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IGNITE INNOVATION IN 2022

Schedule & Agenda*

Conference attendees will also have the opportunity to earn up to 10 CE credits

Day 1: Thursday, October 6

8:00 am

REGISTRATION & CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

10:00 aM

CONFERENCE OPENS

10:30 AM

MARKETING ASSESSMENT PROCESS: HOW TO MAKE MARKETING A DRIVING FORCE IN YOUR ORGANIZATION

This session is focused on understanding your organization’s strategic direction and figuring out how marketing can be a key factor in your organization’s success. This session will walk you through a Strategic Blueprint Model to help answer key questions on how to structure your marketing department, what marketing infrastructure is needed to make marketing a driving force in your organization, how to achieve integrated marketing based on your organization’s strategic direction, and much more.

SPEAKER

Lance Kessler
President
Lance Kessler & Associates

1:00 PM

FINDING NEW WAYS TO GROW

Every bank board meeting discusses it. Branch acquisition is one path, but with many cores quoting a 12 month lead time for integrating, it’s a long play. There’s always the M&A strategy, but that isn’t always the right fit for some boards.

What if there was another way to grow? Where banks can implement an initiative in about a month, grow $10-100M or more in deposits, and create new fee revenue and lending options? What if this new source of revenue was in your own backyard and community? Higher risk businesses can fall outside a bank’s risk comfort zone, but it’s evident that there’s a tremendous need for those businesses to be banked, and they can in fact be handled securely and profitably.

This session will address:

  • Defining the sectors: cannabis, hemp, crypto, ATMs, MSBs and more
  • Market opportunity: You’re already banking them so why not make money from them?
  • Banking in your geographic footprint – and nationwide
  • Building out your prospect list, SEO/SEM and outbound campaigns
  • Risk and compliance considerations
  • Leverage an ROI calculator in mapping out success
  • Automating workflows to scale the business

SPEAKER

Ryan McInerny
Principal, Product Strategy
RiskScout

2:00 PM

breakout sessions

WHY A BANK'S BRAND MATTERS

Community banks don’t have the same brand recognition as the big bank brands. However, the products and services offered by community banks—especially relationships built with local businesses and families—are beyond what big name banks can offer. So how do you make sure your customers and community know that? You establish a meaningful brand, one that matters. 

 

Those in attendance will tackle important questions such as:

  • What is a re-brand, and how can it be scaled appropriately?
  • When does it make sense to re-brand your bank?
  • Why should you consider a re-brand, and how do you make that case to the CFO?
  • How do you get everyone involved and supportive of a re-brand?
  • How do you roll out a re-brand?

SPEAKER

Tom Holmes
President
HMC Advertising

NOW WHAT? WEBSITE STRATEGY AFTER LAUNCH​

Building a website is fun, but the work doesn’t stop once it’s published! The days, weeks, and months post-launch are critical for driving traffic and conversions to get the best ROI. Melanie Coleman, Director of Strategy & Media at Pannos Marketing, will discuss the immediate next steps after launching a new website, including marketing, and digital media efforts. After attending this presentation, attendees will be able to apply meaningful tips, advice, and strategy to their new website launch.

SPEAKER

Melanie Coleman Director of Strategy & Media
Pannos Marketing

Matthew Larrabee
Director of Web Services
Pannos Marketing

3:00 PM

ARE YOU BUILDING YOUR BRAND THROUGH THE RIGHT CHANNELS?​

We’ve learned from our latest round of Rivel Banking Benchmarks, and through thousands of your customers and prospects, if your method of outreach is effective. Your customers are your greatest asset and ambassadors – are you focusing on their experience? Join us as we discuss consumers’ preferences on word of mouth recommendations, chatbots, social media and other forms of advertising.

SPEAKER

Adam Cruickshank

Associate Consultant
Rivel Banking

4:00 PM

OPTIMIZING DEPOSIT STRATEGIES IN A TIGHTENING CYCLE

The recent bond market sell-off was one of the most severe in history as inflation pressures took markets and the Fed by surprise causing an historically aggressive stance for tightening this cycle. Undeniably, deposit pricing dynamics have changed, and competition is already intensifying. As liquidity levels begin to tighten, questions remain…How disciplined will we be in managing deposits as rates rise? How will I respond to competition offering up promotions? How can I minimize deposit cannibalization? Financial institutions need to map out their deposit game plans, particularly as the Fed remains aggressive to lower inflation.

