event is to be held at the World Class Atantis Resort in the Bahamas. This is a 5-Diamond luxury resort with amazing amenities for individual, families, and much more. 

The ability to relax, share, and express input and knowledge with many like minded individuals while being pampered in these types of luxurious resorts is un-parallelled in anything going on in the Pawn Industry today.

Dates are set for October 12^th – 15^th.

We have set our theme for the 2025 event as:

IN SEARCH OF KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM IN ONE OF THE MOST ANCIENT INDUSTRY’S IN THE WORLD – TREASURE TO BE FOUND IN ATLANTIS!!

We have selected this venue as it provides relatively easy access to get to from many major cities, offers world-class resort amenities, perfect for group functions, and has many extracurricular opportunities for our groups to explore and enjoy and is family friendly!

Here is a link to the venue to check out for yourself:

Atlantis Bahamas Information Link Here

The 2025 International Pawn Symposium will be limited to only 100 attendees. Space is limited!!.

We set our attendance at manageable levels so that ALL attendees have an opportunity to fully benefit from the educational and social activities that WE engineer into our events.

Attendance fees for the event itself are only $1495 per attendee. This includes all meals, educational seminars, and social functions.

You can scan the QR Code below to register directly for the event, once confirmed we will send you a passkey link to reserve your hotel room, room block is filling up quickly!

We have negotiated a room block of standard rooms at the resort of $149 + resort fees.

Current Line UP of Speakers and Presenters

Pawnshop Consulting Group is proud to be participating with Surreal Diamond as the largest grower of Lab Diamonds on the Planet. Together we have created a brand specifically for the Pawn industry and it is call “SmartGrown”! They are one of our topline sponsors, providing high-level knowledge, skills, unlimited quantities and information on the lab diamond business from the worlds’ largest lab grower today. Their participation will be coupled with a range of show specials and some treasure hunting on top of hearing it up-close and upfront from the largest producer on the planet of LGD goods!

George Prout – SmartGrown Diamonds -How to Build a Pawn-centric Lab Grown Diamond strategy that maximizes the size of the Opportunity while minimizing the Risks. George and Smartgrown Diamonds, the consumer-facing Lab Grown Diamond brand built specifically for the Pawn retail vertical will lay out a road map for where Lab currently is and where it’s going, from the perspective of the world’s largest Grower, including a step-by-step plan for capturing market share in this critical category.

Bravo Systems – Steve and Tally Mack will be both presenting on a number of high-level topics — future of the industry as we know it, the next generations of technology and the benefits thereof. These two are without a double two of in the industry’s leading technology guru’s operating the largest technology platform for pawn on planet earth.

Kevin Prochaska –Kevin has held leadership positions at some of the most prominent pawn companies in the country, Mr. Prochaska has dedicated himself to helping select individuals strategically diversify their wealth and create long-term financial security beyond their primary income sources. For the past 22 years, Mr. Prochaska has served as the CEO of Lombard Financial Services, L.P., a pawnshop holding company with 11 locations in Northeast Texas, in addition to a single store he founded in 1988. Kevin’ will be doing a one-off presentation on business and life planning on legacy investing along with accumulating wealth and preparing for succession or other in the business journey in life. Something the majority of US fail to do from what I witness from a global client base.

Pawnshop Consulting Group – Jerry Whitehead will be providing a range of input, support, and education throughout the entire event. Starting with a grand overlook as to how the industry is trending currently and where we see it heading today and whole bunch more!

Mid-States Recycling – Jack Brown will be providing some high level introspect into the metals business, the trade itself, along with all the processes related to maximizing your returns and insuring your investments in metals and beyond. Jack is also a long-term Industry supporter! Jack will be doing a one-off presentation for this year’s Symposium as one of our high line sponsors and long term supporter of PCG.

2a.com – Sean Makovsky – High level educational and fully interactive seminar of current status, future, and how to make more business and money in the high-end luxury handbag business and more. Sean is also a highly skilled, long-term multi-unit Pawn Management specialist who can provide high perspective and results driven data on how these programs can be integrated to also maximize results and returns for your Pawn business.

PawnLeads – Jeff Trimble will provide introspect into high-level web technology, digital marketing, ad campaigns, text marketing, and so much more. Another interactive session and input on how to maximize benefits from utilization of text technology, email marketing, direct marketing and maximizing customer contact through constant contact and social media marketing and more on steroids.

Sam Read (pawnbroker, engineer, software designer, Marine, gold maven & more) – Sam will be providing a one-off multi-part Comprehensive Bullion Trading & Training program on steroids presented over several seminars at our event, worth every cent to show up for just this one!

Special Guest – EZ Corp – Nick Cohen – Director of Acquisitions (Special Projects) – This year’s symposium will be blessed to have Nick Cohen presenting at our event as well. He will be providing a high-level seminar on perspectives, projects, challenges, and related subject matter of the public company side of our business as well as engaging our participants in a wide range of open dialogue and subject matter. Another do not miss opportunity to hear it from one of the worlds’ largest pawn operations and what they see today in their multi-national business and then some.

Simple Pawn / LA Familia – John Thedford – John will be providing very successful and high-level views from the executive standpoint of ALL of the components they have successfully developed and implemented on building winning cultures in numerous organizations. John has successfully built numerous large scale multi-unit pawn operations in his career from Value Pawn, LaFamilia, Smart Financial, and now the Simple Pawn organization operating with more than 120 stores in multiple countries. John out of accounting school started out with Cash America and was involved in the pre-IPO for Cash America with Coopers & Lybrand back in the day and EZ Corp as well.

Eyeson – Roberto Doering – Eyeson has developed some of the most comprehensive surveillance and fully interactive POS system integrations technology on the market today. Hear it from the global leader of the next generation of surveillance technology and much more. These systems have the ability to fully integrate into POS systems, provide valuable store traffic data, flow, and manage comprehensive view and analysis of the physical store assets.

Jeff Wilhelm – Entrepreneur / Consultant – Providing a wide range of perspective from a long-term multi-store operator and his perspectives on team building, culture, compensation, and multi-unit management and more as one of the industry’s leading consultants today. Jeff is another multi-decade well-seasoned pawn professional who will be providing some introspect into some of the most successful pawn operations on the planet today. Hear it from the professional and meet and greet up close and up front.

Or Barak – P2M.ai – Born and raised in Israel, Or now splits his time between Tel Aviv and New York. He is recently married to his wife Eden, and outside of work, he enjoys cooking, traveling, long-distance swimming, and marathon running. Or is a tech-driven entrepreneur with a background that includes serving in an intelligence unit of the IDF and holding roles at Microsoft and Intel. Passionate about solving real-world problems, he founded P2M.ai after discovering the challenges pawnshop owners face in accessing traditional bank financing. Committed to truly understanding the industry, Or has personally visited over 1,400 pawn shops across more than 35 states in the U.S., working to build financial solutions designed to help pawnshops grow and thrive.

Justin Whitehead – Recent Graduate from TCU with his straight A – Masters, my son, and a long-term 3^rd generation pawnbroker inside, having grown up around our various family pawn operations and the Pawnshop Consulting Group. Justin will be providing a philosophical look at our industry from a historical point, sighting input from numerous philosophers and pointing in on our real mission in Atlantis – seeking knowledge and lost treasure in the lost city of Atlantis. Justin will be providing a deep reflection of all that it is we do as an industry and the human race today.

Link of our Blog Page – Check out All of our Blogs, Click Here

Jerry Whitehead

Jerry@pawnshopconsultinggroup.com

www.pawnshopconsultinggroup.com

954-540-3697