Continue reading »]]> It is now t-minus 2 hours for attendee registration to begin at the 2011 symeast conference. Our vendors are already inside the hall and setting up their tables, the agendas are stuffed, crabs are blown up, and name badges are finished. We are really excited to begin this year and we know all of our attendees and vendors are too! Can’t wait to see you all there! If you have any questions or concerns please be sure to see a committee member at the registration booth or flag us down (we all have a committee member ribbon on our badges).

Continue reading »]]> So being a techy, I have to ask who will be bringing their tablets to SymEast this year? I know I will be bringing my iPad 2 to the conference and will be tweeting and blogging throughout the entire event. I hope to see a lot of others there with similar devices this year but more importantly I want to know how you are going to be using them while at the conference. Will you be tweeting? Blogging? Recording Video? Let us know what you will be up to so we can better provide the resources you need!

Continue reading »]]> The SymEast Committee officially kicks off our planning for the 2011 conference today which will be held in Baltimore, MD! We moved the date back a little this year since we were running into scheduling problems with attendees last year. This will also help us hopefully get some warmer weather while we are at the venue.

Speaking of the venue, if you haven’t been to the inner harbor of Baltimore and SymEast 2011 will be your first time visiting you are in for a real treat. There are lots of things to see and do including a large shopping area and the Baltimore Aquarium.

We can’t wait to see you all there, please check back soon for more updates and information about the conference!

Continue reading »]]> We wanted to say welcome! and Thank you to all of our vendors and SymEast attendees vendors at the same time. It seemed like this year went by so fast, seemingly faster than last year.

So here are some really awesome things:

1. We had more attendees that in 2009! that is awesome! Without your participation we would not be able to hold these conferences!

2. Our vendor hall was completely sold out! this was excellent! We need our vendors to help support our group as well!

3. The venue! I think everyone loved the Beau Rivage and the facilities we had this year. We’re sorry about the smoke for those non-smokers out there. I know that the volume of smoke was more than we expected and it caused some issues for some folks.

Now we are on to the next conference, this one coming to the Baltimore area! The first one on the true East Coast in the past few years. We are looking to do a few other small things next year that will help some of the new comers to the conference get adjusted to the Symitar and SymEast community. Specifically we want to get the Symitar prospects together at the beginning of the conference and get to know them. We all love Symitar and the flexibility it gives us to do what is needed for our organizations and we want our prospects to understand how we can help them in adopting the system.

At the end of the day, we are all about process improvement and bringing this to you our attendees and vendors! On behalf of the 2010 SymEast committee, thank you for being part of the 2010 conference and we all look forward to seeing you in 2011!

Continue reading »]]> I don’t know how the rest of our SymEast regulars and fellow users are feeling about 2010, but I can tell you the SymEast Committee are all looking forward to the year ahead and showing those around us why credit unions continue to be the consumer’s best choice for servicing their financial needs. Because the SymEast Committee wants to make sure you are all prepared to face the coming year and be ready to take all of the challenges you may face head on, we have an all-star lineup for the key note at the conference.

Kathy Hooker and Ted Bilke will be making the opening remarks for the conference this year and I think we all are looking to forward to hearing from them. There are so many exciting developments from Symitar and other Credit Unions that we honestly have a hard time fitting them all into our short few days in Biloxi. Of course we are always looking for folks to present on what they have done over the past year to our other credit unions so please be sure to contact us if you have an idea.

I know I can’t wait to see all of you there and see what I can bring back to my new credit union home in New York. The committee share the same enthusiasm and we will see you in February!

Continue reading »]]> Guess what campers! It’s almost SymEast time again! That’s right, SymEast 2010 is right around the corner in February which is not all that far away. This year we are going to be in Biloxi, MS at the Beau Rivage! As an added bonus, there will be a Mardi Gras parade that attendees will be able to attend on the 16th as well! The details are below, mark your calendars now for another fun filled year of SymEast action!

Dates: February 16 – 18, 2010

Hotel: The Beau Rivage

Location: Biloxi, MS

Special Events: Mardi Gras Parade on February 16th! Check out the parade website at http://www.gulfcoastcarnivalassociation.com/parades.html

Continue reading »]]> So here it is, the first post from the conference venue and dispite a bit of an issue when I first arrived, everything is resolved now. I have a nice room, Internet connectivity, a LCD TV… All the stuff a geek needs.

As for the venue, I am pretty impressed so far and I have wandered around a bit to see the place. The committee and I will be having dinner tonight at one of the restaurants in the convention center this evening to see how that goes. If you are in town around 7 PM come find us and say hi. We are looking forward to seeing everyone today and tomorrow.