CUNA Vendors Find it Pays to be `Leading Edge'

MADISON, Wis. – CUNA has a message for vendors: not everyone can be “leading edge.” Or even “state of the art.” So on those descriptions CUNA management had to pick and choose among 165 vendors who would be permitted to display their wares in its “CUNA Future Branch,” a splashy exhibit area at the Future Forum conference slated Sept. 29-Oct. 2 at the Reno Hilton. “We had to decide using our own best judgment as to which products would best fit the theme,” explained Marlo Foltz, manager of learning technology at CUNA and an exhibit coordinator. The final list was whittled down to 16 companies ranging from Microsoft Corp. showing off its new tablet PCs for portfolio analysis, to Knoll Furniture pushing mobile work stations. There are also biometric vaults, European dialogue towers, and multi-laser MCIF systems. In its promotional literature, CUNA said the Future Branch, housed in a pillar-lined exhibit area at the front of the exhibit hall and taking up more than a fourth of total space, would show off “products and services members will find in tomorrow’s most successful credit unions.” The exhibit, in which vendor personnel will be on hand to answer questions but identification of products and services will be “low key, ” is designed to “ educate and inspire,” CUNA promised delegates. The Future Branch exhibit, in particular, will offer interactive, “hands-on” displays and demos. A problem CUNA discovered, however, is that vendors have been calling on a daily basis asking if they can still get into Future Branch even though the list was finalized nearly three months ago. “At this point they simply can’t get in but we are telling them to submit requests now for next year,” said Foltz. maintaining that if Future Branch is successful it will be expanded to include more vendors. Both CUNA staffers and vendors will be wearing black golf shirts emblazoned with a Future Branch nameplate with vendors having special IDs. But “you really won’t see logos,” said Foltz. Apart from the exhibits, the Future Forum-renamed this year from previous years’ CUNA Symposium-has added a number of new and unusual features including a “Rock Wall” for climbing exercises by delegates. CUNA managers said the climbing feature was added to teach CU executives “how to overcome obstacles that credit union staff and volunteers may face back at the office.” The National Credit Union Foundation is sponsoring a nine-pin no tap bowling competition in the hotel in which CU executives can “pick their own teams” and bowl with peer professionals. On the serious side, NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar will be a keynote speaker at a general session on Oct. 1 and will take questions in a Q&A format. All of the Future Forum sessions underscore a “Sound Off” theme giving a chance for CU executives to ventilate their views and hear from outsiders. A delegation of University of Nevada students plus Reno small business executives and Hispanic residents representing the underserved will take part in a consumer-oriented Sound Off session. CUNA even thought of children. “We will have a section of the Future Branch with a kids corner and kids furniture where youngsters can sit down and play on the computers and the googooplex financial education games,” said Foltz. -