MAC 2023 Conference Schedule

12:00pm – 4:30pm – Registration Open

1:00pm – 2:30pm – Opening Workshop Charity Project

Facilitated by: Hands on Nashville 

Join your fellow credit union marketers as we create no-tie blankets for kids in local shelters.

2:30pm – 4:30pm – Country Music Hall of Fame Tour (with optional in museum side tours)

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, located in downtown Nashville, has been called the “Smithsonian of country music,” celebrated for its broad cultural impact, educational mission, and unrivaled collection of historically important artifacts related to country music. Chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964, the Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, educational organization.

Side Tour Option 1 – Hatch Print Shop Tour – Take the tour of Hatch Show Print and learn all about the history of this iconic letterpress poster shop. Listen to the presses run. See the century-and-a-half’s worth of brilliantly colored posters printed for your favorite entertainers. Smell the ink. Handle the tools of the trade to print your own keepsake poster in our print shop-within-a-print shop Universal Music Group Space for Design.

Side Tour Option 2 – Studio B – Historic RCA recording studio tour.  Built in 1957, RCA Studio B became known as the birthplace for the “Nashville Sound,” a style characterized by background vocals and strings that helped establish Nashville as an international recording center, located on Nashville’s Music Row.

5:30pm – 7:30pm – Opening Reception
Twenty-seven floors high above Nashville’s bustling downtown, L27 is the city’s ideal rooftop lounge retreat to unwind, sip, savor, meet and mingle with other attendees, speakers and vendor partners.

L27 Rooftop Lounge
The Westin Nashville

8:00am – 9:00am – Breakfast and Registration

9:00am – 10:15am – Keynote – Carla Johnson

RE:Think Innovation®
How the world’s most prolific innovators come up with great ideas that deliver extraordinary outcomes.

We all know the drill. We don’t just need innovative ideas. We need them fast! But everything we come up with is a safe bet or too cutting edge to get past legal approval. Are we doomed to a life of creative mediocracy? Of wishing we were the golden unicorn who comes up with fantastical ideas at the drop of a hat? What if, instead of struggle and frustration, there was a proven framework for consistently coming up with the great ideas that drive innovation?

In this captivating keynote, international speaker and best-selling author Carla Johnson shows why you need to rethink everything you believe about innovation. She’ll demystify how the innovative icons deliver time and time again. You’ll learn why inspiration from anywhere can lead to measurable business outcomes learn how to how to connect the dots. You’ll walk away feeling confident to introduce new ideas, make good ideas better, and instill a culture of innovation by everyone.

Sponsored by

 10:15am – 10:40am – Networking Break

 10:45 – 11:45am – Concurrent Breakout Sessions (Breakout 2 and 3 repeat in the afternoon) 

Breakout 1: Building a Brand on Purpose

Speaker: Carla Johnson

We’re all searching for that one characteristic that differentiates us from other brands in the marketplace. The unique positioning that helps us stand out from everyone else. But in our effort to one-up our competitors, we end up sounding more and more like them. The answer isn’t to compare ourselves to everyone else in order to find our place. Instead, it starts by looking within at the only thing we can truly own – our brand’s purpose.

In this fast-paced workshop, international speaker and best-selling author Carla Johnson will give you the tools to develop your brand’s unique purpose. She’ll share her 15 years of research and experience developing and infusing purpose statements for companies that range from Fortune 10 brands and newly minted startups. You’ll walk away knowing:

• The difference between a brand purpose, mission, and vision
• Why a brand purpose creates less price sensitivity and greater brand loyalty for your customers
• A blueprint for creating your own company’s brand purpose

Breakout 2: Why Your Social Media Sucks…and The Power to Change it

Panelists: Courtney Oldendorf, Social Media Specialist, ORNL Federal Credit Union
Sara Gentz, Social Media Specialist, Consumers Credit Union
Ashira Quabili, MBA , Marketing & Communications Manager, Freedom Federal Credit Union.

Join our moderated discussion on the trials and tribulation of credit union social media. Join an all-star team of social content MACsterminds as they guide you through aligning your posts and conversations with your Brand. Learn about picking the right platforms, how best to engage your followers, how do establish social media benchmarks, create compelling video content and pull people into the stories you’re telling.

Breakout 3: Why Leadership Does Not Belong To A Chosen Few
Speaker: Rich Jones, Principal/Founder; Leading2Leadership

Become a change-makers and doers at your organizations – bending silos and leading by example to become better servants for your members, fellow-employees, and communities. Talk through the pain points and challenges as YOUR organization with Rich and attendees we explore:
• Why leadership does not belong to a chosen few
• The role of culture in digital growth
• The one thing a financial brand must commit to do in the next 12-18 months

12:00pm – 1:00pm – Lunch with our Sponsors and Suppliers

 1:15pm – 2:30pm General Session: C is for Content Panel Discussion

Panelists: Meredith Olmstead, Founder/CEO FI Grow
Dean DeCarlo, President, Mission Disrupt
Jordyn Swanson, Client Development Manager, Social Assurance
Christin Vaughn, SVP / Chief Marketing Officer, Allegiance Credit Union

Whether you create it in-house, outsource it or beg your members for it, we all need good content.  During this panel discussion our experts will explore the power of content.

