This year’s event began with golf at one of the most beautiful courses in the US – Pelican Hill. Then on Monday afternoon Messick, Lauer & Smith officially kicked off the event with Hot Topics for CUs and CUSOs in 2018. The room was packed and set the tone for another great meeting of minds.
A big thank you to Mastercard, our Exclusive Premier Card Partner for bringing NBA legend David Robinson to our event. David was gracious enough to attend an advocacy fund-raiser breakfast where we exceeded our fund raising goal! After breakfast David took to the main stage to tell the story of how blessed he was as a star athlete that he has devoted the rest of his life to turning those blessings into opportunities for kids. In an interview in 2001 titled “David, The Goliath of Giving” he said, “I didn’t have a lot to do with being 7-1, that was a gift. My talent as a basketball player was a gift. This is my opportunity to give back. My whole motivation is to please God, to be responsible to Him. God has given me more than I ever hoped for, so it’s my responsibility to give back.” That same year the Carver Academy opened its doors, with help from David Robinson. The goal of the academy is to provide low-income, at risk kids a chance for a quality education.
PSCU and CUNA Mutual Group were generous enough to bring us two more incredible keynote speakers: Bruce Kimbrell from the Disney Institute and futurist Anders Sorman-Nilsson and we were fortunate to have CUNA CEO Jim Nussle.
Each year we recognize greatness in collaboration, innovation and cooperation with CUSO and CU of the Year Awards. The winners this year are:
- CUSO of the Year: The Servion Group
- CUSO of the Year Runner-Up: CUProdigy
- New CUSO of the Year: OnApproach
- New CUSO of the Year Runner-Up: CU Certified
- CU Collaboration & Innovation Award: Maps Credit Union
To read more about the award winners click here.
CUSO people are the unique combination of a cooperative heart with a brain for business. That’s why we call them the “cool kids.” Three years ago we branded the annual event the “Network” conference because we know this is where deals get done. A great example, was last year’s winner of the 2017 Next Big Idea Competition and one of this year’s judges Kris Kovacs, CEO of Constellation. He said: “There is no doubt that winning the NACUSO Next Big Idea Competition was the best way to launch the Constellation Digital Platform and our new CUSO. Following the win we raised $29M and signed up nine credit unions representing $20B in assets.”
The Next Big Idea Competition is the highlight of our event and this year’s was by far the most competitive. We had four amazing judges: 2017 Next Big Idea winner Kris Kovacs, CEO of Constellation, Bill Beardsley, President of Michigan Business Connection, Herb Wegner Award winner Sarah Capepa Bang and author of CU 2.0 and President and CEO of Ongoing Operations, Kirk Drake. If you want to read some of the funniest bios, click here.
The winner of this year’s 2018 NACUSO Next Big Idea Competition for the SECOND time is Keith Kelly, CEO of CU RateReset. Two years ago Keith won the competition with CU RateReset. This year he entered with Knocknock, a disruptive digital solution that provides bilateral interaction between the credit union and the member to deliver “just in time offers” based on real time triggers.
A big thank you to our record number of exhibitors that included our partners. We could not put on event of this caliber without your support. A big shoutout to Shawna Luna, who for the last 18 years has been putting out one great event after another.
