Build-a-Thon Wants to Tap Credit Union Cooperation for Industry Tech Solutions

A marathon coding weekend where credit union professionals can participate in building industry solutions is set to begin June 12.

Organizers of CU Build, a three-day event known as a Build-a-Thon, said it offers a cooperative and competitive environment centered around the Symitar ecosystem. It will take place at the Four Points by Sheraton Dallas-Fort Worth Airport North. The program agenda listed several lengthy coding periods and a “Hack Through the Night” all-night session.

Brad Hickey, manager of application development for the Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines Federal Credit Union ($7.7 billion) and president of CU Build, spearheaded the upcoming gathering, which he said grew out of a direct experience at an American Airlines’ HackWars event a couple of years ago. “What if we could have a hackathon like this in our industry, leveraging the cooperative principles/?” Hickey started reaching out to his Symitar network and eventually had a volunteer team of about 12 people. “It’s really like having a dream team of Symitar experts around the country.”

Hickey noted, “We opted for the ‘build-a-thon’ nomenclature since these events have been shown to attract more non-techies to the event, which brings a better balance to the solutions.” The term “hackathon,” he said, tends to set off alarms for non-techies and attracts almost 90% IT workers, which is cool. “But the solutions tend to be more myopic and tech-centered rather than business-focused. We wanted to avoid that, so we branded the event as a build-a-thon.”

CU Build’s mission is to spark innovation, cultivate learning and foster development in the credit union system. Similarly, CU Build structured the event to provide every opportunity for participants to solve real problems, create innovative solutions, grow skills, expand capabilities and feel proud about the work they do to lift the technical and creative maturity of the credit union movement and the communities served.

The core CU Build team has worked steadily on the build-a-thon since June 2019. Hickey pointed out even though they are just starting their participant outreach there is a lot of enthusiasm around just because the space is hungry for this type of thing. “A few credit unions have tried their own hackathons and build-a-thons, and a few vendors have tried it, but I don’t think anybody’s tried doing it across the ecosystem, which I think is really exciting.”

The Monett, Mo.-based Jack Henry’s Symitar, as one of CU Build’s sponsors, is opening up its whole platform, data warehouse, API layer and several other of their programming platforms, Hickey said. “Our whole mission is to lift credit unions, focus on the educational component and leverage the cooperative principles of credit unions because that is a difference maker. We are definitely going to have a lot of the hackathon best practices incorporated; but we also want to embody the cooperative principles for sure.”

The official CU Build team consists of Hickey; Armando Aguilar, systems engineer; Charity LaPonsie, manager of the infrastructure program; John Woodling, information security analyst for American Airlines FCU; Mike Blumenthal, president/CEO of Technology Happens; James Burke-Frazier of Symitar innovation projects; Adele Glenn, vice president, projects and consulting with CUTEK; Joe Knapton, core systems analyst of Educators Credit Union; Ben Maxim, AVP, digital strategy & innovation of Michigan State University Federal Credit Union; Brian Sloan, chief information officer of Pioneer West Virginia Federal Credit Union and Brenda Taylor, senior core services programmer of Generations Federal Credit Union.