Personally, I’m in alignment with Ron in that barcamps and de-centralized events are what will spur innovation and new ideas, not thousands of attendees packed into folding chairs listening to a semi-famous person talk about their own career.

We need to instead turn our attention and focus towards the people out there doing things differently (like most of the crew at Finvoate).

That being said, I’m still trying to get the 2008 Partnership Symposium on my schedule to attend.

This is what conference organizers — and all too often, the speakers themselves — just don’t get.

It’s up to NACUSO, and the other CU associations that put on conferences, to decide what value they intend to provide with their conferences. Too many are opting to go with the traditional approach of hiring a few big names, supplemented with speakers from vendors who pay to speak.

I won’t say that “future-building conversations” aren’t happening at these traditional type conferences, but the Finovates and Barcamps are a whole more oriented towards facilitating conversations. If NACUSO, et. al., want to stimulate conversation, they’re going to have to change their conference format (Vic, are you listening?)

I love this post. I’m reminded of the time I tried to get the Oregon Credit Union audiences to hear something new and different. While working for the League, I hired a local business legend, Tom Peterson to speak.

You probably recognize the name. Anyway, he had a great story to tell – about how he didn’t listen to his wife and expanded his business too fast and too far and got into stuff he knew nothing about. Hmmmm….wonder if credit unions can learn from that?

Anyway – there was TONS o’ backlash from some folks because I hired a speaker that had filed bankruptcy. Chapter 11 reorg – but it was still a banko. No consideration for the fact that he paid back ALL of his creditors (which was another point of his story). Sigh…….

I think many trade associations feel they have to play it safe – by trying to please everyone, they seldom challenge the status quo.

That’s why I’m glad there are folks like CUES, Filene, and FORUM that will hire me and let me speak my mind! I think it’s going to be up to your generation to shake things up – and I know you’re ready.

Cheers!
D.

Lastly, I also think ‘future-building’ conversation are going on in Banktastic, too!