9:00am – 10:00am

Stronger Together: Maximizing the Power of Your CCUL Professional Network

In today’s fast-paced workplace, no one succeeds in isolation. Building connections with colleagues who work in the same functional area and industry opens the door to collaboration, shared knowledge, and stronger problem-solving. Networking with colleagues who share your expertise and work responsibilities can be an invaluable source of information, insight and collaboration. This session will explore ways to maximize the benefits of your Network, discuss what is working well now, and brainstorm for future enhancements to help keep these relationships meaningful and productive.

Following this session, the six networks will convene for 30 minutes to discuss shared priorities, assess current opportunities, and define concrete next steps to enhance the effectiveness of their respective networks.

Bill Nagle, AngleUp Consulting

10:30am – 12:00pm

Top 10 for 2026: Strategic Priorities for Credit Unions

This session will provide an overview and facilitated discussion of the top ten most significant strategic decisions credit union leaders will have to make in 2026.

What are the emerging trends and disruptive forces shaping the financial services industry and credit union system? 

This presentation will help small and mid-sized credit union leaders future-proof their organizations with actionable insights and provide a clear roadmap to anticipate the most serious challenges and seize the most valuable opportunities in the coming year.

Caroline Vahrenkamp, Director, Advisory Services, Filene Research Institute

12:00pm – 1:00pm

Lunch Break (Meal Provided)

1:00pm – 2:30pm

See Sooner, Act Faster: What Innovation Means (for Real) and How to Use It to Fuel Growth

Innovation has become a buzzword. But real, meaningful innovation remains an essential survival skill in competitive and quickly changing industries like financial services. This session redefines what innovation means for credit unions, emphasizing practical approaches to spotting trends early and acting decisively. We will document the links between credit union innovation and member satisfaction, loyalty, and product usage, and then outline the internal and external drivers of that innovation.

How can credit unions embed the practice of innovation in their organizational design and culture to see sooner, act faster, and stay aligned through change?

Caroline Vahrenkamp, Director, Advisory Services, Filene Research Institute

10:30am – 12:00pm

The DISCOVERY of Your WHY

It can be difficult to see yourself through the eyes of others and battle the voice in your head that constantly says you are not enough. This workshop will help you reignite your purpose and reimagine the value you bring to the table. Speaker Sedric Brinson will take you on a journey to:

• Confidently know your worth
• Identify your leadership strengths!
• Harness and tap into your strengths!
• Confidently say, “I belong here!”

Sedric Brinson, Director, Councils Membership & Engagement, America’s Credit Unions

12:00pm – 1:00pm

Lunch Break (Meal Provided)

1:00pm – 2:30pm

POWERUP Your Leadership

Dr. Troy Hall, Talent Retention Expert

The ROI of Hiring for Heart: How Values-Based Recruitment Drives Performance

In a talent market defined by competition and change, the most successful credit unions are those hiring not just for skill, but for heart. This session explores the measurable impact of values-based recruitment on engagement, retention, and organizational performance. Attendees will gain practical insights into how hiring for cultural and mission alignment can strengthen teams, elevate service, and drive long-term success.

Through interactive discussion, we’ll connect the dots between purpose-driven hiring and bottom-line results – proving that when you lead with values, you don’t just build a better culture, you build a better business. 

Taylor Eblen, Carrick Professionals

Origence

This session will forecast trends in the automotive industry including market trends, tariffs, EV’s, embedded finance, and more.   Credit Unions can and will compete in the market to grow loans and serve members in a changing landscape.  

David Adams, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Lender Solutions, Origence

Layered Defense: The Smarter Way to Stop the Next Fraud Wave 

Robbie Dickerson, Relationship Manager, Advanced Fraud Solutions

The Crisis of Strategic Thinking in Management

Deedee Myers, CEO, DDJ Myers

Optimizing Credit Union Growth

Credit unions are facing increased competition, evolving member expectations and economic pressures that demand smarter, more strategic growth. This session will provide an educational overview of why credit union growth optimization is not just important, but essential in today’s environment.

