On Thursday of last week, the ignite working teams met in downtown Indy to fine tune their innovations and prepare for their presentations at the Indiana Credit Union League. I must say the igniters rock as all four teams have implementation success stories to share. Stay tuned here for more details as we publish their innovation blueprints and their results. We were honored to have Ms. Myra Borshoff-Cook from Borshoff Communications speak at our meeting. Not only is she a successful entrepreneur, she was a key player in the city’s bid to secure the 2012 Super Bowl. I have two full pages of notes. Three quick hits related to credit unions are as follows:

• Indianapolis was competing with cities that have a more tropical environment to offer (NFL owners like to play golf) and a larger metropolitan area. The Indianapolis bid committee focused on the compact area of the downtown area (you can walk inside to all of the different activities) and the hospitality the city is known for in hosting major events such as NCAA Final Fours and many large amateur athletic events. Also, they created a party atmosphere with the downtown area featuring fire pits and big inflatable mushroom looking structures to protect party goers should there be any precipitation. We got to see the video from the bid presentation – impressive and I can’t wait to attend the events. Credit union relevance—sounds a lot like credit unions versus banks. We don’t have as many branches as they do (we do in Indiana if you count shared branching) nor are we as metropolitan as they are, but we can compete on our strengths.

• The 2011 bid fell just short to Dallas even though David Letterman delivered a stellar performance in the video. What the bid committee learned from the 2011 experience allowed them to fine tune their proposal to win the 2012 bid. Myra explained how exhausting, time consuming and expensive the process was for the initial 2011 bid and how the committee had to rally the team through power networking to go after the 2012 event. Credit union relevance – sometimes you have to fail to succeed. Credit unions are risk averse by nature. I like the fact that the committee representing the city didn’t let the near miss in 2011 impact their desire and passion to go after the prize in 2012.

• The committee decided they wanted a dynamic spokesperson to lead off the video presentation for the 2012 bid and they decided on Dennis Hopper. Why Dennis Hopper? He had movie connections to the state through the film Hoosiers and a few others. They asked his assistant if he would be willing to do it by delivering the request in person at his home. They found out his assistant is a native Hoosier and that she would be a tremendous help in pulling this off. Only problem – Mr. Hopper was in Europe working when this needed to be shot. Not willing to give up and through the wonders of technology, they were able to shoot the scenes in Europe that went in to the video. Credit union relevance – Work your networks – have your existing members help tell your story.

A thought provoking and inspirational session held by Myra. Oh and by the way, the igniters got to hold her Indianapolis Colts Super Bowl ring and take a few photos with it. How often do you get to do that?