Kansas City, MO · April 5-7, 2022
Utility professionals and experts from other fields will challenge attendees to leverage the latest techniques and technology to better understand and serve members.
Network with colleagues and go home with tangible tools to help you succeed. A highlight of the conference will be our exclusive jazz and barbeque event!
Optional Fiber Insight workshop is available with sessions tailored to best practices for cooperatives providing internet service. Topics will include the basics of sales, marketing trends, and ideas for regrouping as the dust settles after a fiber launch.
Data matters and is key to success throughout your organization. Assess what you have and what you need to turn data into information and information into results.
We'll have rapid fire discussions and idea sharing on a variety of topics including:
Walk away with a tangible plan to enhance your 2022 strategy. Your team will have dedicated time to brainstorm ways to apply the great ideas from the conference.
Fiber Insight (separate sessions - optional / no additional charge)
Tuesday Evening - Group Welcome Event
Sessions all day with Evening Group Event
More Sessions including Planning Session to Build Action Plan with a Noon End Time
Fiber Insight is an optional event at no additional cost.
Fiber Insight
Tuesday Morning
Start time: 8:30 am
Fiber Tee Up
Sales ABC (Accelerated Boot Camp) – Doug Goff, Growing the Results
The market for internet services is competitive and new to many employees. Learn basic and practical sales principles to share with your team.
Fiber Journey – The Customer Perspective – April McDonald, Great Lakes Energy
When co-ops launch fiber, everything about the process is new. Learn how Truestream used journey mapping to understand the experience from the subscriber viewpoint and identify pain points for improvement.
Analyzing Touchpoint Surveys to Improve Customer Experience – Corey ten Bensel, Co-Mo Connect
One of the first cooperatives in the nation to roll out internet, Co-Mo Connect now offers fiber to its entire member network and is expanding beyond the original service territory. Learn how Corey and his team improve the subscriber experience by utilizing ongoing survey data.
Tuesday Afternoon – Fiber Insight
Simplifying Fiber Marketing through Planning - Kacey Thelen, HomeWorks Connect
HomeWorks has an aggressive multi-channel marketing plan to keep members in the loop at all stages of the process. Learn how leveraging strategic planning has helped them maximize personnel and minimize stress.
How's your TV reception? - Mark Cook and Kaitlyn Bonds, Cumberland Connect
Nobody makes good decisions without data. Listen to how Cumberland Connect leveraged its existing subscribers' and prospects' experiences to have better reception – and make smarter decisions about their current and future offerings.
Roundtable Peer Discussion
Bring your best ideas or biggest heartburns for this discussion time – devoted to whatever you want to share. We envision this will be a great opportunity to learn from each other and make great connections.
Tuesday Evening – Group Event
Chicken N Pickle – Enjoy food and fun in this relaxed space and bring your tennis shoes if you want to join in the pickleball fun!
Wednesday Morning
Start time: 8:30 am
Welcome & Cooperative Insights
Honorable Judge Duane Benton, US Circuit Judge; Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
CORE Insight
Turning Insight into Action – Keith Kaderly & Julie Elliott, Inside Information
Maybe not all roads, but most roads lead to data, and success in any organization begins with collecting and utilizing it. In this session, we’ll build the case for “data-driven everything.” Learn how leveraging data can help create messages that resonate with your audience and positively impact your bottom line.
Topical Insights
Plan, Communicate, Show Results – Cassie Cunningham, White River Valley
Walk through this case study of how White River Valley is building member engagement through aggressive communication and building support for the marketing and communications programs in the process.
Front Line Focus – Eddie McKnight, McKnight Associates LLC
Many cooperatives focus on external communication, but what about your employees? Have they been trained so they know about your coop business model, teamwork, your brand, the basics of how to engage in conversation with members, and your plans for the future? Find innovative ways to train them to engage and respond to build a stronger team.
Wednesday Afternoon
Got Soul? – Debra Niewald, Expert EOS Implementer® at EOS Worldwide
Your business culture is unique - it may be inspiring and resilient, ill-defined or a great mystery. It may also be struggling under the weight of turmoil, uncertainty, or relevance. Learn to unearth or strengthen your extraordinary, and explore the power of meaningful questions, reflection, stories and inspiring examples that are at the core of every extraordinary culture… including yours.
Rubber Meets the Road: Case Study Roundtable Focusing on Gathering + Using Data
Growing Understanding: A Case Study in Board and Member Relations - Bret Abplanalp, Decatur County REMC
Decatur County REMC CEO Bret Abplanalp relates how communication cultivates a positive organizational culture. This not-to-be-missed session shows how Decatur County planted seeds that reaped enhanced board and member relationships.
Thursday Morning
Start time: 9 am
Strike Gold with your Data – Wren Martin, Inside Information & Ryan Stout, TIAA
This session showcases dashboards and other tools to visualize and monitor your performance. Learn about Inside Information’s Cooperative Attitude & Performance Score (CAPS) and explore ways to compare your
co-op to others. If you have difficulties accessing the data you need in your system, this discussion will unlock new possibilities for solving those challenges.
3 Steps to Younger Member Engagement – Team Inside Info
Younger member engagement is really not as obscure as it might sound. Follow these three steps, and you’ll have a quick start to launching closer ties with this important segment of your membership.
Selling the Idea – Team Inside Info
Hear what cooperative executives say about the need to commit to research and communication and the value it brings to their organizations then use these points to help make your own case.
BIG Insight
Create Your Plan
The last session is devoted to finishing a tangible plan to round out the conference with action steps to adopt and make an impact right away when you get back to work.
End time: Noon
Conference will be held at Courtyard Kansas City at Briarcliff.
Accommodations will be at the adjoining TownePlace Suites.
Designed in 1922 and known for its Spanish architecture, the plaza is Kansas City's finest shopping and dining experience.
BBQ - Might need an extra week in KC just to check out the barbeque classics. Let us know if you need recommendations!
National World War I Museum Kansas City is home to the only American museum dedicated solely to preserving the history and personal experiences of World War I.
The Nelson-Atkins Art Museum Known for extensive collections, The Nelson-Atkins offers an opportunity to explore the finest visual arts and the cultures they represent.
We understand that traveling and meeting together comes with extra challenges these days. By now, we are all used to common sense protocols that can help keep everyone healthy, and we trust our attendees to use good judgment. If you need to cancel for any reason, we are happy to provide a 50% refund.
