Credit union professionals and volunteers from throughout New York were in Schenectady on Thursday and Friday for the New York Credit Union Association’s inaugural Tech Forward Conference.

The conference, which was held at the new Rivers Casino & Resort, began Thursday morning with an update on the businesses and technologies that are shaping the financial services industry led by Mark Sievewright, founder and CEO of Sievewright and Associates, who also served as the conference facilitator and emcee.

Thursday’s agenda also included sessions on benchmarking in mobile banking, delivering on digital member experiences in a mobile-first world, text communications, member empathy in the digital age, and using artificial intelligence to enhance the power of marketing.

The day ended with a networking reception that allowed attendees to share ideas and review key takeaways from the first day of the conference.

Friday’s general session began with an update on fintech developments and their strategic implications for credit unions, which was presented by Atul Kamra, a managing partner at SixThirty.

Kamra’s session was followed by a panel discussion with Glen Stacey (Sunmark FCU), Dan Didier (GreyCastle Security) and Bill Handel (Raddon).

“The panelists had a lot of great information, and there were a lot of good questions coming from the group,” said Terri Oakland, technology services coordinator for TCT FCU. “Every person from the credit union could benefit from a piece of the conference, between the analytics, programs, and just the general information.”

The event concluded with two sessions on data and analytics, and the seven technologies affecting the future of the financial services industry.

“I think everybody can benefit from coming to this conference based on all of the topics we covered,” said Peter Hatfield, loan officer at School Systems FCU. “Everything changes so rapidly, it’s good to stay up to date. It’s also good to be here distraction-free learning about this stuff instead of trying to piecemeal it into my day.”

The 2017 Tech Forward Conference was sponsored by CUNA Mutual Group, OwnersChoice Funding and CU Direct.