Breakout Sessions
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.
More coming soon!
This is only one component of a three-day agenda packed with real-world case studies, how-to strategy sessions, and inspirational keynotes.
More content tracks will be released shortly, including the Executive Leadership Series, Power Breakfasts, Lunch & Learns, and the Sponsor Solutions Showcase.
Next-Gen Onboarding to Maximize Cross-Selling, Retention and ROI
Instructor: Ben Udell, former SVP/Digital Innovation & AI at Lake Ridge Bank
Core Themes: CX, Growth & Retention, Data Strategy, Personalization
Why you should attend:
Every financial institution has an onboarding program, but few are truly optimized for today’s digital-first consumers. Even the smallest gaps in the first 90 days can quietly erode loyalty, engagement, and long-term profitability.
This session will show you what next-generation onboarding looks like. You’ll see how leading financial institutions are integrating behavioral data and marketing automation to personalize the new accountholder experience, accelerate cross-selling opportunities, and turn new relationships into lasting, profitable growth.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to modernize and optimize existing onboarding programs with a precision-tuned strategy blending data, automation, and behavioral insights
- How to identify early signals that predict engagement and determine long-term relationship profitability
- New ways to personalize onboarding journeys, deepen new relationships, and automate retention for measurable ROI
- How to close hidden gaps in existing onboarding programs that cause attrition and missed opportunities
The Science of Branding: Tapping the Hidden Forces Behind Consumer Decisions
Instructor: Josh Streufert, Chief Creative Officer/Creative Director & Principal at Strum
Core Themes: Creativity, Brand Strategy, Marketing Strategy
Why you should attend:
What makes some financial brands so much more effective than others? It’s not about rates, fees, and product features. It comes down to how the brain is wired to process, sort, and filter what matters — emotionally, not logically. In a world with endless options and shrinking attention spans, understanding the science of choice is a strategic advantage that marketers of all levels must master.
In this creative learning session, we’ll break down the science behind creativity and persuasion — and how top brands use powerful emotional levers to shape behavior, influence decisions, and earn trust. You’ll learn a framework with simple techniques for making your branding and marketing initiatives more effective, more fun, and more rewarding.
This session will teach banking executives:
- The behavioral science and decision-making principles that the best brands use to influence choice
- How to win hearts — and wallet share — by leveraging insights into consumer psychology
- Three deceptively simple questions that will make all of your branding and marketing initiatives more effective
- The most common creative traps that kill good ideas — and how to avoid them
- Tips and techniques to sustain your team’s creativity, keep ideas fresh, and prevent burnout
Winning the Deposit Arms Race: Beating Digital Rivals with Predictive Intelligence
Instructor: Derek Elmerick, VP/Managing Director at Deluxe
Core Themes: Deposit Strategies, Pricing & Profitability, Data Analytics, Customer Acquisition & Retention
Why you should attend:
The battle for deposits is brutal. Rate-sensitive customers are shopping relentlessly, while digital challengers make switching easier than ever. But the winners won’t be the institutions who pay the most — they’ll be those that spot at-risk balances early, protect high-value relationships, and capitalize on retention opportunities.
This session shows how to win deposits without losing the rate game. You’ll learn how a data-driven deposit strategy — built on predictive analytics, timed interventions, and loyalty-focused design — balances short-term liquidity needs with long-term profitability while reducing margin leakage and outmaneuvering digital competitors.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to use behavioral and transactional signals to prevent attrition and spot at-risk depositors before they defect
- How to identify “sticky” balances and prioritize those depositors worth protecting most
- How to apply predictive analytics to uncover hidden growth opportunities inside existing portfolios
- How to design deposit campaigns that align near-term goals with long-term profitability
The Payment Revolution: How Next-Gen Consumers Are Rewriting the Rules
Instructor: Sean Gelles, Senior Director of Payments Intelligence at JD Power
Core Themes: Payments, Gen Z, Demographic Trends, Digital Transformation
Why you should attend:
Traditional payments models built around cards and checking accounts are irrelevant to Gen Z and younger Millennials. Digital wallets, embedded finance, and instant payments are the new frontlines in the battle for customer relationships, and most banking providers are struggling to keep up with this accelerating seismic shift.
