By Lauren Culp, Manager of The Cooperative Trust
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Ever had a great idea pop into your head seemingly out of nowhere? If so, you know it’s difficult to pin down what exactly sparks a novel idea. Here at Filene, we’ve had the pleasure of building a competency of innovation with credit union leaders for over a decade that puts people at the center of innovation, ensures problems are well defined, nurtures innovative problem solving and ultimately drives iterative prototyping and tangible, life changing solutions.
As a credit union advocate, you know just how important it is that credit unions win the war for talent. Developing, growing and nurturing future leaders within our industry is imperative to our long-term success. That is just as true at Filene as it is at natural person credit unions. In that light, I’m excited to share with you that as of July 10, we have a new leader of The Cooperative Trust, Lauren Culp.
By Laura Gilliam, Research + Communications Associate
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These are times of rapid change in our industry, and Filene developed its Center for Organizational Entrepreneurship specifically to help credit unions navigate this era of disruption. Last week I was fortunate to attend the Center's research colloquium held at Harvard.
I wasn’t counting, but during the first hour alone I heard the word “disruption” more times than I have toes. I began to wonder if we were casually overusing the term? But no, disruption is real. Disruption is now. And we have something to help with your headaches over it.
By Griffin Rasche, Marketing + Communications Intern
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A day spent observing seniors in a high school test-run, the Debt Dragon tool helps better understand what their student debt totals would be based on their choices in schools, lifestyles and scholarships was eye-opening. Realizing now what I didn't know then was a bit frustrating, but seeing how Debt Dragon could help countless others in my shoes a few years earlier makes me proud of the credit unions that are innovativing with this tool.
It’s a cliché and overused buzzword – game changer – but to be fair, it accurately describes what I’m talking about here.
Merriam-Webster defines ‘game changer’ as “a newly introduced element or factor that changes an existing situation or activity in a significant way.” It's exciting to think about what will be the start of the next big change. It's probably already in your head right now.
By Lexi Noeldner, Marketing + Communications Intern
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I made $5.00 an hour when I was 9. Every Friday afternoon my mom would take me in to work with her to clean my uncle’s office building. After our strenuous workday, my mom and I would head over to the bank right down the road. It took a couple years of maturing and a few jobs later before I even noticed that the bank I went to wasn’t actually called a bank but rather a credit union.
By Danielle Frawley, stewardship and development director
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Why wouldn’t you want to apply to be around a bunch of energized, amazing professionals that are working toward something greater than oneself? Well, there might be a few reasons. It's going to be uncomfortable. You'll have to do things you're not ready to do. It's a lot of work. You'll gain weight...
But I think you'll find what's in the intersection of what's unexpected and what you're passionate about is all the more reason you'll need to say yes to Filene i3.
By Ryan Foss, Managing Director, Innovation, and Elry Armaza, Impact Director & Analyst
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Day two at Finovate Spring 2017 was packed with an additional 24 organizations who got a chance to demonstrate their solutions. Most of the themes from day one continued. Ease of use was king including biometric authentication to simplify the process, big data integration, investment solutions, and more big data and machine learning applications.
The evening of Day One, we had the opportunity to host a CU Dine Around. Credit union folks had a chance to interact with each other in a relaxed environment, away from the vendor hall, and have a meaningful conversation of what they had observed during the sessions and build camaraderie by meeting a new friend of two.
To read more on what we thought the highlights of day two were, ckick here.
Sometimes families are just plain awkward. This awkwardness can take the form of family portraits, the “birds and bees” talk or a surprisingly common family activity: borrowing and/or lending money to each other.
What if your credit union could take the awkwardness out of one of these, and meet people's needs in a simple, cost effective and affordable manner? That’s exactly what we are trying to do with "Bank On Family."
The first day at Finovate Spring in San Jose, CA is in the books! 36 promising start-ups had seven minutes each to demonstrate their solutions live in front of more than 1,500 attendees. Often times at there is a theme or commonality that emerges throughout the day. Not this year as pitches were across the board with startups pitching solutions for data security, to identification authentication, to customer engagement platforms.
