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about me
Hi, I'm William. I'm the Director, Online Banking & Engagement at Vancity, Canada's largest credit union.
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Great time at CUES Experience.
Got home today, and I'm just too tired to write anything even semi-salient right now, but Tim managed to do that, and I think he got even less sleep than I did.It was great seeing so many amazing friends, and meeting some great new people. Quite a whirlwind.
And thanks to Morriss for snapping this pic of my presentation (with his iPhone no less)!
Labels: conference, CUES, currency marketing, everythingcu
posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008
See you in Minneapolis.
I'm off to Minneapolis tomorrow for CUES Experience.I'm excited to see so many of my CU alum there, including Morriss Partee, Tim McAlpine, Robbie Wright, Denise Wymore, Brent Dixon, and am most excited to finally meet Ron Shevlin, Steve Williams and Christopher Stevenson in person after months of being eConnected. I hope I didn't miss anyone - did I?
I'm presenting a Credit Union case study from Vancity, covering who we are, how we show up and how we leverage social media. Should be a good presentation.
It's also been a fantastic way to procrastinate finishing my chapter for the new Age of Conversation. Truth be told, I'm starting to panic, it's due in 3 days.
If you'll be in Minneapolis, please say hi.
Now I gotta figure out how to transport fresh fruit across the US-Canada border, because my son Ivan is expecting tiny apples from a place called Minneapolis (say it aloud).
Labels: changeeverything, conference, credit union, CUES, currency marketing, everythingcu, gonzobanker, shevlin, vancity
posted on Monday, May 12, 2008
Come on down to BarCampBank BC.
I'm excited to announce that on September 20, 2008 BarCampBank is coming to Vancouver.Gene Blishen, Tim McAlpine and I are putting a stake in the ground, after talking about doing it for some time.
Now, some of you may be asking, what the hell is a BarCampBank. From the main BarCampBank page:
What if we changed banking and finance?The first one in North America was in Seattle last July, and it was a truly transformative experience. For me, the ideas, relationships and bonds formed in those two days are invaluable, and the memories of it are strong and very good.
The aim of BarCampBank is to foster innovations and the creation of new business models in the world of banking and finance.
Lots of details to be worked out, like an exact location, but it will take place on September 20, 2008. The cost is always break-even (think $25 CAD), so its worth the travel expense for my East Coast readers.
Go to the wiki page to add your name to the list. It will not disappoint!
PS: Thanks to Morriss Partee, whom I credit for keeping BarCampBank alive and kicking in North America. Thanks Morriss, looking forward to seeing you here! Also, I believe it was his idea to create something with the acronym BCBBC. Who couldn't love that!
NOTE: My original post accidentally said that this was on July 20th. It is, in fact on September 20th!
Labels: banking, barcampbankbc, barcampbankseattle, conference, credit union, currency marketing, everythingcu, innovation, social media, technology, tinfoiling, vancouver, web 2.0
posted on Friday, April 18, 2008
BarCampBank continues East, West and South.
Last summer I attended an amazing event called BarCampBankSeattle. It was a coming together of, and collaboration between, some amazing bank and credit union folks from across North America. I wrote a few blog posts about it at the time.Jesse Robbins organized this first-of-its-kind-in-America conference, and now he's written about two more BarCampBank events that are happening. It was also covered by NetBanker and Frederic Baud.
The next two events will be:
BarCampBank San FranciscoAnd now I see that there will be a BarCampBank Dallas. This is spreading like wildfire. Innovation is taking root among some bankers, which is exciting. Hmmm, maybe we need a BarCampBank Vancouver...
Saturday, March 29, 2008
UC Berkeley campus - Soda Hall in the Wozniak Lounge
RSVP @ EventBrite ($25)
BarCampBank New England
Saturday, April 5th, 2008
America's Credit Union Museum, Manchester, NH
Unfortunately, I can't attend any of these events, although I truly wish I could. Lots of great people will be there, and you can see exactly who will be attending at each event's homepage.
I hope some of you attendees will blog about it, so the rest of us can feel included. It is worth noting that Morriss Partee is behind a couple of these and seems to be the thread between SF and NE. Morriss, looks like you're gonna need to go to Dallas too.
Labels: banking, barcampbankseattle, conference, credit union, everythingcu, netbanker
posted on Friday, February 15, 2008
For credit union employees on LinkedIn.
I'll be honest with you, I am not quite sure what to do with LinkedIn groups. LinkedIn started this service a little while back, and I thought it would be cool to create a group for all credit union employees on LinkedIn. But then I wondered if I was the right person to create such a group.So I passed the idea to my friend and EverythingCU marvel, Morriss Partee. Morriss went ahead and started the group.
I'm not sure where it will go, but if you're a CU staff member who uses LinkedIn, go ahead and invite yourself to this group and let's see what develops.
And if anyone has any thoughts as to where it can evolve, let Morriss or myself know (and if anyone wants to create a little icon for the group, that would cool too!).
UPDATE: To join the group, click here.
Labels: azaroff, credit union, everythingcu, LinkedIn, social media, web 2.0
posted on Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Credit Union Innovators.
I was honoured to be included in EverythingCU's list of Credit Union Innovators this week. Morriss Partee, whom I met at the Washington Credit Union League Annual Conference, compiled the list.The list includes many of my favourite industry blogs, including:
CUES Skybox
Filene Research Institute
OpenSource CU
NetBanker - Jim Bruene
Marketing ROI - Ron Shevlin
True Stories - Doug True
Life and Times of a CU Employee - Robbie Wright
Currency Marketing - Tim McAlpine
Tinfoiling - Gene Blishen
Black Rock Federal - Jesse Robbins
Here is the link to the list's aggregated RSS feed.
Labels: azaroff, banking, blogging, credit union, everythingcu, innovation, RSS
posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Two great people from the conference in Spokane.
I met some great people at this past week's Washington Credit Union League's Annual Conference, and one of them was Matt Vance from Industrial Credit Union in Bellingham, Washington. He had a very neat idea.Over a beer, Matt was telling a group of us about Industrial CU's new Seahawks Super Saver Account, in which the weekly annual percentage rate of the savings account is based on the total yardage gained by the Seattle Seahawks in that week's game.
For example: if the Seahawks gain 300 total net offensive yards in their next game you would earn 3.00% APY. The rate will then reset to the new total net offensive yards the first business day following the next game.Now, personally, I couldn't care less about football, but Matt was so into this product and the Seahawks, that his enthusiasm was infectious. Here's a way to show that his CU is a part of their community and can offer a product to authentically capture local spirit. I thought it was great.
The other great person I met this week was Morriss Partee of EverythingCU. Moriss is great, I've followed his blog for some time and it was great to finally meet him. He wrote up a very funny anecdote that Matt shared - the downside of CUs trying to shorten their names down to just the acronym. A dangerous tactic, especially if your name is Industrial Credit Union.
Labels: banking, conference, credit union, everythingcu
posted on Saturday, September 15, 2007
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