T.J. Winick, Principal, Essex Strategies 

Banking on Stories: Building Trust Through Authentic Narratives

By showcasing the power of authentic narratives, the session will demonstrate how storytelling can build trust, differentiate brands, and humanize banking institutions in the eyes of customers and the broader community.

Attendees will learn how to define storytelling within a PR context as human-centered narratives that connect with emotions and lived experiences. The types of stories that banks should tell will be presented, including customer impact stories that highlight how the bank has helped individuals, families, or business.

Dan Szabo, Owner, eFraud Prevention

Using Fraud Awareness to Elevate Engagement While Promoting Fraud Safety

Fraud scams are impacting every financial institution, with an ever-expanding range of schemes and tactics creating a massive problem that cannot be ignored. Bank marketing teams have a unique opportunity to take the lead in fraud prevention through strategic messaging and proactive customer and member education. This session explores how integrating fraud awareness education with marketing strategies can strengthen account holder trust, drive engagement, and position your institution as a financial safety leader.

In this session, participants will explore real-life case studies, including the success stories of SAFE Federal Credit Union, Cambridge Savings Bank, and First Reliance Bank, to uncover actionable strategies for seamlessly embedding fraud awareness into marketing efforts. Attendees will learn how to utilize interactive tools such as fraud quizzes, contests, on-demand webinars, and social media campaigns, as well as a comprehensive learning hub for in-person seminars, to foster deeper engagement, build trust, and generate valuable leads...[Read More]

Jennifer Harrington, CEO, HATCH the Agency

Mind the Gap: How to Navigate a Rebrand While Doing Your Day Job

Today, many financial organizations are taking a step back to rethink their strategic plans in a world that’s gone from a global pandemic into a period of high economic uncertainty. There are big-picture questions to be answered and debates to be hashed out: How to attract and retain more diverse audiences? What’s the right approach to building impactful customer experiences? How can the organization’s brand drive success? If that wasn’t enough of a challenge, “business as usual” doesn’t stop while you figure out what your brand stands for and how to bring it to life. Marketing teams are often stuck in the middle, asked to align the brand with the new strategic plan while also doing their day-to-day jobs as effectively as ever. It takes just the right blend of expertise and resources to balance both — easier said than done. Finding the best partner mix across in-house teams, external agencies and freelance talent can be daunting and difficult to navigate. In this session, we will talk about the best way to map out a rebrand process that’s not only survivable, but successful — including how to define discrete talent requirements, break it down into meaningful and manageable stages, and identify and guide the right partners.

Morgan Talbot, Sales Manager, Kadince

How to Use Corporate Social Responsibility to Drive Business Development

Financial institutions have long been cornerstones in local communities and markets. Oftentimes, Marketing Professionals at financial institutions are charged with fostering relationships with local businesses, schools, and nonprofit organizations. This is usually administered through charitable giving, donations, scholarships, event sponsorships, and encouraging employee volunteerism. Community involvement likely remains a key pillar in your institution's public image and outreach efforts. While it is important to serve those in need, what if these initiatives could do more? What if they could become a key driver of business development and revenue growth?

And, what if you could utilize community involvement as a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) to tell your story to senior leadership?

In this session, you’ll uncover how to transform your community engagement and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives into strategic opportunities for business growth...[Read More]

Jack Hubbard, Chief Experience Officer, The Modern Banker

Marketing's Role in Building Lifetime Client Partnerships

Forward-thinking community banks remove the silos that isolate Leadership, Sales and Marketing. What’s in their hearts far exceeds what is on their business cards and the customer is always at the center of their thoughts. In this fast-paced program, Jack Hubbard outlines:

• Tools great cultures provide that create client success through accountability
• Replacing Relationship Managers with Resource Managers and how it’s done
• Routine high performing Regional Leaders execute to keep the process moving forward
• How Marketing is a catalyst for success from start to finish

There’s no theory here, just lots of practical ideas, examples, and stories. Have a pen and notepad ready to take these great ideas to the bank.

Sean Bannon, VP of Sales, WordCom

Elevate Your Brand by Forging Authentic Community Connections

In today’s competitive landscape, strong data, insightful analytics, and a sound strategy are undeniably vital to the success of any marketing campaign. They provide the foundation, the roadmap, and the metrics needed to measure progress and optimize outcomes. But, as WordCom’s most successful clients have demonstrated time and again, there’s an additional and often overlooked ingredient that contributes to the highest levels of performance: community involvement.

Deep, authentic engagement with communities truly sets top-performing FIs apart. These brands don’t just operate within the confines of their industry; they actively participate in the lives and concerns of the people they serve...[Read More]

Joe Amato, Vice President of Sales, WordCom

Elevate Your Brand by Forging Authentic Community Connections

In today’s competitive landscape, strong data, insightful analytics, and a sound strategy are undeniably vital to the success of any marketing campaign. They provide the foundation, the roadmap, and the metrics needed to measure progress and optimize outcomes. But, as WordCom’s most successful clients have demonstrated time and again, there’s an additional and often overlooked ingredient that contributes to the highest levels of performance: community involvement.

Deep, authentic engagement with communities truly sets top-performing FIs apart. These brands don’t just operate within the confines of their industry; they actively participate in the lives and concerns of the people they serve...[Read More]

Kristin Sundin Brandt, President, Sundin Marketing

How to Present to Executive Management

With 75% of people reporting they fear public speaking MORE than they fear death, it’s easy to see why so many dread the idea of presenting to their executive management teams. But there are many professional benefits to being able to present effectively including career advancement. During this presentation, Kristin Sundin Brandt will review the many facets that go into preparing for speaking to your executive team, including planning, slide development, speaking style and potential pitfalls.