Monthly Archives: January 2008

May I introduce you to a Banker With Balls?

My friend and conference colleague Jurie Pieterse, who is Head of Marketing Communications at ING Direct (US) has started a blog called Banker With Balls.

Here’s how he describes the name in his inaugural post:

“With balls” – other than to infer some gutsiness – is a reference to where I work at the bank who loves orange balls: ING DIRECT… I’ll try to keep it balanced, but remember that I am passionate about my marketing work for ING DIRECT so that will likely come through.

I look forward to reading Jurie’s musings and opinions about marketing for a big, but untraditional FI. Having had the privilege of hearing him speak at two conferences, including the current Net.Finance where I’m writing this from, he has enough experience to be someone I can really learn from.

And here’s a link to his feed.

Listen to the Credit Union Innovators podcast.

Credit Union InnovatorsTim McAlpine at Currency Marketing has been one of my favourite contributors to the credit union blogging world for months now. His posts are incisive, smart and often provocative. And now he is creating a series of CU podcasts, called Credit Union Innovators. Here’s how Tim describes it…

The format of this and future episodes will be interviews and conversations with people that are doing good things for the credit union movement. Credit union leaders and employees and partners to the movement including vendors, technologists, strategists, designers, specialists, marketers, developers, speakers and members. Anyone with passion for the credit union movement and with something to say.

The really great news is that the first podcast features Gene Blishen of Mount Lehman Credit Union. Gene is an amazing inspiration to me. He is an incredibly important resource for the entire credit union movement, and his credit union is a real pillar of the community. He understands the mission of his CU perfectly and keeps his focus exactly where it should be: on his members. He’s well worth listening to.

You can hear the podcast here:
Podcast 01: Credit Union Innovator Gene Blishen.

Or subscribe to it in iTunes.

Off to Net.Finance.

Online Innovations in Financial Services MarketingOn Tuesday I fly to New York for a couple of days to attend and speak at Net.Finance’s Online Innovations in Financial Services Marketing conference. This is an extension of their main conference which occurs every April in Arizona.

Last year the final day was focused on innovations in the financial services industry, and included an excellent set of speakers and presentations. I spoke about ChangeEverything.ca, why Vancity did it and what we get out of it.
Next week I will be doing a brand new presentation about responding to bloggers. I have been delivering the presentation internally, getting some incredible feedback, and am excited to deliver it in New York.
I’m particularly keen to see some terrific people, including Shari Storm (who always speaks right before me), Michael Seaton, Jurie Pieterse, Jason Knight and Jim Bruene.
I have been to the last two Net.Finance conferences, and find them to be valuable sources of information and incredible networking opportunities. This April’s conference looks like an outstanding line-up. I am delivering a presentation about FIs and social responsibility. It’s a big topic, and frankly I’m a little nervous as I begin to plan out what I want to cover.
So let me know if you’ll be at either of these two conferences, and if you are there, please make sure we connect in person.

TWO QUICK UPDATES: One, I’m so excited that my friend Trey Reeme will also be there. And I’ll try and blog the conference each night. No promises though!