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May 05, 2007my upcoming conferences
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about me
Hi, I'm William. I'm the Director, Online Banking & Engagement 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).
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My friend Gene.
I'm a big fan of GonzoBanker.When I first started working at Vancity, I was brand new to financial services and started looking at industry websites to help orient and ground me in my new job.
I quickly came across GonzoBanker, and it is now one of the only leftovers from those early days of bookmarking. Their irreverent coverage of how IT issues can aid and hinder financial institutions is both useful and entertaining.
So today, I was thrilled to see that they named my friend Gene Blishen as their GonzoBanker of the Month.
Gene is my hero. He is a philosopher, humanitarian, technologist, futurist, banker and a decent, decent man. I look forward to reading his blog whenever he updates it, and his name always comes up when the people I respect the most name the people they respect the most.
It is an honour to be his direct BC credit union peer, be able to access his sage advice and plan BarCampBankBC with him.
So congrats Gene. Well deserved!
Labels: barcampbankbc, credit union, gonzobanker, tinfoiling, vancouver
posted on Friday, July 18, 2008
Make a plan for BarCampBankBC.
Yesterday, Gene Blishen and I booked the space for BarCampBankBC. I'm very excited that we got such a great space at BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology).BarCampBankBC will take place in Vancouver all day on Saturday, September 20th and a half day on Sunday the 21st. You can sign up here.
What is BarCampBankBC?
What if we changed banking and finance? The aim of BarCampBank is to foster innovations and the creation of new business models in the world of banking and finance.It's going to be an amazing time, and may just:
- change the way you do your job
- introduce you to new concepts and innovations
- connect you to some amazing people
- inspire you
I have no doubt that by the time September 20th and 21st arrive many more FIs and vendors will have signed up.
BCIT's downtown campus is extremely well located, right in downtown Vancouver. If you're coming in from out of town, you can walk there from any of Vancouver's downtown hotels. It's also very close to a SkyTrain station, so it's easy to get to from almost anywhere.
All that for about $35 Canadian. So go ahead, add your name to the wiki and come on down.
See you there!
UPDATE (May 29): Thanks to Boris for adding this event to Upcoming.org!
Labels: banking, barcampbankbc, credit union, currency marketing, innovation, technology, tinfoiling, vancity, vancouver
posted on Wednesday, May 28, 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
Moving to Pownce?
I'm not much of a Twitterer (Twit? Yes.), but I see a mass migration moving from Twitter to Pownce this weekend, and Gene was the main culprit. A couple of people started it, and now everyone's headed over. It's so interesting to me when these things reach their tipping point, and this is the clearest one I've experienced yet.So now I'm giving Pownce a try. If you come over, here I am.
Labels: pownce, social media, tinfoiling, twitter, web 2.0
posted on Saturday, February 09, 2008
Listen to the Credit Union Innovators podcast.
Tim McAlpine at Currency Marketing has been one of my favourite contributors to the credit union blogging world for months now. His posts are incisive, smart and often provocative. And now he is creating a series of CU podcasts, called Credit Union Innovators. Here's how Tim describes it...The format of this and future episodes will be interviews and conversations with people that are doing good things for the credit union movement. Credit union leaders and employees and partners to the movement including vendors, technologists, strategists, designers, specialists, marketers, developers, speakers and members. Anyone with passion for the credit union movement and with something to say.The really great news is that the first podcast features Gene Blishen of Mount Lehman Credit Union. Gene is an amazing inspiration to me. He is an incredibly important resource for the entire credit union movement, and his credit union is a real pillar of the community. He understands the mission of his CU perfectly and keeps his focus exactly where it should be: on his members. He's well worth listening to.
You can hear the podcast here:
Podcast 01: Credit Union Innovator Gene Blishen.
Or subscribe to it in iTunes.
Labels: credit union, innovation, media, podcast, tinfoiling
posted on Friday, January 18, 2008
Black Hole Blog.
An article in the newest (September 2007) edition of Enterprise Magazine features an interview with me. Black Hole Blog covers social media and how credit unions can embrace it. I talk about how CUs can respond to bloggers, and the writer, Laureen Griffin, also writes about ChangeEverything.ca.She also interviewed Gene Blishen and Trey Reeme.
I've seen a few articles like this, but I thought this particular one was insightful. It must be hard to write an article that is at once basic and also helpful, knowing that your readers will range from those who don't know social media at all, to those who are eager to try it out.
I like this quote a lot:
If a member of your credit union was standing in the middle of a town square in front of a rapt crowd, praising or criticizing your service or products, would you go outside and listen? If you could go to free credit union conferences to learn about the biggest innovations in credit union marketing, would you go? If your credit union could be the Roman Forum of the community, where people shared their concerns, and spoke from their hearts, would you do it? If you answered "yes," then you are ready to dive into the blogosphere.A nice way of framing the issue, I think.
Labels: azaroff, banking, blogging, changeeverything, credit union, innovation, opensourcecu, social media, tinfoiling, vancity, web 2.0
posted on Monday, September 17, 2007
tinfoiling on the virtual human experience.
In a post I made a few days back, I tried to articulate some of the issues I've been thinking about our web site design to enhance the member/user experience.Gene at tinfoiling left a comment in which he said:
The online experience seems to revolve around the person, their personal networks and being able to keep things the way they want to. Our products need to capture these elements.
I was intrigued, but his short comment on my site obviously didn't capture the depth of what he was getting at, so I asked him to expand on his own site. Much to my delight he has.
Here's Gene's response on tinfoiling.
His theory, and I hope I do it justice is that web design as we've been dealing with it is a bit of a boondoggle, avoiding the key element of what the customer wants. And it goes back to our product design as well. A huge idea really, and I gotta admit, I'm still fully wrapping my head around it.
Colin, as usual, had a great comment:
Product - my take: forget about it. It comes last. Banks have been product centric for ever, and that doesn’t work when you get into experiential design.
A great conversation. I had no idea the doors I was opening when I started...
Labels: banking, bankwatch, credit union, design, tinfoiling, vancity, web
posted on Saturday, May 05, 2007
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