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ACUMA ONpoint
ACUMA ONpoint
Reliving 2024’s Highlights, Triumphs, Laughter & Growth and Looking Ahead for an Inspiring 2025
Join us as we explore the challenges and triumphs of 2024 in the latest episode of the ONpoint Podcast. You'll hear about the remarkable achievements of Team ACUMA, the hurdles we've overcome — and how we turned skepticism into thriving participation at our events. Get ready for insights into our educational initiatives and upcoming in-person events in Pensacola, FL; Savannah, GA; Seattle, WA; and Denver, CO.
Amidst the laughter and learning, we celebrate the bright future of our industry, spotlighting the Young Professional Network's leadership. We're also thrilled to welcome Maddie to the marketing team, hearing firsthand her enriching experience at the Denver FOCALpoint Workshop. This segment offers a humorous recount, including a memorable run-in with showgirls, while underscoring our commitment to enhancing member connections. Plus, we take you on a historical adventure, unraveling stories in a legendary hotel setting.
Feel the excitement as we set our sights on 2025, packed with new projects and team expansions. From refining the member experience with cutting-edge platforms to strategizing the perfect exhibit hall, we're all about fostering growth and engagement. As we wrap up 2024, indulge us with our lighthearted tradition of sharing dad jokes — because what's a celebration without a bit of humor? Tune in for a fun-filled, insightful ride through a year of professional growth and community building.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Acuma, its board of directors, its management staff or its members. The podcast discussion presented is conversational in nature and for general information only.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to Acuma's On Point Podcast, a series focused on sharing the stories of people who are making a positive impact in the credit union mortgage industry. I'm your host, peter Benjamin. Today, I am joined by the amazing dream, makers, the miracle workers behind the scenes. Team Acuma. Ladies and gentlemen, this is our annual team year in review episode Team. Everyone welcome, how y'all doing.
Speaker 3:Awesome Peter, how are you?
Speaker 2:I am living the dream.
Speaker 4:Doing amazing over here. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Now, don't be bashful, it's okay. I know you all are excited to be here, just as excited as I am. This is gonna be a great episode. Um, looking forward to this one. But before we jump in, um to you know our annual year in review. We have to take a step back. We have to pull the hawk in. Oh, I wish I could do that hawk noise myself. That was my attempt to do that hawk noise, but we'll add that in. But hawk? What's the latest and greatest happening over at Acuma?
Speaker 4:so I will honestly say before I get to that I have never tried to make that noise so yeah, we're not going to do that ever again, right?
Speaker 4:no, I mean I've done the cacaw, you know, but not whatever you just did. So no, so we have, I mean, I've done the cacaw, you know, but not whatever you just did. So no, so we have a lot going on. Since it's, you know, mid-december or almost mid-December, there's a ton going on over here at Acuma. I mean it's the end of the year and we have one more webinar, just one, just one more webinar. But I cannot believe that the year is already over. But we had so many ups and downs and we're going to get to all that in a bit, but so we can kind of look forward to 2025.
Speaker 4:All of our in-person events for next year have been announced. They're now on our website. Registration is not repeated, is not open yet, but yet they will be opening soon. So be on lookout in the beginning of the year for our summit registration to open up. Uh, we're going to be taking our viewpoint regional summit on the road to pensacola, florida. Uh, that's going to be april 8th and 9th this year and then we're going to go to savannah in may for our first Point Workshop and then we will go to Seattle in June for our second Focal Point Workshop. Then we get to take our little hiatus from on the road events until we head to Denver next year for our 2025 Make your Mark Annual Conference.
Speaker 4:So, like I said, registrations are not open yet. There's more information coming soon. If you want to stay up to date on the latest and greatest, check out our socials and head over to the Acumen website for more information. Additionally, next week we have our last YPN meeting of the year, so if you haven't registered, I always ask this question what are you waiting for? Cameron, liam and Alberto will be joined by a special guest to reflect on the 2024 year and plan for 2025. So if you're a young professional under the age of 40, which is no longer in that category, unfortunately, this reminds me you're welcome. Join them, because this will be an engaging and interactive session and I am certain that Cameron and group will be more than happy to have more people attend.
