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05/19/2009

Vote for six young guys and one slightly older guy to speak at YOUR Symposium!

By Tim McAlpine

About two years ago, I answered an open call for speakers at the 2007 FORUM Solutions/Trabian Symposium in Fishers Indiana. I submitted my first-ever YouTube video, won the wildcard spot and had an absolute blast. In 2008, I was invited back to be the keynote speaker. This has become my favorite conference of the year. It has a very progressive vibe, the presentations are relevant and well done and the attendees are a forward-thinking group of credit union advocates.

Well, this year the format is completely different. It has been retitled YOUR Symposium and all of the speakers will be selected by the crowd. I've decided to enter the race again, but this time with the help of six friends!

Here's our application video!

The Generation Y Extravaganza

I am suggesting that the entire morning of day two be dedicated to addressing the need to attract the next generation of credit union members and employees. As silly as this video is, I really believe we can deliver some valuable advice and get some good discussion going. As I've stated before, the lack of new Gen Y members at credit unions throughout North America is not a problem that is going to just fix itself.

Truth be told, we could definitely stretch this out by an extra hour or two or it could even go for the entire day two if there is an appetite for it. I'm sure the crowd will decide!

Tim McAlpine from Currency Marketing (9:00–9:30)
An overview of the Gen Y issues facing credit unions and a recap of how Young & Free is going
Brent Dixon from the Haberdashery (9:30–10:00)
Designing for Gen Y
Myles Peterman from Servus Credit Union, Josh Sutherland from South Carolina Federal Credit Union and DeAndre' Upshaw from TDECU (10:00–10:45)
The Young & Free Spokesperson panel will discuss what young people really want from their financial institutions
Andy LaFlamme from Maine State Credit Union (11:00–11:30)
A Gen Y credit union employee's perspective
Ben Rogers from the Filene Research Institute (11:30–12:00)
The Chrome Credit Union idea and a selection of 30 under 30 concepts

Please vote for our entry here and do yourself a favor—attend the YOUR Symposium. It's only $225 per attendee and the cost includes two packed days of speakers, networking and six meals! I guarantee you will learn a lot, meet great people and you won't regret it. Add yourself to the network and pledge your support.

See you in Fishers, Indiana on October 7 and 8, 2009.

A note on the production of this video: This was a fun. Once everyone in the group agreed to participate, I put a loose script together and asked each member to record their lines using Apple Photobooth and the iSight camera on their Macs. This generates "Skype-looking" Quicktime files. Everyone then uploaded their files to Drop.io, I downloaded them and then put the finished video together in Final Cut Express. Easy peasy. You can see all of the clips in their full, hilarious, uncut glory here and here. There is some pure comedy gold in these clips. I'm sure some of the jokes were intended just for me, but that would be selfish! Enjoy.

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Comments

1) Matt Dean @ May 19, 2009
http://www.trabian.com

Excellent job Tim! One note for DeAndre' -- the nearest Sonic is about 45 minutes from Fishers. I know this because my wife and I have made the trip a couple of times (we moved here from Texas and missed Sonic enough to make the drive).

2) DeAndre' @ May 19, 2009
http://www.youngfreetexas.com

The lack of Sonic is killing me softly.

3) Tim McAlpine @ May 19, 2009

Having tasted the sweet nectar of a Sonic shake for the first time on the way from Austin to Waco last year, I can understand your dismay, but imagine my situation.—there is no Sonic in Canada. 45 minutes is nothing!

4) Credit Union Warrior @ May 19, 2009
http://creditunionwarrior.blogspot.com

No sweat, DeAndre....you'll be pleased to know that Big Red flows like water in the Hoosier state. As a Texan, I know you will appreciate that.

5) Doug True @ May 19, 2009
http://www.forumsolutions.com

Appreciate your support of the symposium. DeAndre - Frosty Boy is my treat if we can get to 100 pledged attendees. Might help you with your Sonic habit. I owe young Tim a pineapple whip so let's make it happen in Indy.

6) Ron Shevlin @ May 20, 2009

Love the video. Love it love it love it.

In fact, I love it so much... that it might... just might...spur me to enter a COMPETING video for a COUNTER-PROPOSAL.

I'm thinking of calling my presentation.....

"We're Not Dead Yet: It Takes 25 Nearly-Penniless Gen Yers To Equal One Fat-Cat Baby Boomer (Like Me), So Go Ahead CUs, Ignore Boomers And Wait The Ten To Fifteen Years It Will Take Gen Yers To Generate Substantial Income and Assets and Become Profitable To Your CU"

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to use these new-fangled video cameras, and.....damn, where did I leave my reading glasses so I can figure out what that stupid code says that I have to enter for this comment to be submitted.

