MEMBERS Development Company's Owner Meeting Shares Glimpse of the Digital Future and Imagines Ways to Enrich Member Experience

MINNEAPOLIS - Oct. 31, 2017 - PRLog -- Experts from inside and outside the financial industry led sessions on topics such as the latest fintech innovations, consumer behavior, and marketing trends at MEMBERS Development Company's recent Owner Meeting. MDC's new downloadable eBook, Inside MDC, gives an overview.

One highlight of the two-day educational event was guest speaker Garry Golden, Senior Futurist, at futurethink (futurethink.com), who discussed issues that will shape society and business in the years ahead. Golden also addressed today's digital age, where an abundance of demographic, psychographic and ethnographic data are converging to help inform savvy companies on how best to meet consumers' changing expectations. All businesses will continue to face constraints such as regulations, disruption and competition … and other barriers will emerge.

"Businesses and consumers alike are increasingly dependent on smart technology," Kline said. "It's no longer acceptable to plan two or three years out; credit unions need to be looking ahead five, 10 or 15 years," said Jeff Kline, MDC's Chief Executive Officer, who said rapidly changing technology motivated the invitation for Golden to share his knowledge.

Josh Linkner, Founder and Chairman, Institute for Applied Creativity (JoshLinkner.com), shared five obsessions essential to hyper-growth leadership: Get curious, crave what's next, defy tradition, get scrappy and adapt fast. Instead of thinking "outside the box," Linkner suggested thinking outside your business. For example, how might a problem be solved if it occurred in an entirely different industry? A key takeaway was to see constraints as the source of inspiration.

MDC's Innovation Council shared progress on current initiatives, including its Retirement Readiness Project – a hot topic, given that most Americans aren't financially prepared to enter that phase of their lives (one in three has no retirement savings at all, per GoBankingRates).

Kline says when Innovation Council members share results of their work at Owner Meetings, it attests to the value of MDC's collaborative purpose.

"Simply stated, MDC is a network of credit unions collaborating around research and development, and thought leadership," Kline said

The summer meeting, held at the Gwen Hotel in Chicago, also offered attendees an opportunity to share about current initiatives and their own credit unions' successes.

Tricia Szurgot, Chief Marketing & Retail Officer for new MDC owner First Commonwealth Federal Credit Union in Bethlehem, Pa., says she appreciates the focus on sharing with peers and picking up fresh ideas.

"I've been really thrilled with the camaraderie and the networking," she said. "It's wonderful that attendees are primarily senior leadership and C-level, and the focus is on strategy, innovation, and where we can take our teams."

Check out Inside MDC for more takeaways and visit MEMBERS Development Company at www.membersdevelopment.com.