You meet. You greet. You talk. You laugh. You learn.
Last week, Joe and I attended the Winter Conference for the New England Financial Marketing Association (NEFMA) in at the Park Plaza in Boston, MA. NEFMA is a dynamic group whose membership is made up primarily of bank and credit union marketers as well as advertising/marketing firms, and bank service providers. Dovetail has maintained a membership for many years and we’ve been actively showing as vendors during their conferences for the last couple of years.
Conferences are held throughout New England annually in the winter, spring and fall. This conference was themed around “New Year, New You! How to Drive Your Career/Institution to the Top!”
Divided into four sessions, the conference opened with a morning keynote from Dennis Budinich from FTC Methods entitled “The Power of Integrated Leadership: Outrageous Success in a Turbulent World”. During the session Mr. Budinich challenged attendees to keep themselves open to the possibilities of success. "Mindsight is about possibilities! Eye sight is about how we make judgments" in other words, keep your mind open and your pre-judgments closed so that you are more able to challenge the status quo and succeed!
Breakout sessions provided the opportunity to address challenges by asking “The Marketing Department: Expense or Investment?” and “At What Cost? Life Coaching to Manage Risk & Reward.”
The afternoon keynote was presented by Joe Sullivan of Market Insights and focused “The Importance of Relevancy and Growth in Today's Financial Climate.” In it we learned the four ways to keep relevant in this (or any) economy.
All in all, the show itself was a bit light in attendance when compared to previous ones we’ve attended. In particular it seemed as though fewer bankers attended, and service providers made up almost half the attendees. But, it was great to meet up with clients and colleagues as well as make new contacts. In many ways I find the programs helpful to gain insight into the challenges being faced by bank marketers, but I find the most value in the conversations that happen during the formal (and informal) networking events.
Great time. Great program. Great people.
-- Mike