According to advertisements for the event, the NACUSO 2010 Annual Conference promised to be BIG! SMART! BOLD! Boasting a dynamic lineup of inspiring speakers with unique, outside-the industry perspectives, this year’s conference held in Las Vegas, NV, April 25-28 proved to be an experience to be remembered. Credit Union and CUSO Execs, Board Members and Vendors were invited to the recent confab to take part in a series of applied workshops and breakout sessions focused on a common theme: Embracing and achieving a meaningful and transformative level of sustainability through collaboration and the networked business model.
NACUSO CEO, Tom Davis hosted the event and set the stage, encouraging credit unions to embrace the unknown. “What we do in this industry now will echo in eternity,” he remarked.
Jeff Russell, President/CEO of TMG Financial Services, began his presentation with the words “The future is already here… It’s just unevenly distributed.” (William Gibson) His focus, and a main theme throughout the event, “Collaboration will be most beneficial when we can leverage the collective balance sheets of credit unions to benefit consumers – to collaborate with capital.” The challenge to his participants – set aside everything you know about capital and business growth and the traditional credit union mindset, become an entrepreneurial visionary, and dare to consider the impact of a New Networked Business Model on the credit union industry.
Also discussing the need to embrace evolution of the industry was Sarah Canepa Bang, CEO, FSCC. Her presentation “The New Customer Facing Technology: Using Self Service Kiosks for Member Convenience and Continuity,” provided some thought provoking statistics about changing habits of consumer spending. According to a 2009 Self-Service Consumer Survey, 47% of consumers report they will ‘Always’ or ‘Usually’ use self-service when given the choice between a person and a self-serve option – this number jumps to 60% when considering consumers under the age of 35.
Randy Karnes, CEO of the Grand Rapids-based CUSO, CU*Answers and one of the presenters for the Thought Leader Sessions remarked about this year’s event: “The spirit of this year’s conference was different. Charged with making things happen, and more about designing and crafting new solutions than ever before. Collaborative designs and the tactics to deliver on the promise of big ideas were on everybody’s minds. From the opening speaker to the very end I felt that the attendees were engaged and eager to be part of what CUSOs could do to be a positive agent for the entire credit union industry. I left the conference eager to get started!”
Other speakers at the event included Jack M. Antonini, Former Vice Chairman, CEO & President, USAA Federal Savings Bank, Joe Batista, Director & Chief Creatologist, Hewlett-Packard Company, and many more. PDF versions of the slides from the 2010 Annual Conference Presentations are available for download at https://www.nacuso.org/2010/04/28/2010-annual-conference-presentations/#more-1886