Speaker 2:So and don't forget that throughout the course of the year, not just do we have our in-person events, we also have podcasts, webinars and our networks to kind of fill your calendars up with acuma events, to kind of fill your calendars up with ACMA events, and I guess we also have a lot more networks coming to our members throughout the course of the year, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, next year we'll have some more networks. More information is coming on those. And then the schedule for the webinars is still being ironed out, so we're still waiting on some of those to come rolling in, but more information will be coming soon on all of those as well. So there's always going to be an educational opportunity for you to take in when you can't be with us in person. Yeah, awesome, great job.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. Thank you All right, guys. Let's kind of turn our eyes back to the interview. All right, I need everyone to come off mute. Let's engage in the conversation, all right?
Speaker 2:So this is a simple conversation where we reflect back on what was 2024. Now, for me, it's it was. It was a year that was filled with ups and downs. You know, if we think about, you know our industry, you know I think it wasn't as bad as 2023 and 2022, you know, for our members, I think they went into 2024, you know a little bit more. You know pessimistic, but I think it ended up being a little bit more of a positive year for our members. Right, I think we saw that at our events. We were a little concerned going in, but it ended up being a little bit more positive. The enthusiasm at our events was still very positive. All of them were still smiles on their faces and they were still very happy and I felt that at all of our events you could hear in their voices they still had a very positive attitude and very positive outlook, which I thought was fantastic. But again, the year was still very tough for them. They were still fighting for their business.
Speaker 2:I think this was one of the first years and first times in a long time that we actually heard credit unions making tough decisions, and so it's heartbreaking to hear that. But again, it's still tough times but we still had a good year, right? Let's not forget that. We still had a very good year, and so I think that's the importance of this podcast is that we always want to reflect back and think about some of the favorite moments and some of the lessons learned, and really those are the first two questions that we want to start with. You know what were some of your favorite moments from this year? And we may have the same favorite moment and we may have some the highlights that we both we all share and we can all discuss those as we go through this conversation. But you know whether you know a favorite moment was something silly or something that was all inspiring. Let's discuss it, right. But if there's a lesson learned, let's try to take that and try to improve from it next year.
Speaker 2:I think one thing that I think that has made us better and continues to make us better is that this team does one thing fantastic we learn from our mistakes better than anyone else. We do that fantastic, and we continue to improve every single year. We continue to grow every single year. I tell everyone this that I am blessed with the hardest workers in the room, and I honestly think that you're not the hardest worker in the room unless you learn from your mistakes. And so that second question, where we the lesson learned, the one thing you could do over, is going to be very key, and I look forward to that part of the conversation. So, first things first. It doesn't matter who goes first in this question. What was your favorite moment or really the highlight for you in 2024? It can be virtually. It can be in 2024? It can be, you know, virtually. It can be in person. It could be something silly, you know it can be an inside joke, doesn't really matter, just feel free, open up about it. Anyone can go jump, jump right in, please.
Speaker 1:I can go.
Speaker 2:Go.