This session unpacks what younger consumers now expect from payment providers, and how they are fundamentally reshaping the economics of banking. Drawing on deep research and behavioral trends, you’ll walk away with a strategic roadmap for modernizing payments, and how you need to position your institution to stay ahead of this massive generational pivot.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How digital wallets, P2P platforms, and embedded finance ecosystems are eroding traditional payment relationships
- How to recalibrate your payments strategy to attract and retain next-gen accountholders while strengthening deposit relationships
- How younger consumers’ payment behaviors differ radically from previous generations — and what that means for your institution’s relevance and profitability
- What KPIs and behavioral metrics best predict future wallet share and long-term customer value
- How to prioritize technology investments that meet emerging consumer payment preferences without overhauling your core systems
Lowering Cost of Acquisition with Hyperlocal Marketing at Scale
Instructor: Sharon Cook, VP/Marketing Strategy at Vericast
Core Themes: Marketing Strategy, Media Optimization, Data & Analytics, Deposit & Loan Growth
Why you should attend:
Most financial institutions waste 30–50% of their media budgets talking to the wrong people in the wrong places. Why? Because their targeting is too broad, their creative is too generic, and their teams are stretched too thin.
This unfiltered session will show you how top-performing banks and credit unions are using hyperlocal growth strategies to outmaneuver the megabanks. You’ll see how they are finding untapped pockets of demand and dramatically improving targeting efficiency to lower acquisition costs with neighborhood-level insights, dynamic creative generation, and AI-powered optimization. Hear real client stories as they reveal what works, what flopped, and why local relevance is now the single biggest multiplier of marketing ROI.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to build a hyperlocal marketing strategies that keep your brand relevant in every community you serve
- How to pinpoint the specific neighborhoods and geo-demographic pockets where profitable growth actually lives — and where to stop wasting money
- How to let digital media mirror your community-first, local value prop that bigger banks can’t match
- How to tie social, search, and direct mail with omnichannel micro-targeting strategies that multiply marketing ROI
- Performance metrics from institutions already winning with hyperlocal strategies
Beyond TikTok & Viral Influencers: Financial Education in the Age of Misinformation
Instructor: Kelly Ball, CEO of Pathfinders and Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Notre Dame
Core Themes: Financial Education, Digital Engagement, Social Media
Why you should attend:
When younger consumers have financial questions, they aren’t looking to financial institutions for answers. They’re turning to sites like TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit first — social platforms flooding the internet with financial advice that’s often more entertaining than accurate. But when you don’t own the narrative, you’re putting customer relationships at risk.
This session challenges leaders to redefine what “financial education” means in a world dominated by viral social media content. You’ll see how to transform financial education into a strategic moat — not the perfunctory public service most financial institutions dismiss. You’ll learn how to build credibility, trust, and confidence as you create learning experiences that engage today’s digital consumers.
This session will teach banking executives:
- Where financial institutions can compete — and win — with financial education in a digital-first world
- What the rise of “finfluencers” means for your brand and the next generation of customers you need to attract
- How to reclaim your role as trusted advisor and position your institution as the most reliable voice in an era of viral misinformation
- How to turn financial literacy into an engine for brand engagement
- How to quantify and measure the ROI of financial education programs
Economic Trends, Strategic Leadership & Risk Management for 2026 and Beyond
Instructor: Dr. Lindsey Piegza, Chief Economist and Managing Director at Stifel Nicolaus & Co.
Core Themes: Growth Strategy, Strategic Planning
Why you should attend:
Economic uncertainty. Interest rate volatility. Persistent inflation. Neurotic regulators. These are top concerns affecting strategic plans in banking — all with massive implications on razor thin margins. With consumer confidence wavering, what’s the right path forward? For banks and credit unions, every strategic decision — from deposit pricing to loan growth — now hinges on anticipating what’s around the corner.
