3 Take-Aways from the CUNA Marketing & BD Council Conference

by. Brian Nutt, Codigo

This week I attended the 2013 CUNA Marketing and Business Development Conference in Anaheim California.  I’ve been attending this conference annually for about 10 years and I always come away with something new and useful. Below are the things I took away from this year:

1. CUNA is strong  Conference attendance this year hit nearly 500 attendees with 100 new visitors. People were engaged and networking was as strong as ever. The new faces in the audience held particular value in my mind. Not only do new people bring fresh ideas but they represent continued investment by Credit Unions in their people. That is a strong message.
2. Cross Channel Curiosity  There were constant conversations in the halls about how to best leverage new promotional channels. Of the discussions I had, people were looking for the silver bullet to bring each channel together. This is a tough question for any one person or vendor partner to answer and I think the trend of this topic and potential solutions to it will ramp up quite quickly over the next year.
3. What is the Branch of the Future?  Like the cross channel discussions, quite a few people discussed the use of technology in the branch and wanted to know what they should be doing in their branches today and into the future. There were several companies exhibiting that offered interactive options, each with their own unique take on execution (including yours truly). What was very apparent to me was that there is not one singular solution to this question. Each Credit Union will be obligated to vet the technology solutions open to them and then decide what their branch of the future is. Much like defining a unique brand strategy, each institution will need to take similar steps to shape the trajectory of technology in the branch.