NEW Ideas

New Ideas Conference
September 23-24 • Mandan, ND

Early bird pricing: $369 • Regular pricing after August 21: $419 • Final Registration deadline: Sept 11

Reservations must be made before August 31, 2026.

Known for delivering innovative ideas, practical takeaways, and engaging conversations, New Ideas continues to be one of DakCU's most anticipated events. Whether your focus is leadership, marketing, operations, lending, compliance, technology, advocacy, or member service, the conference is designed to spark fresh thinking and provide valuable insights you can take back to your credit union.

The 2026 New Ideas Conference on September 23 and 24 at The Venue 701 in Mandan, North Dakota is your chance to reset, recharge, and refocus. This is not a one-size-fits-all conference - it’s designed to spark new ideas across every area of your credit union! Join us for 1.5 days of inspiration, learning, and collaboration. You’ll leave energized with fresh ideas, clear takeaways, and practical solutions you can implement right away.

We’re also excited to welcome back Christopher Lorence to this year’s DakCU New Ideas Conference. A favorite among Dakota credit union professionals, Christopher will be making his fourth appearance at New Ideas, bringing his trademark energy, expertise, and ability to foster meaningful conversations that keep attendees engaged from start to finish.

2026 Featured Speakers

Christopher Lorence, Consultant and CMO • Fractional Edge Marketing
Christopher Lorence is a nationally recognized financial services industry leader, digital marketer, and speaker. With over twenty years of executive leadership experience, Christopher has expertise in marketing, strategic communications, brand building, and market share development. He's earned a reputation for being tenacious and resilient; he's also mentored and coached to help others cut through ambiguity and step into their creativity and capability. A witty and humorous storyteller, Christophers' philosophy of "be the bringer" has helped him lead and deliver results with transparency, candor, and authenticity. As the former executive director of the nation's only initiative to increase brand awareness and consumer consideration for credit unions, Christopher built upon a foundational concept that ultimately delivered results beyond expectations, including an increase in market share and more than 16 million consumer visits per year to YourMoneyFurther.com.

Melissa Pomeroy, EVP and Chief Operating Officer • Cooperative Credit Union Association
Melissa Pomeroy is a senior executive with deep experience in data, technology, and financial services strategy. She serves as EVP and Chief Operating Officer of the Cooperative Credit Union Association (CCUA), working closely with credit unions and industry partners to drive performance, innovation, and collaboration. Prior to CCUA, Melissa held leadership roles at St. Mary’s Bank, the nation’s first credit union, where she led the development of the organization’s first enterprise data warehouse to support scalable analytics and insight-driven operations. She also brings consulting experience advising public and private organizations on business transformation and technology initiatives. Melissa holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Economics from Lafayette College and a Master of Science in Operations Research from George Washington University. She lives in New Hampshire and enjoys spending time with family and coaching her son’s baseball team.
Melissa Pomeroy delivers candid, actionable insights grounded in hands-on experience—helping credit unions of all sizes move beyond buzzwords and focus on execution, impact, and results that matter to members.

Matt Oakley, Chief Operating Officer • Iowa Credit Union League
Matt Oakley is Chief Operating Officer of the Iowa Credit Union League (ICUL) and Affiliates Management Company (AMC), the holding company for ICUL. In this role, he provides enterprise-wide leadership across strategy, operations and revenue growth, helping guide the ongoing development and expansion of ICUL and its portfolio of affiliated companies. Matt works closely with boards, executive leadership and industry partners to translate strategic vision into scalable, sustainable results for credit unions and the broader ecosystem.
Prior to becoming COO, Matt served as Chief Marketing Officer for AMC, where he led growth initiatives, brand strategy and go-to-market execution across multiple business lines. His career spans senior marketing and growth leadership roles, including CMO of B2E Data, Inc., CMO of TMG Financial Services, and leadership positions at Kreg Tool and Marsh, where he built and led high-performing teams focused on innovation, market expansion and organizational transformation.
A speaker at state and national credit union conferences, Matt is known for his practical and strategic perspectives on innovation, growth and enterprise strategy. He holds a Master’s degree from Webster University and a Bachelor’s degree from Wayne State College.

Samantha Cherney, Senior Director, Brand & Marketing • Mission Brands Consulting
Samantha is a strategic marketing leader dedicated to helping credit unions strengthen trust, deepen member relationships, and build sustainable paths to growth.
Her work spans brand strategy, go-to-market planning, digital marketing, member acquisition, and experience design. She is known for bringing both strategic clarity and operational focus, helping teams align strategy, systems, and storytelling to expand reach while staying grounded in real member needs.

Deb Schuelke, Senior Consultant • Rose Group International
Deb is an expert at communication. Great leaders need to be great communicators, and she is here to help elevate leadership by offering training and support to help people communicate more effectively with their teams. She brings almost a decade of experience teaching undergraduates a wide range of communication topics, including interpersonal, intercultural, and organizational communication. Her experience with international and American Students from all walks of life has cemented her belief that people are more alike than they are different – we sometimes just need to adjust our perceptions to see it. Leadership is an art, but it has a foundation of science, too, and Deb can help explore and refine all of the leadership potential in your organization.