In this fast-paced economic outlook, you’ll get the data, insights, and foresight needed to build a strategic plan with confidence. This session will decode the latest economic indicators, explain how they translate into opportunities and risks for financial institutions, and reveal what every banking leader should be watching to stay ahead of shifting market forces.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How inflation, interest rates, and monetary policy will shape loan and deposit growth
- The strongest economic indicators offering the clearest signals for strategic planning
- How to align short-term goals with long-term economic realities
- Key metrics to gauge consumer health and forecast spending trends
- Why agility and foresight will define the industry’s next generation of winners and losers
Redesigning Branch Environments for Digital Consumers: Lessons from Around the World
Panelist: Danielle Calcara, SVP/Marketing at Newground
Panelist: Brad Ritner, Director of Retail Design at Newground
Panelist: Spencer Branham, Director of Branded Environments at Newground
Core Themes: Branch Design, Retail Experience, CX, Branding
Why you should attend:
In this session, you’ll take a tour of global retail environments that are setting the new standard. Grab a front row seat as you explore inspiring design concepts from leading financial institutions and world-class retailers. You’ll see what actually works — from experiential design and retail technologies, to immersive brand storytelling — and why yesterday’s models are broken.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How retail environments are evolving in both scale, function, and design
- How experiential design turns branch visits into growth
- Which global design trends translate into real value for banks and credit unions — and which are costly distractions
- The critical decisions and strategic design elements that either support or sabotage sales conversations
- How to future-proof branch investments with flexible concepts that adapt as technologies and customer behaviors evolve
Last chance to save $1,195.00 — ends soon!
Sign up now to save $405 on your all-access pass and get two complimentary workshops worth $790! Hurry, this Final Discount expires Feb. 19!
From Probability to Certainty: Predictive vs. Deterministic AI Modeling for Financial Services
Instructor: Ryan Caldwell, Co-Founder and CEO of MX
Why you should attend:
AI platforms have a major architectural limitation that can get you into real trouble. By design, they use predictive models programmed to estimate answers. Their output may sound authoritative and concrete, but it’s often guesswork and approximations. This can be a huge problem for bankers working in a tightly-regulated industry where precision and consistency are mandatory.
In this session, you’ll learn how to get definitive, verifiable answers from AI platforms by engineering deterministic models that defuse their default probabilistic behavior. Join a panel of AI innovators for a grounded conversation focused on practical applications and real-world examples showing you where AI has been most effective. You’ll see how to build AI-enabled experiences with a strategic roadmap that ensures precision and prioritizes regulatory compliance.
This session will teach banking executives:
This session will teach banking executives:
- The critical differences between predictive, probabilistic and deterministic AI systems
- How AI can strengthen banking operations — and where it exposes you to guesswork and unnecessary risks
- Practical criteria to determine which AI model you need and when
- How to ensure AI outputs are accurate, consistent, and strategically aligned — and the guardrails your leadership team must put in place
- How to design AI-assisted experiences that augment human expertise — especially in high-stakes workflows
Banking on Autopilot: How Smart Apps Get Out of the Way with AI & Automation
Instructor: Dave DeFazio, Chief Strategy Officer at StrategyCorps
Core Themes: Digital Banking Strategy, Automation & AI, UX/CX, Behavioral Design
Why you should attend:
Banks spent the last decade stacking more features into digital channels. More buttons. More options. The problem? Customers don’t want “more banking” — they want less.
This session will teach banking executives:
This session will teach banking executives:
- How financial institutions of any asset size can apply “invisible banking” concepts without rebuilding their entire tech stack
- How financial decisions are increasingly being made for customers, not by them
- How automation, predictive alerts, and proactive intervention redefines speed, simplicity, and trust in everyday financial interactions
- Design principles that remove friction without sacrificing control, transparency, or confidence
From Oncology to Opportunity: Lessons in Humanizing the Banking Experience
Instructor: EJ Kritz, Chief Experience Officer at DBSI
Core Themes: CX, Personalization
Why you should attend:
What does cancer have to do with banking? On the surface, not much. But when EJ Kritz was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer in 2019, his journey to recovery became a masterclass in service and personalization. He found himself inside a system that often knew what he needed before he did — addressing his uncertainty about the future, fears of making the wrong choice, and the overwhelming need for someone to make it all feel a little more manageable. All familiar parallels with financial services.
This profoundly personal yet surprisingly relevant session is about the universal human needs that emerge in moments of vulnerability — and how those same needs show up in financial services every single day. You’ll see how empathy can be operationalized, how anticipating needs builds trust, and how financial institutions can design experiences that comfort, guide, and empower people when- and where they need it most.
