The ONE

Hit a Homerun with your Strategic Marketing Plan
Taylor Thoma, Director of Marketing, forbinfi
We will present a comprehensive guide to elevate your strategic marketing endeavors to unprecedented heights. In our session, "Hit a Homerun with your Strategic Marketing Plan," we will unveil a meticulously crafted 5-step framework designed to propel your brand to success. This strategic blueprint encompasses essential components, including a thorough leadership survey, insightful interviews to gauge brand perception, a roadmap for focused execution, metrics for measuring success, and a seamless strategy for communicating achievements to the bank's leadership. Together, these steps form a powerful arsenal to not only refine your marketing approach but also to provide compelling evidence of its impact to the highest echelons of your organization. Let's embark on this journey toward marketing excellence!

Customer Journey Mapping
Robert Zondag, Principal - Strategy, Wipfli LLP
Is the customer at the center of your bank and your decisions? Many leaders overlook journey mapping as an effective tool to understand how customers experience their bank. This session aims to help firm leadership refocus teams on the customer.

Treat Your Website Like a Branch…Because It Is!
Crystal Steinbach, Digital Marketing Director, Mills Marketing
Your website draws thousands of daily visitors, far surpassing physical branches. But do you know their purpose, identity, and origin? Decode the true potential of your website – understand user intent, identity, and origins for enhanced customer experiences and to elevate your bank's brand. Gain insights into leveraging website data to maximize marketing ROI and drive strategic decisions. Discover the crucial data your marketing team should be sharing with leadership regularly. This session will empower you to reshape your website into a dynamic force for brand elevation and strategic growth. Because your website should be more than a digital brochure.

Keys to Marketing Success in 2024
Jim Perry, Senior Strategist, Market Insights, Inc.
The emotional and economic impact of inflation is a jarring example of how one crisis, one new trend or one new technology can turn your marketing, and your financial institution, upside down. Only the creative, agile marketer will be able to help their institution stay competitive and connected. This session explores emerging consumer behaviors and marketing trends and sets out three ways to keep your marketing less susceptible to emerging threats in the future.

Increasing Employee Attraction and Retention with Company Culture
Brett Jackson, CEO, Systemax Corporation
Marketing isn’t just for new leads. These days the competition for quality staff is fierce and we have seen many companies transfer their marketing efforts to employee attraction and retention. As the CEO of Systemax, a branding agency, Brett Jackson will walk you through how to build a desirable culture within your workforce, streamline an efficient onboarding process, and keep your staff engaged and loyal. Because, after all, you are nothing without your team.

Employee Engagement & Retention: Why people leave & how to keep them
Drew Carter, Founder & CEO, Whistle Rewards
In the banking industry, the challenges of employee engagement and retention have reached a critical juncture. Despite a 5% salary increase in 2022, voluntary attrition rates have surged, surpassing 24%. Alarmingly, 66% of those who left chose to exit the entire industry. These trends underscore the pressing need for financial institutions to address the issue of employee turnover. This session is designed to provide insights, tools, and strategies to effectively understand and articulate the root causes of attrition and master the use of an employee evaluation framework to assess and enhance motivation within an organization. Drew Carter, CEO & Founder of Whistle Rewards, offers a comprehensive knowledge base and skill set to address the challenges of employee engagement and retention within the banking industry.

2024 HR Survival Kit
Michael Gifford & Emily Bennett, Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC
HR is constantly evolving – do you know everything you need to know to avoid the many traps and pitfalls? We will review changes and updates to federal and Illinois law that took effect over the past year. This lively presentation provides an overview of key developments in federal and Illinois employment law, and action items for employers to take because of those changes. Participants will leave with up-to-date knowledge of legal obligations and considerations in an ever-changing landscape of a bank’s obligations to its employees.

Succession Planning to Stabilize the Bank's Future Leadership
Barbara Low, Sr. Manager - Talent Management Consulting, Wipfli LLP
The changing workforce and aging baby boomers are realities leading more financial institutions to seek help in understanding which of their staff is able and willing to fill key roles over the next five years. Determining the depth of the talent pipeline internally and externally isn’t easy. Succession planning is not a new concept, yet many struggle at creating processes and a robust approach that moves beyond a static list of names kept in a file. A succession planning program includes a focus on positions critical to the company’s strategic plan as well as a focus on employees and their development. This session will talk about the issues and challenges of succession in today’s workplace and provide some practical approaches and tools to guide effective Succession Planning.

Holding People Accountable (Without Losing Them)
Angela Adams, CEBS, SPHR, Director, HR Services, HR Source
Many leaders struggle to hold employees accountable out of fear of making them mad or losing them. But is that best for your bottom line? Get more comfortable with holding employees accountable for their work responsibilities by using a four-prong approach of providing feedback, inspiring investment, designing creative solutions, and completing follow through.

Evaluating Practices to Maximize Talent
Barbara Low, Sr. Manager / Talent Management Consulting, Wipfli LLP
In today’s challenging labor market, all employers are having difficulty attracting and retaining talent. Have you considered evaluating the policies and practices that may contribute to a low candidate pool? When’s the last time you reviewed elements of the hiring process to determine where changes need to be made in order to meet the needs of today’s workforce and provide an increased number of candidates? Have you considered analyzing your talent practices in order to create a strategic talent plan? This session covers areas to focus on for change to achieve better outcomes.

