Posted by Christopher Stevenson
I am hyped. I am excited. Arkadi Kuhlmann, president/CEO and chairman of ING Direct USA has agreed to deliver the opening keynote at CUES Experience: Immersion Learning for Marketing, Technology & Operations Leaders, May 13-16, 2008.
In just seven years, Kuhlmann has taken ING Direct from a new player in the United States' financial services industry to a market leader with six million depositors and 80 billion dollars in assets. Called a "maverick at work" by Bill Taylor, founding editor of Fast Company magazine, Kuhlmann's a convention breaker and has helped to transform financial services by positioning products and delivering services differently. And he's created a buzz about his business model, perhaps better than anybody else out there. There's no doubt there's a lot that we can learn from Kuhlmann's story.
But it get's even better. After the keynote, Steve Williams, principal, Cornerstone Advisors, Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz., will facilitate Q&A with Kuhlmann. Want to know what Kuhlmann thinks about the future of mobile banking? You can ask him. Curious about why ING started using brick and mortar shops instead of staying exclusively online? Throw it out there. What a great opportunity!
Even still, Kuhlmann is just the launch of CUES Experience (albeit a really, really cool launch). Experience is an experiential learning event; participants will visit some of the most innovative companies in Minneapolis and gain a cross-industry perspective on growth, innovation, marketing, and community relations. There's more to come about the specifics of the site visits in future posts, but I promise a list of amazing companies with stories CUs can learn from.
CUES Experience promises to be like nothing else in the industry. I hope you can join us.