This session will teach banking executives:
- The principles of human-centric CX and how they shape service experiences people will never forget
- How to train frontline teams to use empathy and active listening to uncover hidden needs and strengthen trust
- How to identify “pain points” and eliminate friction before customers even recognize it
- How to evolve personalization beyond data and automation to include genuine emotional intelligence
Five Generations, One Brand: How to Stay Relevant Across a Century of Change
Instructor: Daniel Darst, Deputy CMO at Flagstar Bank
Core Themes: Branding, Marketing Strategy, Generational Marketing
Why you should attend:
Banking providers face an unprecedented challenge: engaging five living generations — from Boomers to Generation Alpha — each with its own values, preferences, and expectations. How do you speak with equal credibility to an 80-year-old retiree and a 20-year-old digital native without sounding irrelevant to one or inauthentic to the other?
This session reveals how enduring financial brands develop strategic plans and marketing messages that stretch a singular brand across radically different audiences. Drawing on real-world case studies, you’ll see how to align your brand with generational attitudes and life-stage needs as expectations and technologies evolve.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How differences in the generational landscape shape brand perceptions
- How financial brands can guide families (and small businesses) through change, career shifts, wealth transfer, and life events across decades
- That trust comes from tradition, while growth and relevance come from innovation — and how to navigate this paradox
- How to sustain credibility across generations in an era of misinformation, rapid change, and digital overload
- How to appeal to younger audiences without alienating loyal, long-term customers
Modernizing Compliance & Product Marketing to Compete with Agile Digital Disruptors
Panelist: Mujesira Dudic, Director of Digital Transformation/Financial Services at Capgemini
Panelist: Hayat Yahia, Principal/Product Management at Naehas
Panelist: Mark Spotanski, Vice President, Partnership Operations of FNBO
Core Themes: Brand Strategy
Why you should attend:
Neobanks, embedded finance platforms, and digital-currency networks roll out new offers and products in weeks — not years. Banks can’t keep up. Why? Outdated compliance frameworks, disconnected systems, and manual workflows that bring product marketing to a standstill.
This session aligns compliance, marketing, and technology around a new approach to creating offers and approving disclosures. You’ll see how to make these processes faster without sacrificing the control regulators expect, so you don’t lose deposits, payments, and loyalty to challengers with more agile systems.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to overhaul product marketing frameworks so financial institutions can react decisively when market conditions shift
- Which governance gaps create the biggest vulnerabilities as challengers gain momentum and competitive pressure grows
- How to act quickly and reliably when new challengers move faster than legacy systems can respond
- What a modern, cross-functional offer and disclosure workflow looks like when accuracy, speed, and control must coexist
- Practical ways to integrate automation and agentic AI while sustaining regulatory confidence
Personalization at Scale: AI-Powered Growth Strategies for Community Institutions
Instructor: Lincoln Parks, Co-Founder of Lincoln James Inc.
Core Themes: AI, Personalization, Data Strategies, Marketing
Why you should attend:
Community banks and credit unions can’t outspend megabanks — but they can outsmart them. In the AI era, it’s all about data maturity. Institutions that engineer the right data foundations to deliver personalized experiences at scale will grow faster and more efficiently than their larger rivals.
This session shows how marketing teams of any size can turn AI from a buzzword into a true growth multiplier — without blowing up the budget. You’ll walk away with a clear blueprint for scaling personalization across all channels and touchpoints to anticipate customer needs and strengthen relationships using your existing data.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to turn existing customer data into actionable insights that drive personalized outreach and yield measurable business outcomes
- Ways to implement AI-powered personalization despite limited staff and marketing resources
- How to build an agile marketing framework that scales personalization across channels and segments
- How to quantify the ROI of personalization in terms of conversions, retention, and cross-sell metrics
- How to align leadership, marketing, and IT around a shared data vision that’s sustainable and scalable
Brand Evolution Playbook: Renewed Relevance Through Modernized Banking Brands
Moderator: Sarah Iceely Hill, SVP/Growth at Brand Active
Panelist: Joli Murtha, Head of Brand at Truist
Panelist: Anthony Bonamassa, Director/Global Brand Management & Activation at Citi
Panelist: Chad Langford, Director of Marketing at First Interstate Bank
Core Themes: Brand Strategy
Why you should attend:
Many financial institutions wrestle with outdated brands that just don’t work anymore. Some do nothing and slowly lose relevance, while others overcorrect with sweeping changes that confuse customers and drain budgets. Most organizations land somewhere in the middle — ready to modernize, but careful not to dilute the equity they’ve spent decades building. The smart play is often a disciplined brand evolution — one that balances purposeful change with practical decision-making, ensuring you evolve where it matters most without overspending.
