news.cuna.org/articles/112359-harness-new-ideas-at-acuc
Jim Nussle

Harness new ideas at ACUC

Conference will push attendees, industry forward.

May 26, 2017

Every time you turn around, it seems, a new innovation or technology is reshaping the financial services industry.

Frankly, between new ways of harnessing big data, technologies that are reconfiguring the payments landscape, and an ever-increasing sophistication in mobile and internet banking, it can be hard to keep up.

Which is why, folks, we offer the America’s Credit Union Conference (ACUC) to connect credit union professionals with the tools, resources, and strategies they need to remain nimble and responsive in today’s dynamic and fluid marketplace.

For those who have attended this CUNA signature event before, this year’s conference, on June 25-28 in Las Vegas, will have a different look and feel compared with previous iterations.

We’ve upgraded our main-stage experience with a multimedia display that simply cannot be missed. We’ve merged the popular Community Credit Union Conference into the week’s activities, featuring a variety of breakout sessions and learning experiences for smaller credit unions.

We’ve added a two-day Women’s Leadership Workshop and offer an Executive Series to strengthen leadership skills across the credit union movement.

And we’ve organized the event into four distinct, themed days covering inspiration, disruption, resilience, and engagement.

We’re bringing in keynote speaker Brett Culp, filmmaker and co-founder of the Rising Heroes Project, who’ll describe how he recently turned the way movies are distributed on its ear.

To keep pushing the credit union movement to become disrupters in the financial services marketplace, we’re offering breakout sessions on digital banking, fostering a culture of innovation, wealth management, and real-time engagement, among many others.

We’ll also hear from keynoter Guy Kawasaki, one of today’s leading marketing innovators.

For the credit union industry to grow and thrive, we need to demonstrate resilience, a sentiment keynoter Mel Robbins will share. Out of sheer determination, Robbins reconstructed her flagging career into incredible success using, in part, her famous five-second rule.

Lastly, we must continue to strengthen engagement levels among our staff, members, and communities.

Workplace culture is becoming increasingly vital to an organization’s success, and we hope to spur ideas on improving your credit union’s culture with an address by Neil Pasricha. He’ll enlighten us on how to inject more joy into our professional lives.

Attendees also will get an update on the Credit Union Awareness Initiative, featuring a presentation on the new consumer research that will guide the CUNA Creating Awareness Advisory Group as it develops a national effort to create top-of-mind consumer awareness of credit unions.

As we head into ACUC, let me say that credit unions rightly pride themselves on their outstanding service to members. Consumer satisfaction surveys confirm that our unmatched service sets us apart time and again.

But the definition of service is changing rapidly, and we must be prepared to adapt. If we can’t provide the products and services consumers expect, that service excellence on which we’ve prided ourselves for so long might begin to suffer.

This is the purpose of ACUC: To ensure we aren’t missing anything as an industry and that we stay abreast of the strategies and tools that leading financial services providers employ so we remain relevant in the marketplace.

This lineup of speakers and breakout sessions, not to mention the vendor exhibit hall and our business partners, is right on the money in terms of the knowledge credit union leaders need to possess today.

Attend ACUC and you’ll leave as a stronger credit union professional—one armed with steps you can take to strengthen your operations back home.

Visit acuc.cuna.org to learn more. It’s going to be a heck of a few days. See you there.

JIM NUSSLE is president/CEO of CUNA.