NEFMA Spring Conference

With 75% of people reporting they fear public speaking MORE than they fear death, it’s easy to see why so many dread the idea of presenting to their executive management teams. But there are many professional benefits to being able to present effectively including career advancement. During this presentation, Kristin Sundin Brandt will review the many facets that go into preparing for speaking to your executive team, including planning, slide development, speaking style and potential pitfalls.

In today’s competitive landscape, strong data, insightful analytics, and a sound strategy are undeniably vital to the success of any marketing campaign. They provide the foundation, the roadmap, and the metrics needed to measure progress and optimize outcomes. But, as WordCom’s most successful clients have demonstrated time and again, there’s an additional and often overlooked ingredient that contributes to the highest levels of performance: community involvement.

Deep, authentic engagement with communities truly sets top-performing FIs apart. These brands don’t just operate within the confines of their industry; they actively participate in the lives and concerns of the people they serve.

Key takeaways - you will:

-Hear about unique and impactful initiatives designed to inspire.
-Walk away with actionable ideas that can be implemented right away, no matter your asset size or budget.
-Learn how the strategies shared can help maximize impact and drive meaningful results, whether you’re working with limited resources or have a larger marketing footprint.

Sales cultures make customers victims. Performance Cultures are a next level that forward-thinking community banks have adopted, keeping their focus on process over products, becoming learning organizations and making Marketing a performance partner. In this fast-paced session you experience:

-The 5Cs of trust-based selling
-The new RM – The Resource Manager - and how they elevate their game
-Connections to conversations – harnessing the “smarketing” power of LinkedIn
-Logo Day, Santa Banker, 3 Before 8, CEO 7 and Becoming a Turkey
-Six success practices CMOs can take to the bank

Jack Hubbard brings his 52 years as a banker and consultant to the NEFMA table, sharing practical ideas you can implement immediately to help your organization craft an enduring Performance Culture where you needn’t worry about the competition, you ARE the competition.

Financial institutions have long been cornerstones in local communities and markets. Oftentimes, Marketing Professionals at financial institutions are charged with fostering relationships with local businesses, schools, and nonprofit organizations. This is usually administered through charitable giving, donations, scholarships, event sponsorships, and encouraging employee volunteerism. Community involvement likely remains a key pillar in your institution's public image and outreach efforts. While it is important to serve those in need, what if these initiatives could do more? What if they could become a key driver of business development and revenue growth?

And, what if you could utilize community involvement as a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) to tell your story to senior leadership?

In this session, you’ll uncover how to transform your community engagement and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives into strategic opportunities for business growth. We’ll explore actionable strategies to align community involvement with measurable business development goals—helping you identify, nurture, and capitalize on relationships that benefit both your organization and the communities you serve.

Track the Right Impact Data: Learn how to effectively capture and measure meaningful data from your charitable activities, sponsorships, events, and volunteer programs. Understand which metrics can be used to identify new business opportunities and lead to revenue growth.

Turn Community Partnerships into Opportunities: Discover practical ways to leverage relationships with nonprofits, schools, and businesses to create mutually beneficial outcomes. We’ll discuss how charitable initiatives can help uncover leads for lending and accounts, build trust, and expand your customer base.

Align CSR Initiatives with Business Goals: Learn how to connect community outreach with your organization’s broader growth strategy. Whether it’s identifying new markets, enhancing visibility, or engaging local organizations, you’ll see how CSR can directly impact your bottom line. We'll also discuss how these metrics can be shared with senior leaders for you to tell the story and quantify the value community outreach brings.

Tell Stories That Resonate: A compelling community impact story or Annual Report can be a powerful tool to win over potential customers and strengthen existing relationships. You’ll learn how to craft and share narratives that highlight your institution’s role as a trusted partner in your community while showcasing your commitment to growth.

Engage Your Team for Greater Results: Employee volunteerism is more than just a “feel-good” activity—it’s a strategic way to increase community presence, build stronger relationships, and demonstrate leadership in your industry. We’ll discuss how fostering a culture of engagement and encouraging Relationship Managers and Lenders to sit on boards or volunteer can drive new business.

Through real-world examples, you’ll see how financial institutions like yours have successfully aligned their CSR and business development strategies to drive measurable growth. By tracking the right data, telling better stories, and identifying actionable opportunities, you can turn your community involvement into a powerful tool for revenue generation.

This session is ideal for Marketing Professionals who have been tasked with tracking and managing a charitable giving budget, Community Relations Managers who are building a program, or anyone who is looking to elevate their community outreach efforts and tie them directly to growth metrics.

Join us to learn how you can bridge the gap between community impact and business success—ensuring your institution thrives while serving those who matter most: your community.

In today's competitive banking landscape, Customer Experience (CX) is no longer enough. The true power lies in how your brand is embedded within every customer interaction - Customer Brand Experience (CBX) is the new north star. As community banks strive to create deeper connections with customers, it's essential that the customer experience is not just functional, but also aligns with your bank's brand identity, values, and mission.

