BarCampBankVegas happens in Vegas, but doesn't stay there.

by Ron Daly 

Robbie Wright, a friend of the blog and my fellow Technology Council Member at NACUSO, wrote us a little piece about the BarCampBank that was coming up in Vegas. I was in town already for the NACUSO conference a few days later, so I was excited to see exactly what a BarCamp was all about. 

Let's go ahead and knock out the two confusing aspects: One, there's no bar. Two, nobody threw down sleeping bags. So, no camping. 

But there were plenty of people from the industry there who were sharing ideas, questions, grievances, personal high-notes, and everything in between. Obviously, TARP and Corporate Capital came up. We also talked about assets, real estate, advertising, promotion, collaborative cooperation between CUSOs and credit unions, ownership issues, the changing age of members and borrowers, Web 2.0, social media, e-mail...the list goes on and on. 

It was nice to hear people talking about the things that have concerned me both in the past as an executive in the credit union and in the present as the President and CEO of my own credit union service organization. What was even better was the low-pressure, low-stakes approach to the whole meeting. People were each treated with the authority they brought to their chosen topic of conversation. There were no presenters or slide shows or handouts. There was just talk.

Now, you might wonder the power or the usefulness of "just talk". I did, too. But the strength of BarCampBank was and is its ability to let you draw your own conclusions. I don't care where you go, what you watch or who you watch it with, any presentation that involves a speaker and a slideshow is a big sales pitch. That's the point of those things. It's what the presenter wants to tell you - it's all give, no take. The BarCamp was just a set of people sharing, adding a little bit of pitch but mostly a lot of insight. It made me examine a few of the things my company did that it could do differently. It let me share my thoughts on the things my company does with people who have been reticent about engaging their customers online. I got a lot out of those four hours.

Here's hoping the BarCamp - or something like it - has a bigger place at future conferences. I think the free exchange of ideas in a friendly format like that could be valuable for people in this industry. The more we keep our "infield chatter", the better our chances of strengthening our relationships and the industry.