Conference Schedule
Thursday May 6, 2021
12:00 p.m. – 12:50 p.m.
Adding Sustainability to your Marketing Mix
Bruce McMeekin, BKM Marketing
Global warming is real. And you don’t need to be a scientist to know it’s already here. Earth’s average global surface temperature has risen annually since the 1940s. Nineteen of the 20 warmest years on record all have occurred since 2001.
Marketers have an opportunity and responsibility to be an essential part of the solution. This session examines:
- How to measure the carbon footprint of your digital and print-based marketing campaigns
- Your customers’ expectations regarding environmentally responsible communications
- Balancing the need for Marketing ROI vs. Sustainability
- Specific sustainability modifications to consider as you plan your next campaign
- Using offsets to bring your net carbon impact to zero
The presentation will draw on recent research BKM Marketing conducted with Suffolk University MBA students that revealed surprising insights about the magnitude of marketer’s contributions to global warming.
Bruce McMeekin is CEO and Founder of BKM Marketing, a successful boutique agency focused on helping banks nationwide grow organically and through mergers & acquisitions. An enthusiastic outdoorsman, Bruce and his team recently began studying marketing’s impact on climate change to help clients and other marketing services companies address this urgent challenge.
Bruce McMeekin
Bruce McMeekin is the CEO and founder of BKM Marketing, a strategic marketing agency, and Bank Merger Marketing, a specialty practice dedicated to M&A communications. His firm develops data-driven campaigns to help banks, home services, and other marketers deepen customer relationships and capture new opportunities. Before starting BKM Marketing in 2002, Bruce held client-side positions at Procter and Gamble, Bank of New York, Travelers, and PNC Bank before migrating to agency leadership roles at EMI Strategic Marketing and Protocol. His articles have appeared in Forbes, Target Marketing, MarketingTech, and MarTechAdvisor. He holds an AB from Harvard and an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.
1:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m.
Targeting Competitors: Strategies for Using Your Strengths to Gain Market Share
Jim Pond, James & Matthew
Using your strengths to capture new customers, deposits, and loans can be a highly effective growth tactic for any financial institution. In this talk, you will learn how to properly apply your strengths so that they match up with specific competitors. Advertising tactics that have been effective will be explored as well as how to counter successfully when these tactics are used against you.
We will cover:
- Assessing your own strengths & vulnerabilities
- Loan capture
- Acquiring deposits
- Scanning social media for service challenges
- Solving hiring gaps with competitive targeting
Jim Pond is the Co-Founder of James & Matthew, a Massachusetts based agency that has helped credit unions and banks grow by utilizing digital creative and media for over a decade. His focus on ROI based performance analysis is only topped by his ability to select new and interesting restaurants.
1:50 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Mindfulness/Meditation Break
Take a break from the action and get centered with Amanda Votto, PA-C.
Amanda Votto PA-C is a passionate teacher of mindfulness who believes that we all possess the ability to awaken to an intentional, inspired and compassionate life. She teaches a variety mindfulness courses including the 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) series, Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC), mindful parenting, mindfulness in schools, leads retreats & workshops, offers private coaching and keynote speaking events. Through the development of self-awareness, building of emotional resilience, and the cultivation of self-compassion, she helps others reclaim a true sense of well-being. Amanda is a core facilitator at Copper Beech Institute in West, Hartford where teaches regularly. She also has over seventeen years of healthcare experience as a physician assistant and specializes in cardiology in Connecticut.
2:00 p.m. – 2:50 p.m.
Branch Transformation in a Digital World
Technology and the digital landscape have been shaping the way financial institutions service their customers for years now. The past year has forced customers to use digital and mobile services, even if they were reluctant before. Now it’s expected. But where does that leave the physical branch? This session will cover the importance of transforming your branch network to meet the ever-changing needs of your customers and prospects and how technology should be at the forefront of that.