7) Peter Glyman @ May 20, 2009
http://peterglyman.com

Tim, what an awesome video man. You rock the hoodie well. What happened to the days when Gen X was the youth.

Andy, you got a pen I can borrow?

8) Jimmy Marks @ May 20, 2009
http://www.cusoapbox.com

Great work, as usual. I submit that "...they got a Sonic?" is the the greatest thing I've ever heard.

@Shevlin - Your title needs to be: "Get off my lawn! A grumpy old man gets all moody when he thinks about his relative unimportance after a lifetime of catering in the media and in advertising and his blood pressure gets too high and he's gotta eat broccoli to temper it."

@DeAndre' - get some copyright protection on your new, money-makin' catch phrase. Trust me on this.

My nearest Sonic is around two hours away, btw.

9) Gene Blishen @ May 20, 2009
http://www.tinfoiling.com

Now this video was scary. What happened to Andy? Say it didn't happen to the poor fellow but he had a tie on and his hair is gone. And Brent. you seemed less sophisticated since moving to the Big Apple. Tim, oh Tim you didn't make one mention of the golf outing or the pre-conference cook-out. But then maybe you'll be hanging out with all those hipster GenY's at the Sonic. You aren't going to pass up on the golfing are you? You are 100% right though -- this is the best conference to attend, bar none. Ron you still out there?

10) Laurel McJannet @ May 20, 2009
http://www.veritycu.com

I am honored (and I little surprised) at being the first female to comment on this post. Where are all the ladies?!?

Anyway, that was a fantastic video. Your creativity never ceases to amaze and entertain. See, Gen X'ers still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Or in this case, their hoodies.

One question. Sonic vs In and Out Burger. Which is better? Discuss.

11) Tim McAlpine @ May 20, 2009

@Everyone - thanks for the great comments.

@Gene - I was so trying to prove my street cred that I didn't want to bring up my golf addiction. That would surely get me booted from the Gen Y Wannabee Brigade. But, I am definitely in.

@Laurel - I know. When I was thinking of the crew to ask to be in the session, I realized I don't know any female Gen Y CUers well enough! And now that you point it out, almost everyone who ever comments on this blog is male! Yet, I only have one male coworker! Hmmm, I wonder what all this means?

12) DeAndre' @ May 20, 2009
http://youngfreetexas.com

@ CU Warrior - I will kindly accept your Big Red, while asking, do they have Big Blue and Big Peach?

@ Doug True - Frosty Boy. I am intrigued. Please be telling me more of this, plez.

@ Jimmy - I've had a standing copyright on everything I've ever said since 1999.

@ Gene - I'm no hipster, sir. But I'm darn hip.

@ Laurel - Neither. Whataburger. Wiki it if you don't know the credentials. It trumps pretty much everything, ever, even though In-N-Out is good.

13) Lori Newton @ May 21, 2009
http://ljnewton.wordpress.com/

To respond to Laurel's question, there is no doubt that the "Ladies" were slogging it out on the frontlines while the boys were busy playing with their way cool toys!

That said, this in between Gen X/Boomer CU gal gives the presentation two great big thumbs up. Definitely made me want to get to the Gap, pick myself up a couple of hoodies and book by passage to, ummmm, where was that again? One of those "I" states...Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa? The memory starts to go at my age, but it will come to me. Darn it, where are my bifocals?

14) Brent @ May 21, 2009
http://www.thehabdash.com

I'm just happy to know what a Chroma Key is now. Thanks, Myles and DeAndre'.

Also, there's no Sonic. But there is an A&M. And they have fried cheese curds. So I'm in.

15) Laurel McJannet @ May 21, 2009
http://www.veritycu.com

@Tim - I hope to be more a lurker than an all-the-time worker once my projects are completed. Sigh.

@Lori - No doubt, indeed!

@DeAndre' - I'll take your word for it. There are no Sonics or In and Out Burgers in the Puget Sound area where I live. We just have, ahem, Dick's, a long-time local joint. While it's good, I had my first In And Out burger experience when I was Vegas in March and.. wow! Maybe a Sonic will come to town one day?

As for the "hip" stuff, I recent learned that if you refer to yourself as being "hip," you instantly are not. A co-worker of mine used some lingo the cool kids use and then followed it up with "yeah, i'm hip like that!." The cool kid he was using it on pointed out his non-hip ways. The only thing making me "hip" these days is the one I pulled in yoga yesterday. Ouch.

16) Roger Conant @ Jun 03, 2009
http://twitter.com/CUTweetTrack

This is not fair to new entrants! :)

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