Speaker 1:So for me, I think the Unprofessional Network it's still you know, it's still fairly new, but it's been really really great, especially at annual, to see at our roundtable we have a Young Professional Network roundtable and reception a pretty great group, a really great group of repeat sort of attendees that now know each other and are reaching out to each other to find a mentor or learn about a new program that they want to get involved in, whether it's education or a new job or or anything but it. Just at annual it was really great to see them all connect in person and you know we have these virtual meetings quarterly but to get the group together and see familiar faces and really have that strong network that has formed, that's got to be my favorite moment from 2024 so far.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will say that you know that mentorship that seems to be a pattern that contains, or that a topic seems to be a topic that keeps coming up in your network.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That the younger. I hate using this for all intents and purposes. You know, when you look at our industry, I'm still very much young in our industry, even though justin jokes around that I'm not 40 anymore, I'm still. I'm only 44, mid 40s, it's okay. It's okay, I'm again. I'm only 44, um, but I'm still very young in this industry. You know, I find it interesting that you know, know, the younger generation of professionals in our industry are still, are hungry for that mentor Right. You know, it's not only I guess, I'm not. I'm fascinated by it because in two parts One, I like that there's this hunger for it, but two, why aren't we doing it?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Right. Why are more people just helping them out, or are we? Why aren't we helping them grow? That's really the second part of why I'm really fascinated by it. Yeah, I, that's a good, good favorite moment. That that you're, that you're not not your baby, but, yes, your baby is is really growing something really special.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's just been really cool to see all the connections made and see it in person.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I think it's been. I think it's been awesome to see how you've kind of grown that over time. I mean we always joke about Peter's crazy ideas, and not that the Young Professional Network was a crazy idea, but it was definitely one that was brought to the table and it was like Cameron's going to do it. And then you kind of took that and you've really molded it into your own thing and, like you've kind of reinvigorated that community a little bit and given them a purpose and a place to have a voice and not feel like that they have to be so quiet just stick with the sun I got you.
Speaker 2:There's a whole I got a laundry list of things that are crazy oh no, we know as much as we joke about the crazy those.
Speaker 4:Those are sometimes the fun things we get to do, so all right, who's next?
Speaker 3:I can go um, I have a couple, just a couple of quick ones. So I've been thinking about my favorite moment, slash funny, slash highlight. And I will never forget Peter's face on the stage at annual when the show girls came out. So if you all who are listening to this did not go to annual conference this year, we had two showgirls and I think their legs were about seven feet long and they came out.
Speaker 3:They definitely were, and stood on either side of Peter on the stage and he was holding it together for a while and he was like having everyone head over to the exhibit hall. And then he looked over at one of the showgirls and all he could do was like bend over at the waist and start laughing. And then the entire audience laughed and the showgirls were blowing kisses to the audience, and then that was it.
Speaker 3:But I like literally every time I think about that I just giggle to myself because your reaction, like you held it together so well and then you just were like forget it and you just gave up and like bent over and started laughing.
Speaker 2:So I didn't tell anyone this and this is the first time I'm actually admitting this, but one of them winked at me and that's what did me in and I'm like I was like oh yeah, why did you wink at me? Like now, now I was like I just need, I needed like 10 more seconds, like 10 more seconds to get off stage, and like I would just be, I'd be, I'd be done.
Speaker 3:It was so funny, though it was just literally classic, like we couldn't have planned it better, if we tried.
Speaker 4:So it might have helped if Frank would have handed you the drink.
Speaker 2:Yes, he was. He was a good. He was a good frank sinatra person.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah he was, he was awesome he was so he was spot on so that was cracking me up, but still makes me laugh, even after all these months. Um, and then I'm actually this is what I say this every year but I truly feel humbled when we have a chance to see our members in person. And I know, as Peter was talking about, it was a rough year in 2024, but, with Cameron and I on the event side, we're emailing people and helping with hotel rooms and getting registered and getting sponsors set up and all of that kind of stuff. And then when we can actually physically get to an event and see everybody face-to-face that we've been working with via email and it's just really an honor.
Speaker 3:And, as I've said before too, it's like a reunion to me, credit union style, where we just all get back together again and see each other after so many months. So that just is a continuation for me every year. And then just also real quick, we were able to hire Maddie to the marketing department, so that has been a huge benefit as well to our organization. So those are my highlights. Yeah, woo, so Yay, she's like yeah.
Speaker 5:I'm happy to be here that's good, good, good, good.
Speaker 5:All right, maddie, good, you're next okay, um, actually jumping right off of that, I was going to share my favorite moment as being the denver focal point workshop, because it was the first time I got to meet you all in person. You know, I'd only been here for a couple weeks weeks at that point and so being able to come down and kind of attend the event and really experience the event as an attendee because I sat like in the crowd, so you know, I experienced all the speakers and all the sessions and got to network with our members it was just a really cool experience. And then I think, with that as well, it really kind of reiterated and I got to take in what we do for our members and so it kind of just like reinforced the mission that we have. So it was just a really cool experience to be able to attend that and get a good taste of what we do for our members attend that and and get a good taste of of what we do for our members.