We will also cover:
- Translating your mobile/web experience into your physical branch
- Engagement and lead generation through traditional and interactive digital signage
- Re-imagining the drive-up experience
- Secure video conferencing
Nate Baldasaro
With over 25 years of experience in the financial service industry and a background in senior management positions, Nate has covered the nation to help grow thousands of financial institutions through his intuitive merchandising plans, retail and promotional marketing programs, and design-build solutions. Nate holds a BA in Communications from the University of New Hampshire.
Katelynd Boles
Katelynd is an Account Executive with the Element Group and works with community banks and credit unions across New England to design and deliver a holistic and innovative branch experience. Prior to Element, Katelynd had an extensive sales and marketing career at Brady Corporation where she specialized in customer centric product development. Katelynd holds a Bachelor of Arts in Design Management with a minor in Business Administration from Arizona State University.
3:00 p.m. – 3:50 p.m.
Lobby Signage: Your Next Culture & Sales Machine
Warning: This session contains ideas you can implement immediately in your lobbies!
We are beyond excited to introduce you to 2 digital signage mavens who have taken their digital signage to the next level.
Jennifer Smith has held various roles in banking for over 20 years, most recently responsible for branch and ATM network strategy. Jennifer will share how Flagstar Bank grew small business loans with Small Business Spotlights and how branch operations improved employee culture with monthly town halls.
Katie Leineweber, a highly respected marketing and brand strategist from SECU Credit Union, will share why they’re using digital signage to engage employees, before open and after close, as part of a broader culture program.
It will be an idea-packed session, looking forward to seeing you online!
Sharon Klocek-Ibbotson
Sharon is the Director of Content Strategy for Kiosk & Display, a full-service interactive digital signage agency. She has enriched brands and engaged customers through digital marketing since 1989. Prior to joining Kiosk & Display, Sharon worked as a media producer at Visual In-Seitz, building award-winning business communications for the headquarters of Xerox, Kodak and Bausch & Lomb. She is a graduate of the ABA’s School of Bank Marketing and Management and holds a bachelor’s degree in audiovisual communications from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Jon P. VanderMeer
Jon is the Chief Experience Officer & Bacon Enthusiast for Kiosk & Display. Born in Buffalo, NY, then a communication degree, then mentorship at the award winning communication agency Visual In-Seitz, Jon started Kiosk & Display as a one man operation in November 2002 to service 28 Wachovia Bank touch screens. While a big fan of practical technology, he also enjoys staring at a camp fire and teaching his daughter how to fish.
4:00 p.m. – 4:20 p.m.
Minda Harts
Fireside Chat
NEFMA’s own Board Member and Main Street Bank VP of Marketing, Jamie Conaghan, will sit down for an intimate chat with our Keynote Speaker, Minda Harts.
4:30 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.
Take a Breather
5:00 p.m.
Networking, Virtual Booths, Cocktail Hour & Entertainment
NEFMA is rooted in our commitment to bring together financial marketers and other bank/credit union leadership from across New England. While we can’t be in the same room, we will share some laughs and a virtual cocktail during Social Hour. Please join us!
Moody McCarthy will perform and our amazing sponsors will be available in virtual booths to say hi and answer any questions you have. We’ll have a quick round of Trivia and give away some great raffle prizes.
Friday May 7, 2021
9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
A Conversation with Minda Harts:
Making The Workplace Work For Everyone Keynote
Join us for an inspiring and candid conversation with Minda Harts, the best-selling author of The Memo: What Women of Color Need To Know To Secure A Seat At The Table. The Memo is the much-needed career advice guide for women of color, ending the one-size-fits-all approach of business books that lump together women across races. The Memo is not only for women of color, but for allies, leaders, and managers who want to make the workplace more equitable. Minda Harts is a sought-after speaker, thought-leader and author, frequently speaking on topics of advancing women of color, leadership, diversity and entrepreneurship. In 2020, Minda was named one of Linkedin’s Top Voices for Equity in the Workplace.
10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m.
Equity at Work: Language for Leaders
Sara Sanford, Executive Director, GEN
As the Executive Director of GEN, Sara Sanford gets to hear from thousands of employees, across all levels of organizations, who let her into their thoughts and feelings around equity and inclusion. Alongside the opportunity gaps present in many organizations’ policies, there is another persisting force driving inequities: the communication gap.
