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February 07, 2008about me
Hi, I'm William and I head up the WEB Team (Web Engagement & Banking) at Vancity, Canada's largest credit union.
My opinions and views are just that, and don't reflect the views of my employer (or, perhaps, anyone else).
I can be found on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
my peers
:.BankerVision
:.Banking Kismet
:.Banktastic
:.The Bankwatch
:.Benry
:.The Boardcast
:.Buzz Canuck
:.The Client Side
:.CU Communicator
:.CU Employee
:.CU Hype
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:.Currency Marketing
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:.EverythingCU
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Four down, one to go.
I honestly have no idea what I was thinking a few months back when I agreed to speak at five conferences in two months. Today I finished my penultimate engagement, and I'm starting to feel relieved.It was been an extraordinary honour to be able to address such a diverse set of audiences.
- From the Internet Marketing Conference here in Vancouver focusing on general online marketing techniques and tactics
- Organizing and promoting BarCampBankBC, which was a truly amazing, inspiring and rewarding experience
- Traveling to Indiana for the 2008 Partnership Symposium which was an event I had been looking forward to for almost a year and was a fantastic chance to see many of my favourite CU people from across North America
- And today I spoke here in Vancouver at the IABC Communicating Social Responsibility Conference where I got to address a room full of people dedicated to bringing integrity and values to their business models.
After Net.Finance East, I have nothing until January when I go back to New York for The Finance 2.0 Summit.
Next year, I need to be a whole lot more selective, I just can't afford to be away from the office and my family this much.
It feels a little like the end of an era for me. I have learned a ton, met some amazing people, sparked some incredible dialogue and really found my place in the industry. If you're reading this, it may well be because we met at one of these events. If so, shoot me a comment and say hello.
(photo credit by Brent Dixon)
Labels: azaroff, barcampbankbc, bcbbc08, conference, netfinance, partnership symposium, social marketing
posted on Friday, October 17, 2008
A look back at the Partnership Symposium.
Okay, I really meant to live blog the Partnership Symposium, but I was too engrossed with what was going on to bother. Sorry 'bout that.I know Andy and Morriss live-blogged some of the sessions, and lots of it was streamed and archived by Brent.
One of the main things I liked about the conference was that Ron Shevlin played host and moderator of the whole thing. I'd never seen that done before - Ron introduced each speaker and then interviewed them about their presentation and moderated a Q&A with the audience. It gave a continuity to the conference which is often lacking.
photo credit: Gene Blishen
He asked one question in particular to many of the speakers I thought was valuable: What CU would this NOT work for?
That one question made the presenters work harder to define what is the strategic value to their topic by defining who it would not be a good fit for. He kept us honest, while being on our side (with one exception, perhaps).
Ron's main takeaways from the two days were:
- There are no easy answers - no definitive answers
- Knowing what to do means knowing who you are as a CU
- You can't understand what members and prospects feel unless you are doing the same thing - which means get on Facebook, read blogs, etc...
- Nothing is more important than engaging with your members
It was a great time, and I hope to make it back next year.
Live Broadcast by Ustream.TV
Labels: credit union, partnership symposium
posted on Thursday, October 02, 2008
Live blogging the Partnership Symposium.
This whole thing is being streamed. I'll be giving updates as I can.Labels: credit union, partnership symposium
posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2008
See ya at the Symposium!
I'm leaving tomorrow morning for the Partnership Symposium. I've been excited about this conference since I missed it last year. Many of my favourite CUers said it was a highlight of the year.The agenda is amazing and contains some of the best speakers in CU-land. After what happened today in US politics and the global markets, it'll be very interesting to be at a credit union conference. For me, it's a very strange time to be in the FI world.
I'm delivering the keynote on the second day. My presentation is called Engaging with the Social Economy, and I'll be speaking about how Vancity creates community in the areas where we operate.
I've never been to Indiana before, but it looks like I'm flying in, doing the conference and flying out, no time for a real visit.
Well, if you'll be there make sure to say hello!
Labels: conference, credit union, partnership symposium
posted on Monday, September 29, 2008
The Social Economy at the Partnership Symposium.
I'm so pleased that FORUM Solutions published a guest post I wrote on their blog.It's about my preparation for the keynote I'm delivering at the Partnership Symposium in October.
The post is called Discovering the Social Economy.
I'm really looking forward to the conference, and I hope to see you there...
Labels: azaroff, blogging, conference, credit union, partnership symposium
posted on Monday, March 24, 2008
Ready and raring to present.
I spent a big chunk of this past weekend creating my presentations for both Net.Finance 2008 and CUES Experience.
It's funny to look back at my initial presentation from last year's Net.Finance about ChangeEverything.ca. It was so full of words and clunky. I am relying mostly on images and my own storytelling now to get the message across. It's a big evolution, and I'm excited to see how it will go over.My talk at Net.Finance will be Corporate Social Responsibility As Key Differentiator, which may be like speaking socialism to a room full of bankers. Hopefully I can at least make it funny and entertaining. I am pulling data from our experience at Vancity as a community-driven organization, proving the model that social marketing can break through the clutter, epsecially in our heavily commoditized industry.
At CUES my talk is called Credit Unions and Social Media: A Case Study, and will cover a lot of the same ground, but deal a lot more with social media and go into more detail around how ChangeEverything.ca works. I have the luxury of a 75 minute session, which is by far the longest talk I have given. It'll be nice not to be pressed for time, and be able to engage in a discussion throughout, rather than at the end, time permitting.I'll take what I learn from them to shape my end of the year keynote at the Partnership Symposium 2008. I'm really excited about it. My talk is called Engaging with the Social Economy, and I'm just starting to wrap my head around what I'll cover. It will deal with how credit unions are uniquely positioned to use the banking platform to make our society a better and more equitable place.Please let me know if you'll be at any of these events. I look forward to seeing you there.
Labels: banking, conference, credit union, CUES, innovation, netfinance, partnership symposium, social economy, social media
posted on Sunday, March 16, 2008
Looking forward to the Partnership Sympiosium.
Last October I was unable to attend the Partnership Symposium, a credit union conference sponsored jointly by FORUM Solutions and Trabian. I was greatly disappointed because my peers who were there said it was a highlight of their year.So I'm very excited to announce that I have been invited to deliver a keynote at this year's Partnership Symposium. Some of the other amazing speakers already announced include some of my favourite CU peers and thought leaders: Tim McAlpine, Morriss Partee, Robbie Wright and Gene Blishen (with more to follow I'm sure).
I have proposed the following as my topic, and I'd love feedback from you on this. Does it sound interesting? Am I missing anything at a high level?
Engaging with the Social Economy
A growing segment of the economy is being driven by social decision-making. Credit unions play a natural key role in this shift, both as community-focused organizations and as holders of significant consumer assets. This presentation will include examples of the emerging social economy, as well as a case study of ChangeEverything.ca, a social network created by Vancity which speaks to the values the largest credit union in Canada shares with the community it serves.
UPDATE (Feb 4, 2008): Ron Shevlin was just added to the lineup in a very interesting way:
Ron Shevlin will serve as the host for the 2008 Partnership Symposium. He will spend time with each presenter following their session to ask a couple of questions and engage the audience in asking their questions. This is an interactive conference and Ron will help ensure that everyone takes part!I'm nervous and excited to work with Ron in this way. He's tough, but all in search of making us better, more rigourous marketers.
Labels: azaroff, conference, credit union, partnership symposium, social economy, vancity
posted on Saturday, February 02, 2008
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