In this session, you’ll see how leading banking providers sharpened their relevance, protected their heritage, and managed budgets strategically. You’ll leave with a decision framework that cuts through internal debates, so you can align your leadership team around the costs, timing, and impact of brand refresh initiatives.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to reduce internal resistance to rebranding and accelerate customer acceptance by protecting brand legacy and heritage
- What’s required to ensure your rebranding project supports growth and isn’t perceived as “just a facelift”
- Which elements to evolve, retire, and preserve to achieve brand clarity without confusion
- Ways to sequence a brand change, whether a refresh or rebrand, rollout across digital and physical channels that minimize cost and maximize ROI
- How to inventory, rationalize, and prioritize thousands of assets as you breathe new life into your brand
AI and the New Rules of Search: Content Strategies to Maximize Brand Visibility
Instructor: Wil Reynolds, Founder & CEO of Seer Interactive
Core Themes: Digital Marketing, Artificial Intelligence
Why you should attend:
AI has changed the rules of online search forever. In this new era of algorithmic disruption where machine learning models dictate brand visibility — not search engine page ranks — financial institutions that cling to the old “SEO playbook” are doomed.
This session reveals what it takes to win in the AI-powered search ecosystem. You’ll learn how to evolve from chasing rankings to building real authority, why you need to optimize for trust and credibility instead of keywords, and how to future-proof your institution’s digital presence in a world where AI is now the gatekeeper to customer attention.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How AI has radically rewritten the rules of search and the massive impact this shift has on your brand’s digital visibility
- What the next generation of search looks like — and what financial brands must do to stay relevant
- What happens when you (or your competitors) feed the right kind of content to Large Language Models
- How your digital content must evolve to build authority, and why traditional SEO signals like E-E-A-T actually matter now more than ever
How Innovative Marketers Build Continuous Growth Engines With Smarter Optimization
Panelist: Don Sklenka, SVP/AI Optimization Strategy at Claritas LLC
Panelist: Jonathan Hanson, SVP/Marketing at Vystar
Panelist: Mary Gustafson, VP of Product Marketing at Vystar
Panelist: Harrison Aquino, VP/Marketing at Suncoast Credit Union
Panelist: Katherine Eddleman, SVP/Manager of Paid Media at Regions Bank
Core Themes: Marketing Strategy, Segmentation, Personalization, Artificial Intelligence
Why you should attend:
Modern marketing isn’t about more campaigns — it’s about continuous optimization. Institutions that connect data, creative, and media into one learning system are pulling ahead fast.
In this panel discussion, top financial marketers reveal how they are modernizing marketing stacks without overcomplicating them. These innovative trailblazers will prove you don’t need a dedicated data science team to build automated engines that evolve in real time. You’ll see how leading banks and credit unions are aligning strategy with technology to make smarter, faster decisions, as they transform their audience segmentation models, automate and personalize creative, and optimize media budgets.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How connected, automated, and audience-led marketing ecosystems sustain growth and drive incremental ROI
- How AI creates an always-on optimization loop that continuously evolves to improve performance
- How to get more out of every marketing dollar by optimizing media allocations in real time
- How dynamic segmentation and behavioral models are outperforming traditional demographic strategies
- When to use adaptive creative and AI-generated content that aligns messaging with individual journeys and brand context in real time
Seizing the $21 Trillion Wealth Opportunity in Banking
Instructor: Jean Pierre LaCroix, President and Chief Strategy Officer of SLD
Core Themes: Generational Segmentation, Wealth Marketing, Brand Positioning
Why you should attend:
The most significant wealth transfer in history is underway right now, with younger generations set to inherit $21 trillion from Baby Boomers — a massive demographic shift that’s fundamentally reshaping how people choose and interact with financial institutions.
