2025 International Pawn Symposium At long
2025 International Pawn Symposium
At long last, Pawnshop Consulting Group is bringing the International Pawn Symposium back!
PCG promoted two of these events in the past, one at the Ritz Carlton in Naples Florida and the other one at the Ritz Carlton on five mile beach in Georgetown in the Cayman Islands.
Both of these events were oversubscribed and offered many in our community opportunities to learn from a litany of experts in a variety of fields and subject matter.
This of course coupled with luxurious environments with amazing delicacies and the ultimate in networking adventures and opportunities to share and enjoy in various group environments.
The ability to relax, share, and express input and knowledge with many like minded individuals while being pampered in 5-diamond resorts is un-parallelled in anything going on in the Pawn Industry today.
For 2025, the Pawnshop Consulting Group has chosen the world class Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas to host our 2025 event.
Dates are set for October 12th – 17th.
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!
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 and guaranteed to be over-subscribed.
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 all social functions.
We have negotiated a room block of standard rooms at the resort of $149 + resort fees, and are working on fees for the Cove and Reef private condominiums as well.
The Pawn Symposium website and official registration portal coming soon, till then, email us directly to reserve your spot. Once our block is full, we will close down the registration portal and other, and make plans on seeing our guests at the Atlantis in the Bahamas!
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!
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.
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.
Justin Whitehead – Recent Graduate from TCU with his straight A – Masters, my son, and a long-term 3rd 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.
David Johns –
David Johns was active in retail and financial services businesses from 1964 to 2022 when he retired at 83 years of age to take care of his wife, Sara, who has advanced illness.
During his 58 years in the workplace, he served as an officer of four pawn store groups, Value Pawn, La Familia Pawn, Premier Pawn and SMART Financial. The first twenty-five years of his career were spent as the Director of Human Resources for Sears Southeast, covering the HR Function for several Sears Southeastern Divisions. Following his time with Sears he served as an officer for the noted pawn store groups. Between officer assignments in the pawn industry, he provided consulting services to a number of privately held financial, retail and pawn entities.
He was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Pawnbrokers Association (NPA) for many years and served on several committees with that organization. David has been a guest speaker at NPA national conventions as well as several regional pawnbroker association conventions. Additionally, he has been a guest speaker over time at annual law enforcement conventions in Florida regarding cooperation between law enforcement and pawnbrokers. He is a graduate of Mississippi State University with a degree in Finance where he also completed course study for degrees in Economics and Industrial Psychology, now known as Organizational Psychology
In the past, David has authored a plethora of articles and training modules about human resources and talent selection for Sears, Cash America International, Value Pawn, La Familia Pawn and Premier Pawn & Jewelry. During the early 2000s he was a member of a blue-ribbon panel that presented four seminars each year titled Business Strategies and Solutions, typically held in Atlanta, Phoenix, Chicago and Dallas.
He is noted for his over fifty years of research and use of the Thurstone Temperament Schedule (TTS) to evaluate work groups and the financial productivity of these groups. The selection and training techniques used by David are recognized as being among the most effective in the retail and pawn industries.
David and his wife Sara live in Central Florida where they have been active in a number of charitable organizations for nearly thirty years. They have three children, eight grandchildren and one great grandchild.
SPECIAL PRESENTATION – TO BE ANNOUNCED FROM ANOTHER LONG-TERM HIGHLY RECOGNIZED PAWN PROFESSIONAL AND ENTREPRENEUR, STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFORMATION!