Learn innovative strategies, advanced techniques, and best practices from the brightest minds in banking in these actionable, how-to sessions guaranteed to build your brand and your bottom line.
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How-To Strategy Sessions
All breakout sessions are presented by top experts in their fields. There are no “sales pitches.” Any speaker who “sells from the stage” will be banned for life.
Connecting the Dots: Fintech Innovations & the Future of Banking
Core Themes: UX/CX, Digital Banking, Fintech
Dave DeFazio, Partner at StrategyCorps
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to leverage fintech innovations that enhance CX and drive loyalty
- The latest trends in mobile banking apps that are reshaping consumer behavior
- Techniques for optimizing digital platforms to provide seamless, 24/7 financial services
- Effective strategies to integrate AI-driven financial advisors into existing service models
- Best practices for financial institutions to collaborate with fintech startups
- How to personalize financial advice using data analytics and machine learning
Overcoming Strategic Contradictions in The Banking C-Suite
Core Themes: Strategic Planning, Data & Analytics, Marketing Strategy
Dr. Sean Payant, Chief Strategy Officer/Senior EVP at Haberfeld
This session will teach banking executives:
- How senior leadership teams are often misled by faulty assumptions surrounding “traditional models” and how to eliminate these barriers to growth
- How data should be used to reconcile strategic contradictions to build a growth strategy with increased profitability
- How to navigate the complex balancing act between short-term goals and long-term sustainability
- How to effectively translate data into compelling offers and leverage data to target high-probability conversions
- Actionable strategies to improve your overall marketing efficiency
Titans of Deposits: Best Practices for Unlocking Growth
Categories: Marketing Strategy, Deposit Growth
Nathaniel Harley, CEO & Co-Founder of MANTL
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to overcome major deposit growth obstacles in 2025 without relying solely on APY-centric offers
- Digital marketing and acquisition strategies — from national to local — to attract diversified deposits at an attractive price per dollar
- Key benchmarks to evaluate the ROI efficiency of your deposit strategy, including tech and marketing spend
- The role automation should play in the business deposit account opening process to raise commercial deposits at scale
- How to optimize touchpoints for deposit growth by turning service channels like branches and call centers into sales channels
- Table stakes for account opening technology in 2025, and how to overcome legacy infrastructure challenges
Optimizing Your Marketing Budget for Maximum ROI
Sharon Cook, former bank CMO and VP/Client Strategy at Vericast
This session will teach banking executives:
- Best practices when crafting an effective marketing budget in the retail banking industry
- How CMOs and CFOs can work together to structure marketing budgets that get approved
- Where marketing budgets must be increased and where they can be reduced
- Which media channels are most critical to realizing your institution’s growth goals and achieving tangible business outcomes
- How to balance marketing budgets across multiple objectives — brand awareness, customer acquisition, and cross-selling
Digital + Human: Delivery Strategies for the Next-Gen Branch Experience
Core Themes: Branch Strategy, Culture & HR, Technology, Retail Delivery
EJ Kritz, Executive Experience Officer of DBSI
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to design branch environments and engineer staffing models that foster meaningful connections and streamline customer journeys in today’s increasingly digital world
- How fintech partnerships and differentiated branch concepts are turning traditional HR models upside down
- Tools that facilitate human interactions within the context of innovative retail branch concepts
- Reasons why your “top performing employees” might be your biggest enemy, and methods to rethink in-branch staffing personas
- How HR can support your retail growth strategy when recruiting and hiring branch staff with lessons found in the grocery store cereal aisle
- How innovative quick-service restaurants and influential retailers are inspiring new branch delivery concepts in banking
The Next-Gen CMO: Essential Skills & Leadership Strategies from Marketing Visionaries
Core Themes: Marketing Strategy, Leadership
Eric Fulwiler, Co-Founder & CEO of Rival
This session will teach banking executives:
- The key management and leadership skills that will determine whether tomorrow’s next-gen CMOs are successful and effective
- How to build consensus and communicate more effectively with your CEO, other members of your C-suite, and your board
- Insights and best practices from leading CMOs and marketing thought leaders in and outside of the financial services category
- How CMOs must position themselves to be effective in the future, and resources CMOs need to future-proof their role
Harnessing Emerging Technologies as Catalysts for Growth
Core Themes: Digital Transformation, Disruptive Tech, Fintech Innovation
Surjit Chana, Harvard Advanced Leadership Fellow & Board Director at Beneficial State Bank
This session will teach banking executives:
- How emerging technologies like like AI, generative AI, blockchain, and quantum computing are lowering costs, increasing revenues, and uncovering new opportunities
- A strategic roadmap focused on adapting business models to leverage emerging technologies
- How to ensure your core systems and data infrastructure are robust, scalable, and capable of supporting advanced technological deployments