This session reveals how forward-thinking banks and credit unions redesign customer journeys with modernized value propositions to capture a disproportional share of this once-in-a-generation growth opportunity. You’ll learn how to align leadership, culture, and innovation around the realities of this historic transition, and reframe your brand to resonate with today’s younger, purpose-driven consumers without alienating legacy customers.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to position your institution to maximize retention and growth as wealth shifts from one generation to the next
- Five battle-tested strategies you can deploy immediately, and the hidden barriers you must overcome
- How to design customer journeys that reflect evolving financial values, priorities, and behaviors
- The exact moments when routine transactions become wealth-building conversations
- Omnichannel strategies that turn generational insights into measurable growth — across both digital and in-branch experiences
Banks and Credit Unions Are Running Out of Time!
The Final Discount for the Forum 2026 ends Feb. 19! You have just a few days left to sign up and save $1,195.00 before it’s too late!
Winning Consumer Confidence & Trust in the Age of AI
Instructor: Corey Wrinn, Managing Director at Rivel Banking Research
Core Themes: Artificial Intelligence, Reputation Management, CX
Why you should attend:
A friendly banker in your local branch used to be the face of financial advice. Now AI, automation, and algorithms determine how financial institutions earn — and lose — consumer confidence. The pressure to make technology feel reliable, transparent, and human has never been higher.
This session reveals what people really think about AI and how it is quietly eroding trust in financial services. You’ll see what banking leaders must change immediately in their digital, data, and AI strategies to rebuild confidence before customers defect.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How AI affects consumer confidence across various segments and product categories
- Which levers drive consumer confidence, and practical steps to ensure innovation strengthens — not erodes — trust
- What transparency, control, and communication features most strongly correlate with consumer trust
- How to balance automation with authenticity as you design AI-enabled experiences that feel both efficient and empathetic
- How to position your institution as credible, human, and technologically advanced
The Differentiation Dividend: How Strategic Naming Drives Growth
Instructor: Gina Bleedorn, CEO/President of Adrenaline
Core Themes: Artificial Intelligence, Reputation Management, CX
Why you should attend:
In banking, it’s nearly impossible to stand out with brand names like Community, First, or National. These generic, me-too monikers are a silent tax on growth — confusing consumers and constraining acquisition as marketing budgets are drained. And in an industry dominated by consolidation and expansion, countless financial institutions will be legally forced to change names.
This fast-paced session reveals how leading financial institutions create differentiation, accelerate growth, and quantify enterprise value by investing in strong, strategic brand names. Learn how to evaluate whether your institution’s name still works — and what you need to do when it doesn’t.
This session will teach banking executives:
- The hidden dangers of “playing it safe” with names that “sound financial” — and how weak naming directly inflates acquisition costs
- Proven renaming frameworks and governance models that align brand strategy, build internal consensus, and minimize risk
- When renaming is no longer optional and becomes a mission-critical imperative for growth and survival
- How to navigate the cultural challenges and regulatory hurdles in rebranding initiatives
- How to quantify the ROI of a name change with tangible KPIs and trackable business impact
Communicating Through Chaos: Maximizing Retention in Core Tech Transitions
Instructor: Tricia Hrotko, SVP Strategic Managed Services at Digital Onboarding
Core Themes: CX, Change Management, Communications Strategy, Digital Transformation
Why you should attend:
Within the next few years, most financial institutions will face a huge tech headache. Whether upgrading a legacy core, deploying a new digital platform, or untangling post-merger systems — it’s an operational nightmare. But many leadership teams underestimate the complexity and importance of communications in these moments. The reputational risk is enormous, and the margin for error razor thin. Get it wrong and irate customers will defect.
This session will arm you with a disciplined framework to transform these chaotic and disruptive transitions into genuine relationship-building opportunities. Learn how to craft the ideal communications strategy and effectively prevent post-conversion attrition when your institution changes the critical systems customers depend on most.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to build a core conversion communications plan that preserves customer confidence and protects retention
- The right cadence, tone, and sequencing of messages that sustain trust throughout complex conversions
- The major communications mistakes that do the most damage — and how to pre-empt panic before it spreads
- Strategies to align internal teams so branch, call center, and marketing staff deliver one unified message
The Longevity Economy: Future-Proofing Growth in an Aging Nation
Instructor: Joe Sullivan, CEO of Market Insights
Core Themes: Demographic Trends, Strategic Growth, Consumer Behavior
Why you should attend:
The banking industry faces a demographic crisis. By 2034, adults over 65 will outnumber children for the first time in history — a demographic inversion that is completely redefining how Americans spend, borrow, and save. To capitalize on this unprecedented growth opportunity, financial institutions must throw out obsolescent marketing plans written for younger markets that simply no longer exist.