Speaker 4:Awesome, justin, you go um. So one of my favorite moments was that I didn't lose at jeopardy you actually won a few times this year.
Speaker 2:I won a few times this year. Yeah, that was that had to be one of my top moments was not being the person who lost by the way, just so everyone knows, justin tried his best to convince me to do Jeopardy on this episode so that way I wouldn't be the loser of the team how do you know?
Speaker 3:I don't you think we're all gonna not beat you at Jeopardy, justin, come on no.
Speaker 4:I'm pretty sure we all would all beat justin at jeopardy that's not the question, it was just I had a glimmer of hope that it wouldn't be me, a very small glimmer. I even offered to for me to host and peter to participate, um, which that didn't happen either. So, um, but it's okay. But aside from that, one of my favorite moments was actually from one of our members came up to us in Denver when we were there for the workshop. Right, yeah, we were there for the workshop and they came up to us and it was after the first night at the workshop. The next day, I think three or four people came up to plenty of us and told us that they scared the living daylights, found out that they were staying in the haunted room and had to run back downstairs to request for a new room.
Speaker 4:I mean, that was fun.
Speaker 2:I told you my room was haunted.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you kept saying that someone would turn on the air or rub your fingers.
Speaker 2:No, my fan kept not falling over. There you go.
Speaker 4:It's just. No, I don't do ghosts over there. You go. Yeah, it's just now. I don't do ghosts like that.
Speaker 3:That in the Brown Hotel in Louisville is haunted too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but nothing happened. Bernie was the one who had his. Like his door would get knocked on at two thirty in the morning every single night.
Speaker 3:Or Alyssa had something happen to, I think I can't remember, but you're right yeah.
Speaker 2:Like to that. Bernie was like every night at 2 30 like like he would have like a violent knock on his door, I'm like, and the funny thing is he was? He was two doors down for me and I didn't hear anything are we sure that someone wasn't playing a trick on him, though?
Speaker 4:oh, totally someone, it totally someone was so, but no, those are two of my favorite moments. And then, of course, just seeing all of our members come together the roundtables. I think that that that, for me, is everybody talks about, the one thing that they really gravitate towards when it comes to Acumen. For me, it's always been the roundtable concept. When our members come together, they talk, they openly discuss the issues that are affecting their, their members, their credit unions, and they share and I think that you can't put enough emphasis on that. They share openly and honestly with each other to make everybody better. I've heard it from plenty of our members who say that you know, when someone sells a credit union, when someone sells a mortgage from a credit union, they're all winning, it's not just that one credit union. So it's something that I love to see every, at almost every one of our events when we have those roundtable discussions.
Speaker 2:And I'll wrap up this question. You know, I think my favorite moment I think I'll stick with the Denver topic for me, my favorite hotel and I'm going to stay with just the hotel was the Denver Hotel, the Brown. I thought it was beautiful, even though, yes, I think my room was haunted. The fan would get knocked over every single night. I didn't knock it over, it would just fall over every single night. And for background it was how old's that hotel?
Speaker 3:I think it was built in the 1800s. It's the Brown Palace.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Brown Palace, yeah, and so it was a very hot summer, like June week that we were there, and so, because of that, the air conditioning system, like some rooms, either were too cold and some rooms did not get below like 77 degrees or something like that. And I happen to have one of those rooms that did not get below 77 degrees, and so the hotel was kind enough to give me a fan, like one of those like tower fans, one of those ones that, like that, are on like a pole, and they would get knocked over every single night, every single night, in the middle of the night. It would just fall over, and I'm sorry they don't just fall over, you have to push them over.
Speaker 4:See, I have hard enough time sleeping as it is. I would not sleep if that was happening.
Speaker 2:I still slept. I just went back, I got up and I would stand it back up and fall back asleep.
Speaker 1:Was that your favorite hotel?