How Do You Manage Projects?
David Noël, EVP of Support Services, Genesys Technology Group
Managing key initiatives and projects to completion has never been more important. Disruption in the banking industry is requiring that community financial institutions innovate and embrace new technology initiatives. Whether you are opening a new branch, becoming a Bank as a Service, launching new products both internally or externally, or layering Fintech technology into your forward-facing systems - getting things done efficiently is vitally important to your success. In this session, David Noël will walk you through some foundational concepts that will help you thrive in the new era of banking.

Secrets of High Performing Banks – Responding to Market Challenges
Shawn O'Brien, President, QwickRate
We’re expecting a long road ahead for all banks in 2024, but some institutions will see it as a chance to seize opportunities and successfully strategize responses to the challenges. These high-performing banks know how to use publicly available performance data to their advantage. We’ll show you how your bank can emulate the top performers by taking your cues from the numbers.

Banking is a Team Sport + Become a More Influential Leader
Joe Micallef, Grow UP Sales Consulting, President, Sales Strategist and Coach
Many bank leaders are struggling to build highly engaged and skilled teams that consistently produce great results. Joe Micallef will share how built and retained highly productive teams as a bank leader for 20 years through collaborative strategic planning, consistent coaching and regular feedback.

Using Behavioral Science To Change Behaviors and Reduce Risk
Andrea Olson, CEO, Pragmadik
Data enables banks, credit unions, and fintech companies to better understand their users, edge out the competition, and provide the right product to the right person at the right time. However, finding clever ways to dice and display data isn’t sufficient for changing behavior. That’s where behavioral science can help. Behavioral science analyzes what actually gets people to change their behavior rather than going along with whatever common sense says might work. In this session, attendees will learn about the concepts behind the principles of behavioral science, biases that affect thinking, judgment, and consumer behaviors, along with techniques to overcome the intention-action gap through a blend of behavioral diagnosis and design.

Motivate Your Bankers from Good to Great
Jack Kasel, Sales Development Expert & Community Bank Specialist, Anthony Cole Training Group
Imagine the impact if you could improve the performance of your middle producers by just 5-10%? This workshop will help bank managers understand the specific traits of a strong motivator as well as a 3-step approach to help your producers focus and develop their expertise and success with their targeted markets. Using huddles and a coaching approach called Where’s Walter, bank managers will learn how to improve the skill levels of your middle producers. This focus on improving the middle majority can make a huge impact on your group’s bottom line.

Pulling Strings for Non-Interest Revenue/Payments
Rob Coile, Director, Community Financial Institutions, Strategic Resource Management
This presentation interprets the latest FED Interchange study, breaks down the data, and explains how to prepare your institution for what’s coming next.

Renewable Deposit Sources
Steve Christenson, EVP, Ascensus
Ascensus brings a new vision to gaining market share to banks and credit unions. With increased interest rates and uncertain returns on alternate investments, savers of all ages are seeking stable sources for their accounts. Help consumers build long-term, consistent savings with your organization, foster strong customer relationships and become a trusted source of education and safety. Learn how IRAs and health savings accounts can help expand your share of the market.

Transformative Branch Conversations
Jack Kasel, Sales Development Expert & Community Bank Specialist, Anthony Cole Training Group
Banking customer service expectations continue to rise and present greater challenges for banks to build trust and deepen relationships with the multitude of virtual channels. The gap continues to widen as depositors and lending clients shop competitive direct and non-bank options that have intensified the competitive bank environment. How does your bank compete and differentiate itself? It is not too late to consider the impact your branch people can have. Top-performing banks are arming their people with a transformative approach to initiating distinctive relationships with their clients and prospects, building trust through meaningful conversations. This workshop will provide an approach to developing your people, who are the essential differentiator for your bank from the many digital options.

How to go from Good Service Provider to Awesome Finance Professional in 5 Easy Steps
Joe Micallef, Grow UP Sales Consulting, President, Sales Strategist and Coach
When asked what makes your bank different, most bankers reply with “customer service”. But can you articulate what specifically makes your customer service better? Retail Bankers will learn how to better describe their bank’s unique Service Mission and how to create unforgettable customer experiences by adopting Joe Micallef’s simple Service Excellence Model.

The Total Bank Makeover: A Proven Plan for Growth and Profitability
Nick Arrigo, Senior Consultant, Haberfeld
Does your financial institution need a “total banking makeover?” If your organization is struggling to grow new, retail and business customer relationships, you just might! Are you looking to add younger generations of customers? Are you interested in learning how, why and when people switch financial institution as well as how to capture more of the switch? When growth isn’t happening, it isn’t simply a “marketing problem.” Your entire organization must be focused on a strategy to change the outcome. In this thought-provoking session, we’ll explore all the changes that need to be made to give your bank a “growth” makeover.