They will discuss:

• How to build a content cluster to help improve SEO and appear more in search.
• The Surprising Connection between Content Marketing & Member Relationships
• User Generated Content

2:45pm – 3:45pm – Morning Breakout Sessions Repeat 

Breakout 2: Why Your Social Media Sucks…and The Power to Change it

Breakout 3: Why Leadership Does Not Belong To A Chosen Few

Breakout 4: Financial Education That Works—How Credit Union Marketers Can Lead the Way

Speaker: Billy Thomas, Director of Marketing, Peninsula Credit Union

Learn how Peninsula Credit Union, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), is promoting financial wellbeing and empowering communities. We’ll explore the benefits of being a CDFI, the United Way’s ALICE model, Peninsula Credit Union’s Financial Fitness program, and empathy mapping. This session will provide practical insights and strategies for how marketing departments can lead advances in financial wellbeing and empowering communities, creating a more equitable and inclusive financial system.

4:00pm – 5:30pm – Booth Crawl with Suppliers – Eat, Drink, Network, Repeat!!

You have no idea what that is. Then you are in for one, big surprise party at the marketers networking event of the conference…maybe of the year! Want to know more? Join us!

8:00am – 9:15am – Breakfast and Registration

9:15am – 10:15am – Keynote Ramon Ray 

Human Connectivity in a Digital World

Ramon is not just an ivory tower geek, but as a former technology consultant, he has hands-on experience in a variety of technologies including social media, mobile computing, computer networks, online software and more. Ramon’s expertise is technology, marketing, sales, business startup and growth and his favorite is personal branding. Over his extensive career, Ramon has written thousands of articles, spoken to thousands of business owners and impacted hundreds of thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs to help their businesses thrive.

In this motivational keynote, attendees are given permission to market to humans.

Often times we forget that we are not marketing to bots, pixels and eyeballs.

Serial Entrepreneur and Best-selling author Ramon Ray unpacks how credit unions can leverage the power of digital marketing as a tool to better inform and bring awareness of their services to current and future customers.

Yes, Ramon will share trends in marketing. But more importantly he’ll remind attendees about “old school” human relationship building and connectivity that always work

10:45 – 11:45 – MACQUEE Finalist Presentations
Get your chance to hear about the campaigns vying for our best in show award, the MACQUEE, and vote live to see who wins at Wednesday night’s awards dinner.

12:00pm – 1:00pm – Lunch with our Sponsors and Suppliers

1:15pm – 2:00 pm – 

Breakout 5: Human Connections in a Digital World Practical Applications Workshop

Speaker: Ramon Ray

Today our world is full of direct-messages, phone notifications, and people dancing on tiny screens. Many of us are connecting less and less, one to one and personal with each other. In this presentation, in-demand marketing expert and entrepreneur, Ramon Ray will share key strategies you can use to be more human – in a digital world. Ramon will share how you can cause delight, awaken happiness and nurture empathy in your everyday conversations. Technology is wonderful and important and we need it. More importantly are the relationships we can build, if we try.

Breakout 6: What Credit Unions Can Learn from Fintechs to Attract and Retain Members

Speaker: Sameer Kapur, Co-Found and Chief Product Office, Burst

Explore the innovative approach and strategies employed by neobanks (digital banks) to attract and retain membership. Using a cohesive digital strategy, you can leverage data ethically to attract new members and enhance user experience and accessibility. Learn how credit unions can stay ahead of the curve and provide members with the financial solutions they need in a rapidly changing world.

Breakout 7: Financial Education That Works—How Credit Union Marketers Can Lead the Way

Speaker: Billy Thomas, Director of Marketing, Peninsula Credit Union

Learn how Peninsula Credit Union, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), is promoting financial wellbeing and empowering communities. We’ll explore the benefits of being a CDFI, the United Way’s ALICE model, Peninsula Credit Union’s Financial Fitness program, and empathy mapping. This session will provide practical insights and strategies for how marketing departments can lead advances in financial wellbeing and empowering communities, creating a more equitable and inclusive financial system.

2:00-2:30pm – Networking Break

2:30pm – 3:30pm –General Session The Power of Brand Panel discussion

Panelists: Allison Netzer, Best Selling Author – Think Like a Brand Not A Bank, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, NYMBUS; Amber Farley, EVP., Brand Development, Financial Marketing Solutions; Marc Wilensky, VP, Communications & Brand Marketing, Tower Federal Credit Union

What better way to wrap a Credit Union Marketing Conference than to have a panel discussion with two branding Superheroes in the Financial Services space.

 5:30pm – 6:30pm – Cocktail Hour

6:30pm – 8:00pm 2023 MAC Awards – Celebrating the top campaigns of 2023

8:30pm – MAC Awards After Party – Sponsored by MARQUIS
After three days of learning and networking join your new MAC friends as we blow off some steam and celebrate the our award winners.

Register Now

9:00am – 10:30am – Breakfast
Grab a mimosa or bloody mary and get your last minute networking in before your goodbyes.