Key areas of focus of this session include:

  • Deposit trends through this tightening cycle
  • Strategies to optimize new money growth and minimize cannibalization
  • Understanding the true cost of promotions
  • Finding pockets of growth opportunities in specific customer segments

SPEAKERS

Billy Guthrie

Managing Director
Darling Consulting Group

Joe Kennerson
Managing Director
Darling Consulting Group

5:00 PM

RECEPTION

Day 2: FRIDAY, October 7

7:00 AM

BREAKFAST

8:30 aM

WELCOME REMARKS

8:45 AM

NAVIGATING NEW MEDIA: HOW TO EVALUATE EMERGING TRENDS & TOOLS

Is TikTok an effective tool, is Facebook reaching the right audience, and what happens if someone develops a new platform? Marketing trends and media are constantly evolving and changing. With endless options at your fingertips, knowing which tool will best benefit your customers and attract your desired audience can sometimes feel impossible. Join a panel of financial institutions and marketing agency experts to learn firsthand how to stay on top of emerging trends, understand and evaluate the value of media, and assess if it adds value to your messaging and audience.

SPEAKERS

Anna Baskin
Content Manager
Service Credit Union

Justin Roberts
VP of Marketing
Country Bank


Kristin Sundin Brandt

President
Sundin Marketing

10:00 am

DATA DRIVEN MARKETING: WHAT IF YOU KNEW WHAT WORKED?

In 2021, Marquis helped hundreds of financial institutions leverage data to drive thousands of marketing campaigns with millions of individualized impressions. What can your financial institution learn by examining the results of campaigns, what are some tools to get started, are you on the right path in leveraging your data, and what if you could tweak things to do slightly better?

 

During this session, Sean Cunningham, SVP of Marquis, will review these findings and demonstrate the data-driven impact of the following topics:

  • Delayed vs. immediate communication
  • Single vs. Multi-channel approach
  • Static vs. hyper-specific variants
  • Single vs. multiple impressions
  • Core-specific vs. multiple data sources
  • Is it possible to over-communicate?
  • Ideal months to market specific products
  • Does a personalized CRM follow-up matter?
  • Impact of targeted vs. broad prospecting.

SPEAKER

Sean Cunningham
SVP, Regional Manager
Marquis

11:00 am

OPPORTUNITIES AWAIT: DEVELOPING A DIVERSE MORTGAGE CUSTOMER SOURCE

Attendees will learn about the challenges and rewards of developing a more diverse mortgage customer base. They will also learn specific tactics, which may not currently build into their bank’s marketing plan, that they can employ to reach out to these groups. This presentation will be hands-on, where attendees will learn to create new strategies that will yield results in the near term.

SPEAKER

Victor Rodriguez
Mortgage Consultant
PeoplesBank

12:00 PM

CONFERENCE ENDS

*All times subject to change

Lance Kessler

President

Lance Kessler is President of Lance Kessler & Associates, a marketing consulting and training firm. He worked in banking for 25 years before starting his consulting firm. Lance has a bachelor of science degree in psychology from York College in Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in management from Johns Hopkins University. He graduated from ABA’s Stonier Graduate School of Banking and has completed an executive program in consumer marketing strategy at Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. 

 

Lance is on the faculty of several national, regional, and state-level banking schools. He is also a frequent speaker on marketing, management, and organizational development topics at industry conferences and has authored various articles on such issues. 

Mr. Kessler is on the faculty of several national, regional, and state level banking schools.  Mr. Kessler is a frequent speaker on marketing, management, and organizational development topics at industry conferences.  He has authored various articles on these topics over the years.

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Ryan McInerny, CAMS, FRM, MSBA 

LinkedIn
Principal, Product Strategy
RiskScout

Ryan McInerny is a former examiner with the Office of The Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). At OCC, he served on committees for topics such as compliance, BSA, and commercial credit. He also oversaw complex examinations for various risk areas and business lines. Ryan brings a strong business sense to RiskScout, receiving his MBA in business analytics from UVA’s Darden School of Business. At RiskScout, Ryan researches and informs strategic priorities for product development. 

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Melanie Coleman

Linkedin
Director of Strategy & Media
Pannos Marketing

As a former bank marketer, Melanie has first-hand experience with financial institutions’ challenges, particularly when entering the digital space. At Pannos, she oversees marketing, media, and sales teams, consistently improving the performance of paid and organic efforts by implementing the latest and greatest digital trends.