- Ethical considerations and safeguards that must be in place when utilizing AI and other emerging technologies
- How new innovations and transformative technologies are reimagining customer engagement and enhancing customer interactions
Branding for Growth: Navigating M&A Success
Core Themes: Branding, M&A, Strategic Planning
Gina Bleedorn, President & CEO of Adrenaline
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to incorporate branding early into M&A planning to support future mergers and potential acquisitions
- Actionable insights into branding considerations in your ongoing M&A strategy
- How to navigate the complexities of combining organizations with a unified vision and integrated brand strategy
- How to align strategies, cultures, and brand expressions in each phase of M&A
- How to ensure loyalty and minimize attrition with a robust M&A communications strategy
- How to build a cohesive brand identity that resonates with stakeholders and drives a competitive advantage
Generative AI in Banking: Practical Applications for ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot
Core Themes: Artificial Intelligence, Marketing
Ben Udell, former SVP/Digital Innovation & AI at Lake Ridge Bank
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to build a generative AI strategy within the current regulatory framework
- Tips and tricks to establish AI policies, build your pilot team, and keep humans in the loop
- How you can use AI for internal initiatives — e.g., identifying and addressing compliance issues, and building training programs for bankers to support marketing campaigns
- How to train your AI using readily available sources — like your website — to focus results with greater accuracy, consistency and predictability
- How to craft AI prompts that yield the outputs you expect while eliminating bias and “hallucinations”
What Will Save Community Banking
Core Themes: Business strategy, segmentation, differentiation
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, President of SLD
This session will teach community banking executives:
- Why clinging to traditional geographic definitions of “community banking” is a recipe for disaster
- How to successfully pivot from a product-centric mindset, and align your brand around digital consumers’ shifting definition of “community”
- New affinity-based segmentation strategies that enable institutions to grow beyond their historically geographic borders
- Modern marketing tactics and niche modeling techniques that build like-minded communities
- The technological competencies needed to effectively target unique consumer segments
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Fusing Marketing Strategy with Next-Gen Tech to Personalize Digital-Banking Experiences
Core Themes: Marketing, Personalization, CX
Carlos Carvajal, CMO of Q2
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to integrate proven marketing strategies with modern technologies and new digital banking innovations
- How to effectively leverage AI and data analytics for personalized marketing, predictive analytics, and customer service automation
- How to map and optimize the customer journey, with real-world examples of marketing strategies that personalize digital banking experiences
- How to elevate, align and differentiate the brand experience you deliver across branch and digital channels
- Tactics that will attract and engage younger generations
Branch Renaissance: Driving Acquisition, Cross-Selling & Engagement
Core Themes: Branch Strategy, Retail Design, Branding & Marketing
Juliet D’Ambrosio, Chief Experience Officer at Adrenaline
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to transform the branch channel from a transaction center into a catalyst for acquisition and cross-selling
- How your retail strategy must adapt to fewer visits that add more value as the branch experience shifts from transactional to advisory
- How to use “zonal planning,” experience design, merchandising, and staff to choreograph customer journeys and optimize dwell times
- How to maximize the effectiveness of in-branch marketing and brand content by orchestrating the right delivery of the right message at the right place and time
- How to optimize your video content and manage your playlist according to cadence, frequency, and market segmentation
Instant Payments: Riding the Wave Into the Future
Core Themes: Payments Strategy & Technologies
Rusiru Gunasena, Senior Vice President at The Clearing House
This session will teach banking executives:
- How retail financial institutions can connect to the RTP network and make instant payments work
- How instant payments allow for a faster, more seamless experience, and reduce uncertainty over potential fraud
- When we can anticipate U.S. cross-border instant payments, and how this innovation will revolutionize international payments
- The future of Request for Payment (RfP) capabilities
- How instant payments are being used by SMBs to increase cash flow and decrease payment delays
The Hidden Growth Engine: Internal Marketing to Drive Brand Advocacy & Revenue Growth
Core Themes: Culture & HR, Internal Marketing, Branding
Kerry-Ann Stimpson, CMO at JMMB Group
This session will teach banking executives:
- Techniques to audit employee alignment with your brand, and how to identify areas for improvement
- How to implement creative internal advertising campaigns, branch roadshows, and promote internal brand ambassadors
- Effective onboarding, training, and developmental programs that sensitize employees to your brand’s mission and purpose
- Methods and metrics to measure the impact of internal marketing, and the KPIs to get buy-in from executive leadership teams
Forum 2025 Growth Strategies: Turning Ideas Into Action