This session will explore the shift from CX to CBX and provide actionable insights for marketing executives to ensure their brand is driving meaningful, memorable, and personalized customer experiences and engagement. We'll dive into the top strategies that are vital to integrating your brand into every customer touchpoint, showcase in- and out-of-category organizations that are excelling in this area, and discuss how to measure the impact of your brand-driven customer experiences.

By showcasing the power of authentic narratives, the session will demonstrate how storytelling can build trust, differentiate brands, and humanize banking institutions in the eyes of customers and the broader community.

Attendees will learn how to define storytelling within a PR context as human-centered narratives that connect with emotions and lived experiences. The types of stories that banks should tell will be presented, including customer impact stories that highlight how the bank has helped individuals, families, or business.

Fraud scams are impacting every financial institution, with an ever-expanding range of schemes and tactics creating a massive problem that cannot be ignored. Bank marketing teams have a unique opportunity to take the lead in fraud prevention through strategic messaging and proactive customer and member education. This session explores how integrating fraud awareness education with marketing strategies can strengthen account holder trust, drive engagement, and position your institution as a financial safety leader.

In this session, participants will explore real-life case studies, including the success stories of SAFE Federal Credit Union, Cambridge Savings Bank, and First Reliance Bank, to uncover actionable strategies for seamlessly embedding fraud awareness into marketing efforts. Attendees will learn how to utilize interactive tools such as fraud quizzes, contests, on-demand webinars, and social media campaigns, as well as a comprehensive learning hub for in-person seminars, to foster deeper engagement, build trust, and generate valuable leads.

Dan Szabo
This session will explore how fraud awareness campaigns can creatively align with well-known observances, such as National Consumer Protection Week, Financial Literacy Month, and International Fraud Awareness Week, as well as less traditional opportunities. For example, leveraging Valentine’s Day to spotlight romance scams and pig butchering schemes, or National Grandparents Day to address grandparent scams and phone fraud. By integrating these timely and diverse initiatives, your institution can educate account holders and communities on critical threats while enhancing brand presence and building trust in innovative and impactful ways.

Participants will leave equipped with a roadmap to seamlessly integrate fraud education into their multi-channel marketing campaigns, balancing creativity, practicality, and authenticity. By tailoring campaigns to reflect different approaches—such as being community-centric, local, and approachable; tech-savvy and modern; or focused on safety, trust, and financial empowerment—attendees will learn how to authentically connect with their target audiences. Examples include using localized fraud stories to engage communities, interactive tools for tech-savvy audiences, or exclusive fraud resources for premium customers. Additionally, they will discover how to collaborate with fraud prevention and risk teams, ensuring that marketing efforts align with organizational goals while reducing workload through customizable, impactful resources.

A rebrand is a major milestone in the life cycle of a bank- and you want the timing to be just right. But how do you know when that time is? And how do you know the extent of a rebrand that is needed? While a rebrand may involve a new identity, with new logo and colors, that is not always the case. A rebrand is discovering the heartbeat of the organization and redefining the purpose of the bank. It's uniting the entire team and all business lines under one message and telling the bank's story in a way that is relevant and compelling in the communities the bank serves. It's becoming a workplace of choice and a place employees and customers are proud to be a part of.

Achieving sustainable growth requires continuous realignment with the behaviors and expectations of consumers. Financial institutions can no longer rely on yesterday’s consumer insights. This routinely updated session highlights key trends shaping new behaviors and provides practical strategies for financial institutions to engage, acquire, and retain the emerging consumer.

These are unprecedented times! A marketplace where disruption is happening on steroids. One where there is more change building outside of your organization than in it. And a relentless pace of uncertainty that can radically impact your ability to grow your organization and keep your team motivated.

The only guarantee you have is this: more change is coming. And if you’re not prepared — if you don’t have a plan — then research proves this level of uncertainty will negatively impact your ability to drive innovation, attract top talent and achieve bottom-line results.

While uncertainty can seem daunting, the truth is uncertainty has an upside — it always has an upside. In fact, it can be your greatest asset to thrive, grow and turn disruption into opportunity. But you need a plan, a strategy, and the research that shows the precise path you must follow to turn disruption into opportunity.

Join business growth strategist and award-winning author, Meridith Elliott Powell in this high-powered keynote where she reveals the research, the stories and the methodology.

This keynote has it all — energy, engagement, and a personal plan of action for every attendee.

Key Takeaways:

- Quantitative Research – Learn what more than 800 of your fellow CEOS think, feel and are confidently doing in the face of uncertainty. This keynote starts with the powerful benchmark study that gives you insights into how today’s leaders are dealing with and solving today’s toughest challenges.
- Qualitative Research – We follow-up with the commanding stories of 9 companies that have stood the test of time by thriving in business for more than 250 years. You’ll hear their overwhelming obstacles, their ingenious strategies for success, and the proven methodology they used to thrive through every crisis.
- The PROVEN Methodology – Then we share the code, secret, plan, so that you know the exact path you need to follow to put you in the driver’s seat — and in control in the face of uncertainty (so you can THRIVE!).
- You’ll Gain The Secrets to staying highly flexible and focused to strike the delicate balance of maintaining progress and seizing opportunity.
- Your Personal Plan of action for thriving in uncertainty.