You’ll learn about:

• How to assess your credit union growth posture
• How data, personalization, and automation are shaping modern credit unions
• Key operational disciplines that support credit union

Jeremy Jenkins, VP, Data Analytics, Vizo Financial

A Tale of Two Mondays: How a Ransomware Attack at Two Credit Unions Led to Two Very Different Outcomes 

In this session, Bill Goldin shares the real story of two similar credit unions hit by the same ransomware exploit on the same Monday. One was thrown into crisis mode, forced to deal with operational challenges as well as the legal and financial impact of losing access to their core systems. The other contained it quickly and moved on because preparation turned it into a non-event. This is not a narrow IT talk. It is for anyone from CEOs to loan officers, from CFOs to board members, to understand their role and how they will be affected when ransomware strikes. You will see how the first 90 minutes shape the week and the year ahead. Attendees will leave with a ransomware preparedness checklist and tips for running a tabletop to help your credit union prepare for a ransomware event.

Bill Goldin, SVP Cybersecurity, NetCov 

Emerging Risks

AI, a variety of fraud, deepfakes, breaches, …the list goes on! Clearly, risks are evolving quicker than ever, and you need to work harder and smarter to stay ahead in the game. Effective risk management and the need for a well thought out strategy is more important than ever.

As you continue to explore new ways to service your members’ financial needs it creates more places for risk indicators to hide. The fraudsters are going after your organization, your employees, your members, and your vendors! All of this is further complicated by the fact that we are all operating with constrained resources…making that proactive, strategic risk management approach even more important. This session explores a strategic risk management approach and includes a look at current risks impacting our industry.

James E. Bullard, Senior Consultant, Risk & Compliance Solutions, TruStage

Get CX Right the First Time in the AI Age 

Whether you already have a CX program or you are considering one, here’s the risk: you can spend a year collecting feedback and still not change loyalty, deposits, or loan growth. With too many member journeys, most teams get stuck on the same questions: What do we measure first? What do we ask? When do we ask it? And how do we turn insight into action that actually gets done? 

This session gives you a proven, AI-driven, first-time-right framework to cut through the noise. You’ll learn how to pinpoint the few moments that drive most frustration, design the right listening points, and use AI to surface themes faster and route insights into owned fixes. Walk out with a practical playbook you can use immediately, whether you are improving an existing program or launching one from scratch. 

Haris Azmi, Chief Revenue Officer, Sogolytics

How Gen Zs and Millennials Handle Money: Perspectives on the Younger Crowd

A data-driven look at how young consumers are doing financially, what they’re looking for, and who is winning them over in financial services today.

James Chemplavil, Founder and CEO, Salus

Securing More: How ESI Helps Credit Unions Protect High-Balance Members

Join Mike Baswell, Sales Manager at Excess Share Insurance (ESI), for an engaging session that reveals how credit unions can go beyond traditional limits with true excess share insurance—not a sweep program. Learn how ESI’s additional coverage of up to $10 million per member strengthens member confidence, attracts high-value deposits, and gives your credit union a powerful competitive edge.

Mike Baswell, Sales Manager, Excess Share Insurance (ESI)

Gen AI is the Dreamer, Agentic AI is the Doer

Jesse Fruge, Vice President of Product Management, Algebrik AI

Planning for Performance: Unlocking Financial & Operational Impact in Credit Unions

In today’s fast-changing financial landscape, budgeting and planning aren’t just back-office tasks—they’re strategic tools that drive smarter decisions and measurable impact. This session will explore how forward-thinking credit unions can modernize their planning processes to improve agility, empower leadership, and deliver stronger outcomes for their organization, members, and communities. We’ll connect the dots between better budgeting, performance management, vision and growth—so you leave with practical insights you can act on immediately.

Brad Brockman, Senior Sales Engineer, Empyrean Solutions

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