This session reveals how the longevity economy is reshaping financial behavior — from the psychology of aging customers to the economics of intergenerational wealth transfer. You’ll learn how to reposition your institution for relevance and profitability, and reimagine how your brand, products, and workforce must adapt to these tectonic demographic shifts.
This session will teach banking executives:
- What the new economics of aging mean for deposits, lending, and long-term relationship value
- How demographic shifts are redefining product demand and customer experience expectations
- How to create market advantages by reengineer products and aligning messaging for an aging population
- Where new revenue opportunities are emerging across generations — from intergenerational wealth transfer to longevity planning
- How leadership teams can future-proof growth strategies around life-stage fluidity and extended earning years
From Hype to ROI: AI, Blockchain & The Next Era of Banking Innovation
Instructor: Michael Toner, Innovation Advisor at Profor
Core Themes: Emerging Technologies, Artificial Intelligence, Innovation Strategies
Why you should attend:
The convergence of AI and blockchain is redefining what innovation means in financial services. While many institutions chase trends and buzzwords, a few are quietly turning these technologies into tangible business value — building trust, reducing friction, and creating more intelligent customer experiences.
This session cuts through the hype to focus on the strategies and real-world applications that matter most. You’ll see how AI and blockchain are reshaping consumer engagement, operational efficiency, and risk management — and what it takes for financial institutions to separate practical innovation from passing fads.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How leading financial brands leverage emerging technologies to strengthen trust and transparency with consumers
- How to use AI to drive operational efficiency and smarter decision-making across your organization
- How to align your innovation roadmap with near-term results and long-term transformation goals
- Where financial institutions can identify AI and blockchain use cases that generate meaningful ROI
- What blockchain applications offer genuine benefits and improve customer engagement — and which ones are just noise
Internal Governance Frameworks for Secure, Responsible AI in Financial Services
Panelist: Jeff Whiteside, Senior Director of Security & Risk Governance at Chime
Panelist: Yan Zhang, Senior Audit Manager at CapitalOne
Panelist: Ajish Abraham, VP of Infrastructure & Security at iBusiness Funding
Core Themes: AI, Risk Management, Security
Why you should attend:
AI is reshaping every facet of banking — from risk assessment to fraud prevention. But its real test isn’t technical. It’s ethical. Financial institutions now face a defining moment: how to balance innovation with accountability, and how to maintain public trust when algorithms make more decisions than people do.
This session explores how financial institutions can establish a foundation of trust in an AI-driven environment. You’ll see how forward-thinking organizations reengineer governance frameworks, rethink compliance, and reorient culture around responsibility — not just speed — to stay credible, compliant, and competitive.
This session will teach banking executives:
- Why traditional risk and governance models fail in an AI-first organization — and what replaces them
- How to operationalize trust across teams by aligning compliance, security, and data science functions
- Ways to balance innovation and accountability when AI and automation accelerate decision cycles
- How to create a governance framework that integrates ethics, transparency, and explainability into every model
- Practical steps to identify, mitigate, and communicate AI-related risks before they damage brand credibility
How Financial Institutions Drive Deposits & Loans Through AI-Powered Affiliate Marketing
Moderator: Nicky Senyard, Co-founder of Fintel Connect
Panelist: Marc Butterfield, SVP/Market Expansion at FNBO
Panelist: John Hanley, CMO at Peak Bank
Panelist: Vito Zerilli, VP/Program Management at Axos Bank
Core Themes: Customer Acquisition, Digital Marketing, Loan Growth, Deposit Growth
Why you should attend:
Consumers don’t visit bank websites to shop for loans and checking accounts anymore. They start with third-party sites like NerdWallet, Bankrate, and DepositAccounts.com that rank, review, and compare financial products — platforms now serving as the content backbone for AI-powered recommendations.
