Tag Archives: partnership symposium

Four down, one to go.

William at BarCampBankBCI honestly have no idea what I was thinking a few months back when I agreed to speak at five conferences in two months. Today I finished my penultimate engagement, and I’m starting to feel relieved.

It was been an extraordinary honour to be able to address such a diverse set of audiences.

  • From the Internet Marketing Conference here in Vancouver focusing on general online marketing techniques and tactics
  • Organizing and promoting BarCampBankBC, which was a truly amazing, inspiring and rewarding experience
  • Traveling to Indiana for the 2008 Partnership Symposium which was an event I had been looking forward to for almost a year and was a fantastic chance to see many of my favourite CU people from across North America
  • And today I spoke here in Vancouver at the IABC Communicating Social Responsibility Conference where I got to address a room full of people dedicated to bringing integrity and values to their business models.

I have one last one to get to. Net.Finance East will take place October 28-29th in New York and will be focusing on banking innovations. I always enjoy Net.Finance conferences, as I learn so much and get to meet some amazing peers.

After Net.Finance East, I have nothing until January when I go back to New York for The Finance 2.0 Summit.

Next year, I need to be a whole lot more selective, I just can’t afford to be away from the office and my family this much.

It feels a little like the end of an era for me. I have learned a ton, met some amazing people, sparked some incredible dialogue and really found my place in the industry. If you’re reading this, it may well be because we met at one of these events. If so, shoot me a comment and say hello.

(photo credit by Brent Dixon)

A look back at the Partnership Symposium.

Partnership SymposiumOkay, I really meant to live blog the Partnership Symposium, but I was too engrossed with what was going on to bother. Sorry ’bout that.

I know Andy and Morriss live-blogged some of the sessions, and lots of it was streamed and archived by Brent.

One of the main things I liked about the conference was that Ron Shevlin played host and moderator of the whole thing. I’d never seen that done before – Ron introduced each speaker and then interviewed them about their presentation and moderated a Q&A with the audience. It gave a continuity to the conference which is often lacking.


photo credit: Gene Blishen

He asked one question in particular to many of the speakers I thought was valuable: What CU would this NOT work for?

That one question made the presenters work harder to define what is the strategic value to their topic by defining who it would not be a good fit for. He kept us honest, while being on our side (with one exception, perhaps).

Ron’s main takeaways from the two days were:

  • There are no easy answers – no definitive answers
  • Knowing what to do means knowing who you are as a CU
  • You can’t understand what members and prospects feel unless you are doing the same thing – which means get on Facebook, read blogs, etc…
  • Nothing is more important than engaging with your members

Morriss live blogged my session, and Brent archived the webcast (below).

It was a great time, and I hope to make it back next year.

Live Broadcast by Ustream.TV