Risk's Role at ALCO
Mark Haberland, Managing Director, Darling Consulting Group
During this session, participants will gain valuable insights through discussion and case studies of how detrimental some practices can be to your bottom line and the success many institutions are having by promoting a collaborative culture at ALCO, improving the quality of risk model inputs and outputs to make the best decisions for their institutions. Turning your ALCO into a true Profit Center takes dedication to the process, but the results are game-changers!

Out with the Old: Liquidity, Funding, and Regulation
Ryan Smith, Managing Director, Piper Sandler
Join Ryan Smith of the Piper Sandler Financial Strategies team for a discussion of current themes in the financial industry. Banks are under the microscope in this environment and integrating new options into a strategic plan is essential. Themes will include rethinking liquidity and funding to ensure a modernized view on sources and measures. This will also cover the impact that new regulation may have on your bank’s strategy. The discussion will include relevant market updates to contextualize the ideas and help management teams find more value in 2024 and beyond.

Seven Lessons Learned in Contract Negotiation
Rob Coile, Director, Community Financial Institutions, Strategic Resource Management
This presentation covers the seven most common areas where contract negotiation lessons have been repeatedly learned. Additionally, real examples will be discussed to show institutions how to uncover hidden costs and enhance the revenue associated with their debit card portfolio.

Managing the Compliance Program
Karen Leiter, Principal, CLA
Managing the Compliance Program: conducting regular risk assessments, understanding the role of oversight, and comprehending the “three lines of defense” model for managing compliance risk.

Ponzi Schemes and Customer Fraud: What Financial Institutions Must Know to Minimize Exposure to Third Parties
Michael Campbell, Practice Chair, Polsinelli
Lawsuits against financial institutions for damages arising from their customers’ engagement in Ponzi schemes and fraud are on the rise, as are the multi-million-dollar awards and settlements. In these lawsuits, third parties who suffered losses at the hands of bank customers seek to recover these from banks based on a variety of legal theories. The risk of these claims creates challenges for risk management officers, bank management, and staff who must meet their suspicious activity reporting requirements while mitigating against potential third-party claims. Chief among these challenges are the missteps banks often make when they learn of potential fraud committed by their customers.

How can AI help my bank?
Larry Hall, Director, Finlytica Corporation
AI offers tremendous potential for banks of all sizes. Unfortunately, community banks typically don’t have the data and AI skills to take advantage of it. This educational session is designed to help community banks understand the opportunities presented by AI, the challenges involved in delivering AI to community banks, and the solutions available to help them jump-start their efforts and make the complexity of AI simple.

Forging Strong Security Leadership: A Top-Down Approach
Mishaal Khan, vCISO, Mindsight
Building a resilient security posture begins with effective leadership. This talk dives into the essential steps for developing robust security leadership within your organization. We'll explore the key attributes and skills that security leaders need to cultivate, from strategic thinking and communication to crisis management and team empowerment. Attendees will gain practical insights into fostering a security consciousness and accountability culture by drawing on real-world examples and best practices. By the end of this session, you'll be equipped with actionable strategies to nurture and elevate security leaders who can confidently guide your organization through today's complex threat landscape. Join us in the pursuit of a stronger, more secure future.

Understand How to Get More Out of Your Technology Vendors
Charlie Kelly, Partner, Remedy Consulting
Bank CEOs are constantly looking for ways to improve your business performance, customer satisfaction, and regulatory compliance. One of the key factors that can help you achieve these goals is your technology vendors. Technology vendors provide you with the software, hardware, and services that enable your bank to operate efficiently, securely, and innovatively. However, not all vendors are created equal, and not all vendor relationships are optimal. In this presentation, we will discuss how you can get more out of your technology vendors by understanding the landscape and following some best practices for vendor selection, management, and evaluation.

Your Bank Needs a Payments Strategy
Marisa Reynolds, SVP SVP Fintech & Vendor Relations & Operations Liaison, Genesys Technology Group
In today’s digital age, financial institutions cannot afford to overlook the significance of developing a comprehensive payment strategy to stay competitive and meet customer expectations. This session serves as a wake-up call for financial institutions to assess their current payment landscape, recognize the importance of a well-defined payment strategy, and adapt to the evolving customer expectations and technological advancements in the industry.

The Top 6 Controls to Reduce Your Risk of a Cyber Incident
Nick Podhradsky, Executive Vice President, SBS CyberSecurity
Gone are the days of only having to worry about a “virus” getting onto your network and causing a few minor issues. Today’s cyber-attacks are completely automated on the front-end, meaning getting access to your network has never been easier. Hackers tend to live in a network undetected for long periods of time, studying your environment and crafting a plan to achieve their objective, which is typically to steal money, data, or both. Then, to cover their tracks, the hacker will launch ransomware on your network as they leave, creating a whole new set of problems. How do you identify that an attack like this is occurring BEFORE it’s too late? Alternatively, how can you prepare your organization to investigate what really happened when an attack does occur? This presentation will use an example of a real-world attack to walk you through the different steps a modern attack entails, show you how to prepare in advance to detect an attack at different stages, and make sure you’re logging the right information to properly investigate what happened if an attack does occur.