Ready to hit the stage? The Financial Brand is looking for experienced, talented speakers who have what it takes to join our all-star lineup.
Here’s what you need to know to submit a speaking proposal.
To be considered for a speaking slot at The Financial Brand Forum, we require the following:
- The name, title/position and company of the speaker who will be presenting
- The proposed title of the session along with a narrative description
- At least five bullet points summarizing what you will teach attendees how to do and/or what they will learn
- A sample PowerPoint presentation so we can see what kind of slides you create
- Video of the speaker presenting a session (mandatory)
The Financial Brand Forum is built for senior-level decision-makers working in the North American retail banking industry.
Over 2,000+ people are projected to attend The Financial Brand Forum 2024, representing over 700+ different financial institutions and nearly $10 trillion in combined assets.
Attendees work at financial institutions with an average asset size of $15 billion and a median asset size of $1 billion. 91% of attendees are from the U.S., and 5% come from Canada.
Roughly two-thirds of attendees will work directly for a retail financial institution. 63% of the attendees are VP-level or higher. The most common titles attendees hold include CEO, CMO, COO, EVP, VP and AVP.
Attendees at The Financial Brand Forum don’t want just “great speakers” who are interesting, they want great teachers. They want people to show them “how to” instead of explain “why you should.”
Attendees enjoy learning about what the future holds, but what they really value is learning what they can do now — today — ideas and insights that will help them do their jobs faster, more effectively, more efficiently and with greater impact/ROI.
Attendees also want sessions that have been specifically tailored to address the priorities and concerns of retail banking institutions.
They are generally not interested in sessions that present research findings (e.g., data dumps).
The Financial Brand Forum does not host any panels, nor do we allow multiple presenters to share the stage during any session.
Attendees want sessions that have been specifically tailored to address the priorities and concerns of retail banking institutions. They are generally not interested in sessions that present research findings (e.g., data dumps).
- Digital marketing strategies
- Data analytics, predictive analytics, AI and big data
- Marketing segmentation, personalization and automation
- Customer experience strategies (CX and UX)
- Digital transformation strategies
- Branch experience, branch design, branch strategies
- Onboarding and cross-selling strategies
- How to increase products-per-household, depth-of-wallet
- Growing loans, strategies to increase lending volume
- Getting consumers to switch, growing deposit relationships
- Building a marketing strategy/plan
- Branding strategies, brand identity design
- Building a branded culture, getting staff to “live the brand”
- Marketing metrics, establishing marketing ROI
- Social media marketing strategies and case studies
- Online advertising, advertising on mobile devices
- Growing relationships with Millennial banking consumers
Attendees at The Financial Brand Forum have told us few things aggravate them more than conference speakers who turn their sessions into sales pitches. Here are some verbatim statements from past attendees:
- “A few of the sessions were basically a one-hour pitch for whatever the presenter was selling.”
- “Many sessions were thinly-veiled product demos.”
- “Some of the vendors gave overviews of what they do instead of giving me takeaways.”
- “I come to the conference to hear about best practices, not from vendors selling their services.”
- “It seems like some sessions were ‘pay-to-play’.”
- “A few of the ‘classes’ I went to were much more ‘sales pitch’ than informational.”
That’s why we have a simple promise: Any speaker who sells from the stage will be banned from the conference for life.
We realize that most company’s see public speaking as a business development tool. Every speaker wants to walk away from their session with dozens of new leads. But any part of a presentation with even a faint waft of “sales pitch” will backfire.
Of course some speakers may not realize what they are doing, or think what they are doing is harmless. But attendees are extremely sensitive and they can smell the “soft sell” a mile off, so it’s best to error on the safe side.
Follow these tips and the odds that attendees will want to do business with you will increase exponentially:
- Make your session educational and teach people how to accomplish something important — whether they work with your firm or not.
- Avoid mentioning your company during your presentation.
- Don’t talk about any proprietary tools/solutions, or any branded products/services.
- Keep your session focused on “how-to”. If you spend too much time on “why you should”, attendees will assume you’re just trying to justify why they should work with you.
- Don’t include case studies and examples of client work unless it’s absolutely relevant.
- Include examples and case studies of work your company didn’t do. This builds a lot of credibility.
The Financial Brand has hosted speakers from the most respected companies and successful brands in the world.