Harrison Hochman, Co-Founder and CEO • Sparrow
Harrison Hochman is a dynamic and accomplished young entrepreneur, known for his exceptional leadership skills and vision for the future. As the co-founder and CEO of Sparrow, he helped establish the company in his parents’ backyard at just 20 years old, bringing a fresh perspective to the student lending landscape.
Harrison Hochman serves on the Board of Directors at 7 17 Credit Union in Warren, Ohio, where he helps shape the organization's long-term strategy and growth. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Sparrow, a marketing automation platform built exclusively for credit unions.
A Stanford Graduate School of Engineering valedictorian and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Harrison founded Sparrow during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, Sparrow partners with credit unions across North America to help deepen member relationships, grow wallet share, and measure marketing ROI through data-driven engagement.

2026 Agenda TBA (subject to change • all times are local c.t.)

Wednesday, September 23 - 8:30am - 5:45pm

Before 8:30
Breakfast at Hotel (on your own)

8:30 – 8:45 am
DakCU President & CEO Joe Keller and Christopher Lorence - Welcome & Opening Remarks

8:45 – 10:00 am
Samantha Cherney, Mission Brands - They Want a Car, Not a Lender
Credit unions are full of people who genuinely care about their members. But somewhere between the boardroom and the branch, the words we use stopped sounding like the people we serve. No one has ever texted their friend "I just opened a share draft account."But we talk like they might. The gap between how credit unions communicate and how members actually think is real and it shows up everywhere. The good news is it's also one of the most fixable things in your organization, without a big budget or a big lift. In this session we'll look at where that gap lives, why it matters more than most credit unions realize, and you will leave with simple, practical ways to close it for your credit union and your members.

10:15 – 11:30 am
Matt Oakley - Market Growth: Insights for Credit Union Marketing
Credit union marketing is moving beyond one-off campaigns and broad audience lists. The next era combines brand trust, direct-response discipline, consumer intelligence, and coordinated channels to identify who is most likely to need a product—and when. This session will show how direct mail, email, paid social, OTT/CTV, IP targeting, and data-driven audience selection can work together to improve relevance, reduce waste, and drive measurable results such as funded loans, new accounts, and stronger member growth.

11:30 – 12:45 pm
Melissa Pomeroy - The Data Strategy Loop: Aligning AI and Analytics to Business Outcomes
Credit unions are investing in dashboards, automation, analytics, and AI—but technology alone does not create business value. This session introduces the Data Strategy Loop, a practical framework that begins with strategic priorities, translates them into measurable business questions, connects the right data and analytics to operational action, and closes the loop by measuring outcomes and reinvesting what is learned.
Through practical credit union use cases—and an engaging look at how the Boston Red Sox followed a similar loop in building a championship organization—attendees will explore how to move from “We need AI” to “We know what outcome AI will improve.” Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of AI and data readiness, a shared language for aligning executives and data teams, and a practical approach for identifying focused initiatives that improve growth, efficiency, risk management, and member impact.

12:45 – 1:45 pm
Networking Lunch

1:45 – 3:00 pm
Chris Lorence - The Human Edge: Winning Brand Awareness Against Robinhood, SoFi & Digital-Only Disruptors
In a market where members can open a SoFi or Robinhood account faster than they can find the credit union's routing number, "brand awareness" isn't really the battle anymore — attention is cheap and everyone's fighting for it with slicker apps and bigger marketing budgets. The real fight is over consideration: when a member (or prospective member) is choosing where to put their trust, does the credit union even make the shortlist?
This session makes the case that credit unions are chasing the wrong fight when they try to out-app or out-feature digital-only disruptors. Speed, design, and one-tap simplicity are table stakes the fintechs will always win on. What they can't replicate is a real relationship — community roots, trust that's been built before a crisis (not scrambled together during one), and a human who actually knows the member's situation. That's the "Human Edge," and it's the one advantage that compounds instead of erodes.

3:15 – 4:15 pm
FinTech Showcase Panel - How they're helping credit unions innovate, improve member experiences, and solve operational challenges.

4:15 – 5:45 pm
Idea Marketplace

4:45 – 5:45 pm
Networking Social

Thursday, September 24 - 8:30am - 1:00pm

Before 8:30
Breakfast at Hotel (on your own)

8:30 – 8:45 am
Day 2 Welcome & Recap

8:45 – 10:00 am
Harrison Hochman - Winning Wallet Share with AI: How to Transform Elusive Pockets of Membership into Multi-Product Members
In today's financial landscape, loyalty is no longer the default. Members - especially Gen Z and Millennials - are three times more likely to switch financial institutions if their needs aren't being met. As branch traffic declines and competition intensifies, credit unions face an important question: How do we transform disengaged, single-product members into loyal, multi-relationship advocates? In that same vein, what are the right - and wrong - ways to leverage AI to do so? In this session, Sparrow CEO and 7 17 Credit Union Board Member Harrison Hochman will share a practical framework for increasing wallet share through timely, personalized member engagement. Drawing on conversations with hundreds of credit unions across the country, attendees will leave with actionable strategies to identify overlooked growth opportunities, deepen member relationships, and leverage AI to deliver the right message at the right moment.

10:15 – 11:30 am
Deb Schuelke - Communication That Works: The Human Edge in Every Conversation
Every interaction shapes a member's experience, strengthens workplace relationships, and influences organizational culture. This engaging, interactive session explores practical communication strategies that help credit union professionals communicate with greater clarity, empathy, and impact. Participants will learn how to tailor messages to their audience and confidently navigate difficult conversations using techniques they can apply immediately. Through hands-on activities and real-world credit union scenarios, attendees will leave with practical tools to improve member service, strengthen collaboration, and build trust in every conversation.