Managers and executives who want to further their DEI strategies get paralyzed by fear that they’ll say the wrong thing. HR creates policies that could foster an equity-centered work environment, but employees never hear about these policies, or they’re unclear about how these policies address their needs. Underrepresented employees are afraid to speak up because they fear they’ll be retaliated against. Engagement surveys either don’t ask the right questions, or results aren’t interpreted as the participants intended.
While equity starts with the right policies and practices, these systems only matter if they’re communicated correctly. For leaders, especially, language can be the difference between breaking the equity inertia or accidentally moving backwards.
This Inclusion Lab will cover the common DEI communications mistakes that leaders make, the Top 5 DEI Phrases that should never be used again, and the key perspective shift and Flip the Script framing tool that you can use to test and transform your own language around equity and inclusion. Sara will also address how to recognize opportunities to better understand your underrepresented employees’ needs, not just through verbal communication, but through asking the right questions in your company’s engagement/DEI survey and applying meaningful interpretation tools to the results.
This Inclusion Lab is meant for managers and executives, as well as HR professionals and leaders, including anyone in charge of developing, distributing, and analyzing employee engagement assessment tools.
10:50 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Mindfulness/Meditation Break
Take a break from the action and get centered with Amanda Votto, PA-C.
Amanda Votto PA-C is a passionate teacher of mindfulness who believes that we all possess the ability to awaken to an intentional, inspired and compassionate life. She teaches a variety mindfulness courses including the 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) series, Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC), mindful parenting, mindfulness in schools, leads retreats & workshops, offers private coaching and keynote speaking events. Through the development of self-awareness, building of emotional resilience, and the cultivation of self-compassion, she helps others reclaim a true sense of well-being. Amanda is a core facilitator at Copper Beech Institute in West, Hartford where teaches regularly. She also has over seventeen years of healthcare experience as a physician assistant and specializes in cardiology in Connecticut.
11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.
Employee Volunteerism & Corporate Philanthropy in the Age of COVID Panel Discussion
Tyler Butler, Founder & Principal, 11Eleven Consulting
Susanne Salerno, Founder & Social Impact Consultant, SE Salerno Consulting
Elizabeth Thompson, Chairman & CEO, Transcend4Good
Most financial institutions, particularly community banks and credit unions, are deeply committed to giving back to their communities. Big checks, employee volunteerism and charitable giving are at the core of NEFMA member institutions. COVID had a major impact on many individuals and businesses, making these activities more important than ever.
With so much need and many new challenges to serving the community, what is the path forward? How can financial institutions keep employees engaged and safe while maintaining a consistent presence in the community, or find new ways of giving back? Are there new priorities or considerations in corporate philanthropy post-COVID? And shhhh…we will also ask: how can FIs showcase their charitable giving and good works while maintaining humility?
This discussion will be led by an all-star panel of experts and moderated by Janel Maysonet, Chief Marketing Officer of Avidia Bank and NEFMA Board Member.
12:00 p.m. – 12:50 p.m.
Joe Sullivan
What’s Next? How Bank Marketers Will Succeed in the “Next Normal”
We all know that the COVID pandemic has abruptly altered consumers’ behaviors and attitudes, upending banks’ marketing strategies and plans. But now we hear public health officials warning that even with the mass rollout of vaccines, COVID and its variants may be with us for years to come. As marketing budgets are squeezed, customer loyalty declines and performance expectations rise, many bank marketers are asking “What’s Next?” This thought-provoking presentation will explore ways in which marketers will need to adapt and stay aligned with what the consumer in the next normal thinks, feels, says, and does. New marketing priorities and practices will need to be considered and marketers themselves will need to rethink their role in positioning their institution for sustainable success.
Participants will:
• Learn the ways that COVID is changing consumer behavior
• Discover how to be more agile and adaptable in a COVID world
• Embrace the 5-traits that customer centric leaders use to strengthen their market position
• Learn ways to stay motivated and inspired through times of great change