Leveraging data to inform and guide digital strategy, Melanie and her team work closely with clients to build customized reporting from overall KPIs to complete ROI calculations and attribution to optimize digital marketing efforts. She leads the media team in charting SEO strategy and is actively ensuring our client’s websites are built with SEO top of mind. With over ten years of marketing experience across various industries, Melanie understands marketers’ increasing demands as mediums become more complex and budgets are scrutinized.

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Matthew Larrabee

LinkedIn
Principal, Product Strategy
Pannos Marketing

Matt has over 20 years of experience in coding and developing new websites, 14 of which have been spent at Pannos developing highly-responsive and unique websites for our clients. Matt’s extensive knowledge of all things code as well as his dedication to developing the most cutting-edge sites prove him to be an invaluable asset to the Pannos team. Matt oversees all web projects, as well as the continued management and reporting for websites after they have been launched. He graduated from University of New Hampshire with a BS in computer science and has created over 150 websites for clients including Verizon, Pop Warner, 5/3 Bank and Siemens.

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Adam Cruickshank

LinkedIn
Associate Consultant
Rivel Banking

Adam consults with financial institution leadership teams, drawing from customer and prospect benchmark report data to help bank executives assess, tailor, and track their marketing, customer retention, and branch expansion strategies. 

Before joining Rivel, he worked for ADP in small business sales, managing an extensive client list, prospecting a defined territory, and maintaining relationships with banks and CPAs. Responsible for creating his leads, Adam used different marketing/multitouch campaigns to engage local businesses, set meetings, and close deals. 

Adam graduated from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland, with second-class honors, upper division in Human Biology. For his national fencing achievements for the university, he was awarded Full Blues, the highest athletic honor bestowed by a university. 

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Billy Guthrie

LinkedIn
Managing Director
Darling Consulting Group

Billy Guthrie serves as the Managing Director at Darling Consulting Group, working directly with financial institution executives to validate while better understanding key deposit assumptions utilized in risk models. In addition to supporting core deposit study analyses, he educates DCG’s client base on how to use data analytics and make strategic deposit decisions through Deposits360°®, DCG’s proprietary tool.  

Guthrie began his career with DCG in 2008 as a financial analyst. He holds a degree in finance and management from the University of New Hampshire. 

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Joe Kennerson

Managing Director

Joe Kennerson serves as the Managing Director at Darling Consulting Group (DCG). He works directly with senior management teams to build customized balance sheet strategies, improve earnings, and manage risk. Kennerson is an expert in Asset Liability Management and educates ALCOs on the inevitable balance of financial performance and regulatory appeasement. In 2021, Kennerson spoke at 28 industry associations reaching nearly 3,000 bankers. He is an expert at bringing clarity to complex strategies and delivers high energy to his ALM presentations. 

 

Kennerson began his tenure with DCG in 2005, benefitting from working with nearly a thousand ALCOs nationwide on ALM and strategic initiatives. He lives in Boxford, MA, with his wife and two daughters and is an active member of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. Kennerson is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a degree in finance. 

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Sean Cunningham

SVP, Regional Manager

Sean Cunningham is currently SVP, Regional Manager with Marquis, a company that helps nearly 800 banks and credit unions drive automated hyper-specific customer journeys. The Marquis approach starts by aggregating, assembling, and analyzing each institution’s unique data to build a unique path designed for each individual customer and their specific situation across multiple channels.  Over the last seven years, this approach has yielded a 512% average direct annual return on investment for Marquis clients.

Prior to joining Marquis in 2006, Sean was Chief Marketing & Retail Officer with a community bank in Illinois, where his efforts were focused on achieving positive ROI through targeted marketing.  Additionally, he implemented and managed the bank’s sales and service initiatives.  Sean lives in Central Illinois with his wife and two kids.

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Victor Rodriguez Sr.

LinkedIn
Mortage Consultant
PeoplesBank

Through more than two decades of banking experience, Victor Rodriguez Sr has unlocked the secret to reaching a more diverse pool of customers. While conventional marketing is a start, Victor has been inventive in his efforts to reach a broader customer base. Networking at the community level, including church groups, Spanish language radio and video, and celebrating the realized new home dreams of his customers through social media are all tools Victor has used successfully. Recognizing that you have to give to get, he has invested countless hours in financial education with groups and even individuals.  

  

Today, Victor is a recognized mortgage consultant leader in his market and a person who can help consumers understand their finances.