A few weeks ago, I took a phone call from a banker who was clearly upset and almost angry. Rather forcefully, he inquired why he had to pay $900 to attend one of our events, just because his bank’s asset size was on the larger end of our bank pricing scale. He noted that his competition only had to pay one-third of this price due to their asset size. I asked him if he had planned to train his entire staff by having them all attend the conference he was registering for, and he seemed quite confused by this question. This was my opportunity to explain just how the KBA is creating value for our banks by making their training budgets go further! When we price an event using the bank asset pricing, we allow each of our banks to train their entire staff! Once I explained this to him in detail, he was no longer upset about paying the $900 when he could suddenly have over 30 of his staff members attend the event, even though they worked at several different branches. He very clearly saw this as an amazing opportunity and took advantage of it!

When the pandemic began to unfold and we were forced to shut down in-person events, the KBA Leadership Team and the Education & Conferences Team made a conscious decision to continue to bring our member banks the same high-quality programming that everyone had become accustomed to. Our goal was to bring greater value in the most cost-effective virtual way to benefit as many bankers as possible. Because of this, we’ve continued to see excellent attendance at our virtual events, and we sincerely thank you for your ongoing support of YOUR association!

As we look forward to the late summer and fall of 2021, we anticipate bringing LIVE events back, beginning with our CEO & Senior Management Forum/Annual Meeting at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs on August 5-7. If you plan to attend, please make your room reservations now. Both Wednesday and Thursday nights of our room block are currently sold out. However, when you call the Broadmoor, please ask to be placed on the waitlist if one or more of your selected dates is sold out. The Broadmoor staff is excellent about contacting our bankers as rooms become available, typically beginning in June.

We look forward to seeing you soon!