In this session, you’ll hear how banks and credit unions are leveraging these platforms to drive scalable, profitable growth across deposits, cards, and lending. You’ll see how affiliate content increasingly feeds discovery through AI tools — and what financial marketers must do now to make sure they show up, get cited, and get chosen.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How to build a core acquisition engine around affiliate platforms
- Which affiliates and comparison sites actually move the needle for deposits and loans
- How to ensure your brand is cited in AI recommendations and drive downstream conversions by partnering with third-party affiliates
- How to win in competitive tables and “best of” lists using differentiated positioning, bonuses, and packaging
- How to craft the right offers and messaging without “racing to the bottom” on rates or outbidding competitors
Growing Business Banking Relationships & Revenues: Lessons from the Frontlines
Instructor: Manny Tocco, COO/Head of Business Banking Strategy of Citizens Bank
Core Themes: Business Banking, Relationship Banking, Growth Strategies
Why you should attend:
Business owners wrestle with financial pressures every day — from cash flow constraints to capital needs. The last thing they need is another business banker paying lip service to their challenges while pushing more loans on them. They want a true financial partner who understands their pain points, anticipates their needs, and helps them grow — not just a better rate or product pitch.
In this session, a 30-year business banking veteran reveals how institutions that act as true growth partners — not just lenders — earn loyalty, wallet share, and lasting revenue streams. You’ll learn how to expand business relationships and create long-term value by aligning your institution’s strategy with what clients actually need — not just what the institution wants to sell.
This session will teach banking executives:
- What business owners won’t say but their bankers need to hear
- What business clients value most from their banking relationships — and where most institutions fall short
- Practical steps to increase retention, cross-sell, and LTV across the entire business banking portfolio
- How to leverage data and behavioral insights to identify, prioritize, and proactively serve high-value business clients
- Ways to reframe conversations with business banking clients around growth outcomes, not just rates and product features
Culture as a Growth Engine: The CMO’s Role in Internal Brand Leadership
Instructor: Kerry-Ann Stimpson, Chief Marketing Officer at JMMB Group
Core Themes: Internal Marketing, Leadership, Culture
Why you should attend:
Marketing isn’t just about advertising and customer-facing communications. The most successful financial brands are built from the inside out — where every employee understands, believes, and delivers on the brand promise. Yet many institutions still treat internal marketing as an afterthought (if they think of it at all).
This session reframes internal marketing as a critical leadership discipline that drives performance, alignment, and growth. Drawing on real-world experience, this session shows how marketing leaders can embed brand purpose into their institution’s culture, connect internal behaviors to external outcomes, and transform staff engagement into measurable business results.
This session will teach banking executives:
- What it takes to evolve internal marketing from a communications function to a core business strategy
- How to align leadership, HR, and marketing around a single brand vision that shapes culture and performance
- A proven roadmap to create internal alignment by translating brand purpose into daily behaviors that strengthen trust and accountability
- How to link and quantify internal brand engagement with CX and business results
- Ways to sustain momentum after cultural initiatives lose their initial energy
How Smarter Digital Experiences Turn Phishing Risk into Brand Trust
Instructor: Yaamini Barathi Mohan, award-winning cybersecurity professional
Core Themes: Cybersecurity, Fraud Prevention, Digital Experience, Brand Trust
Why you should attend:
Modern phishing attacks are now indistinguishable from your legitimate communications. Consumers can’t tell the difference, and when they’re fooled, they don’t blame criminals — they blame you. Every successful attack undermines your brand. People see you as less safe, less trustworthy.
This session reframes phishing as both a brand and growth problem — not just an IT challenge or security issue. You’ll see how attackers weaponize familiar UX patterns, bypass standard controls, and exploit organizational silos. More importantly, you’ll learn how to defend the customer journey without throttling conversions or adding points of friction that kill CX.
This session will teach banking executives:
- How modern phishing attacks repurpose legitimate UX elements — prompts, errors, and help flows — into social engineering traps
- Where CX, digital, and fraud teams unintentionally create gaps attackers walk straight through
- Ways to communicate emerging fraud threats clearly and calmly without spooking customers (or training attackers)
- Security measures that build confidence and without killing login and onboarding processes
- How to measure the true cost of account takeovers by quantifying reputational damage and brand erosion
- How fraudsters are exploiting trusted infrastructure (like legitimate Microsoft and Azure domains) to borrow credibility and slip past traditional defenses
- Why standard MFA creates a dangerous false sense of security against today’s adversary-in-the-middle attacks
