NEW ORLEANS – About 20 professionals from state credit union trade associations across the country gathered here February 14-16 for the 2005 League IT Networking Symposium. Held for the first time last year in Las Vegas, the event provided IT professionals a forum for sharing experiences and discussing technology trends, challenges, and solutions. While each state trade association has unique requirements, attendees share common ground in supporting organizations with similar functions in the same industry. The Symposium kicked off with a dinner at the renowned Brennan's, but took a distinctly more serious course the next morning, opening two days of intensive panel discussions and meetings covering topics such as business process automation, sales force automation, e-marketing and PBX systems. One of the most in-depth topics centered on customer relationship management. "Association management systems have limitations," said Bill Braun, vice president of information systems for the Texas Credit Union League. "Many of the Leagues want to reach beyond those functions by building customer relationship management into their IT platforms." Braun participated in a panel discussion on customer relationship management and association management systems with IT professionals from the California, Michigan and New York credit union leagues. "One of the greatest benefits of the Symposium," Braun continued, "is the open discussion time, where we share and respond to questions. We create a list of discussion topics and agree as a group on the highest priority items." Symposium attendees also were able to tour the exhibit hall at the TechMecca technology conference, being held in New Orleans at the same time. TechMecca is hosted by Texas Credit Union League, the Independent Bankers Association of Texas and PULSE EFT Association.