8:30am – 9:00am
Check-in and Light Breakfast
9:00am – 9:45am
Welcome Address and Introductions
9:45am – 10:00am
Break
10:00am – 11:30am
Top 10 for 2026: Strategic Priorities for Credit Unions
Caroline Vahrenkamp, Filene Research institute
An overview and facilitated discussion of the top ten most significant strategic decisions credit union leaders will have to make in 2026. What are the emerging trends and disruptive forces shaping the financial services industry and credit union system? This presentation will help credit union leader future-proof their organizations and provide a clear roadmap to anticipate the most serious challenges and seize the most valuable opportunities in the coming year.
11:30am – 12:30pm
Lunch
Refuel, recharge, and build valuable connections with fellow leaders.
12:30pm – 2:00pm
The Pendulum Paradox: Strategic planning to balance mission and margin
Sam Plester, Founder & CEO, Mission Brands
Your credit union’s strategy can’t afford to be just another document. Like the organization itself, it has to be a living, breathing entity; focused and intentional, yes, but also malleable and adaptable in the face of uncertainty. For many credit unions, embracing plasticity is where their strategic planning breaks down. Not because of an inability or unwillingness to pivot, but because of misunderstood dependencies, misaligned priorities, and mismatched roles. In this hands-on session, we’ll explore an increasingly influential diagnostic tool—The Strategic Stack—that’s designed to help leaders assess how well their credit union’s purpose, priorities, people, and practices are working together to support its mission, while securing financial stability. Join fellow leaders in mapping shared challenges across five core layers of alignment, revealing where great strategies go to die … and what you can do to bring them back to life.
Learning Objectives:
- Have greater clarity of how long-term growth and a member-centric mission can live within the same strategy.
- Be comfortable implementing The Strategic Stack to assess alignment across your credit union’s mission, initiatives, roles, and operations.
- Discover where friction, duplication, or misalignment most often shows up in your credit union—and how to fix it.
- Leave with a reusable framework to support further clarity across your credit union.
2:00pm - 2:15pm
Break
2:15pm – 3:30pm
Credit Unions & AI: Building Teams, Policies and Momentum
Angela Peat, Co-founder, Delve Collective
Yes, AI’s the hot and sexy topic that everyone wants to talk about, but if you have yet to see a single presentation that actually focuses on the implementation and implications for credit unions, then this topic is for you. Is your credit union ready to harness the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) or are you still considering where to get started? Are you a daily AI user or have you barely touched it?
This session, designed specifically from insights from a year long CU AI event series and 20 years of Tech adoption experience, will provide actionable steps to help you take the leap into AI adoption. We’ll guide through the essential strategies to harness AI, from forming an AI task force or working group to implementing pilot projects and creating governance frameworks. We’ll share real-world use cases - like fraud detection, personalized member coaching and marketing optimization-and explore how credit unions are already leveraging AI to stay ahead. You’ll leave with practical insights on navigating the fast-moving AI landscape while ensuring ethical use, data security and strategic alignment. Don’t miss the opportunity to gain expert guidance from Delve Collective’s proven approach to help you prepare your credit union for success in an increasingly digital world.
3:30pm
Adjourn
Close the day with clarity, connection, and a plan to move forward.