Core Themes: Culture & HR, Change Management, Leadership
James Robert Lay, Founder of Digital Growth Institute
This session will teach banking executives:
- Practical tools and a growth framework that empowers teams to adapt quickly to emerging trends and new technologies
- How to inspire your team to adopt a fresh perspective, resist inertia, and break free from their status quo routines
- How to get your entire organization to embrace change, and maximize the return on your investment of time and money at the Forum 2025
- The critical role Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Adaptability Quotient (AQ) play when leading teams through complex change
- How to leverage connections with other Forum attendees and ensure success after the event
Growth Opportunities & Challenges in the Cannabis Banking Market
Core Themes: Cannabis Banking, Compliance & Regulations, Growth Strategies
Delene Gilbert, VP/Cannabis Banking at Prism Bank
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to make compliance and transparency core elements of your marketing strategy, and position your expertise as a competitive advantage
- How to take a proactive approach to regulatory changes and stay ahead in this evolving landscape
- How to target various subsegments of the cannabis industry — from growers to dispensaries — and craft messages that resonate with each
- How to leverage data analytics to track trends, target the right segments, and refine your marketing strategies
- How to leverage partnerships with key players in the cannabis space to co-market your services and offer comprehensive, value-packed solutions
Optimizing Onboarding ROI for Checking & Debit Accountholders
Core Themes: Product Marketing, Onboarding, Cross-selling
David Schultz, CEO & Founder of Media Logic
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to yield maximum ROI and LTV from new checking relationships in the first 90 days
- How to drive top-of-wallet status and improve long-term debit cardholder loyalty
- Integrated digital marketing techniques and multi-channel communication strategies that reinforce your value proposition, generate excitement, and drive early desired actions
- Best practices, segmentation models, and key metrics for optimizing the onboarding journey and improving new accountholder satisfaction
Retail Deposit Growth Playbook: Adaptive Strategies for Evolving Customer Expectations
Gaurav Bhatia, CMO & Head of Retail Deposits at PenFed Credit Union
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to reach a wider audience, engage potential depositors, and significantly increase conversion rates
- How to maintain competitiveness and profitability with dynamic pricing strategies that balance rates, fees, balance requirements based on market conditions and customer behavior
- How to identify high-value segments, understand their financial needs, and structure products accordingly
- Strategies to personalize deposit-focused marketing messages that are tailored to individual customer preferences
- How to optimize effective marketing campaigns in digital channels for deposit growth, including social media, email, and SEO
Beyond Google: Digital Marketing Strategies for the New Realities of AI-Powered Search
Core Themes: Digital Marketing, SEO, Artificial Intelligence
Wil Reynolds, Founder of Seer Interactive
This session will teach banking executives:
- How your marketing and acquisition strategy is impacted by massive shifts in digital channels
- How changes in consumers’ digital behaviors are disintermediating Google, and how consumers are really getting their banking advice now
- How to track your visibility in AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT, and why smaller banks might do especially better in this world than they did with Google
- How to catch competitors using low-quality AI tools to generate content, and how to make sure you don’t replicate their mistakes and break out of this ‘sea of sameness’
The Secret Financial Lives of Americans in 2025
Core Themes: Economic Trends, Financial Wellness & Literacy
This session will teach banking executives:
- Eight major financial needs of Americans that are often ignored and largely unaddressed
- The harmful habits and adverse behaviors people struggle with that fuel their financial stress and insecurity
- What Americans want from their banking providers — and what they are willing to pay for, but which aren’t being offered
- How financial institutions can innovate in both small and large ways to meet the needs today’s consumers
Ben Zeidler
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Gunny Scarfo
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Fueling Growth, Engagement and Retention Through Digital Financial Wellness Programs
Core Themes: Financial Wellness
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to build your online financial wellness program around empathetic, actionable, purpose-driven digital content and achieve tangible business outcomes
- How personalized financial guidance can deepen relationships, increase lifetime value, and reduce churn
- How providing digital financial tools and guidance can be used to prospect for user intent, attract new customers, and fill your sales pipeline
- How empathetic financial guidance can serve as a strategic lever to enhance loyalty and drive brand differentiation
- How to track and measure the impact of financial guidance initiatives to ensure alignment with your organization’s growth goals
- Actionable strategies to boost search engine visibility and improve search rankings with content focused on financial advice and wellness
Joanne Ojeda
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Scott Gardner
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