Each spring, bank and fintech professionals take to the road for a whirlwind tour of the conference circuit, and this year I’m no exception. As Travillian’s Chief Research Officer, I’ve been on the road this spring, just returning from Fort Worth, where I spent a few days at the S&P Global Community Bankers Conference. Making pilgrimages to resorts in sunny locales may seem like a boondoggle, but there’s a reason we all still do it: Conferences = conversations that we don’t make time for otherwise.
There are two types of conversations at every event.
First, there’s the industry conversation. This is represented in the agenda. And it’s largely the same from one conference to the next. Looking at the agendas of 5 major spring events, 65% of the content overlaps — down to the angle it’s being presented from.
But that doesn’t mean the overlapping content is noise. Taken together, it produces signal about where the industry is as a whole.
For example, all 5 agendas featured AI heavily. But, this year, the topic moved from “should we do AI” to “how we’re operationalizing AI.” If you’re an attendee at an organization asking last year’s questions, you’ll feel this shift even if you don’t attend every session.
The second type of conversation is personal. It’s comparing notes with counterparts at other banks. Seeing the “founder friends” who are usually heads down. Commiserating. Gossiping. Maybe even doing some deals.
Personal conversations are the ones that will give you a sense of where the puck is going. These conversations are all vibes, no data. Definitely not packaged into a tight, 20-minute talk for the Main Stage. And that’s part of what makes them so special.
So for this week’s edition of Travillian Next, I sat down with three of our industry friends between panels — Chris Nichols of SouthState Bank, Corey LeBlanc of Locality Bank, and Siya Vansia of ConnectOne Bank — and asked each of them the same question: what’s the industry not talking about enough? If you’re currently on a 20-minute refreshment break before sitting down for your fifth AI panel of the month, these three conversations are for you.