Speaker 2:That was my favorite hotel by far, by far. No, it was. It was a one. It was beautiful. I wish I would have done high tea because I that would have been fun, because they did.
Speaker 3:They did high tea like every afternoon they did yeah, every afternoon in that center lobby high tea with tiny sandwiches.
Speaker 4:Oh I, I love tiny sandwiches pinky up drinking tiny sandwiches are the best.
Speaker 2:Anyways, that was one of my favorite places that we visited. I love historic, love historic hotels, despite the fact that they're haunted, more than likely haunted but they're absolutely beautiful. I love the architecture Definitely haunted, 100% haunted, but I love the architecture, it's not even a question. But I also like the fact that that. Do you guys see the plaque that says like the one, like the plaque that says like you're exactly one mile up on the stairs? Yeah, oh, that was awesome. Yeah, that was cool. Um, and maddie's room was right next to where the the chinese president, or we had our meeting, right yeah, yeah was it the during, during world war ii or something like that right, or world war one.
Speaker 5:I think something like that sounds familiar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like the Chinese president stayed there or during one of the wars. Again, all this history was. I walked around and read every single one of their plaques that they had and I was like this hotel is amazing. And then we went and had dinner at the Buckhorn Exchange and that was awesome and we had well, we had rattlesnake and crocodile.
Speaker 4:We had rattlesnake queso. That's right, that was good. Oh yeah, that was so good.
Speaker 3:And we had elk and deer and yeah it was good.
Speaker 2:No one wanted to.
Speaker 3:Rocky Mountain oysters.
Speaker 2:No one wanted to get that. Oysters, no one wanted to get that.
Speaker 5:No one wanted to get that no one was brave enough.
Speaker 4:No one was brave enough. They are not oysters. Are you allergic to?
Speaker 3:nuts, that's what the waiter said.
Speaker 4:He said that we were all allergic to nuts. We have a nut allergy.
Speaker 3:We have a nut allergy. No Rocky Mountain oysters for you.
Speaker 2:That's right, but you get a t-shirt though you could have gotten a t-shirt. Justin, I'm good, but you got a T-shirt though you could have gotten a T-shirt.
Speaker 4:Justin, I'm good, but you dip them in ranch, they're not bad. Yeah, I don't know if you know this, but I'm a little picky when it comes to food, and I think out of the five of us, I am the pickiest when it comes to food. So there's not a chance in the world that you could convince me to eat that.
Speaker 2:All right, well so we want, so we. So we stayed at the oldest hotel in Denver and then we went to the oldest steakhouse in Denver. That was just again. Love that, I love the history, I love reading all the plaques. That was one of my favorite trips that we took.
Speaker 2:But I guess, from a work perspective, I'm also going to piggyback off what Justin said about the roundtables, but I'm going to take a different angle. We've talked about it several times. You know the roundtables that we do are absolutely magical. They are. Our members love it. You know they want more of them. They keep requesting more of them at our events.
Speaker 2:But I think we execute them so well that they're now being requested at other events and I think that's an extreme compliment to this team and the efforts that we put into this and the hard work that we put in that we're now being asked to go to other places and put on our round tables. So for me that's a huge highlight, that's a huge compliment to this team. I think what we put around one of our round tables at four different events this year and all of them were fantastic not as good as ours because this team wasn't there, but they were still good. They were still good, but they were one of our round tablesables, so I love that our roundtables are starting to be well known across the credit union industry. People are talking about them. That's huge. Absolutely always learn from my mistakes the one lesson that you learned or the one thing you wish you could do better from this year. Anyone can go, anyone can jump in. We don't have to go in the same order who wants to go?
Speaker 4:I mean, I honestly just like to think that as a team, we piss excellence.
Speaker 2:You know we do we do make this PG 13 or it just became explicit.
Speaker 3:I couldn't help. Do we have to make this PG-13? It just became explicit Talladega Knights.
Speaker 4:Woo, I couldn't help it when you said lessons learned and what did we learn? I was like, oh my god, I want to say it.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 4:I was going to have to look it up anyways to figure out if it was explicit when we were talking about oysters.
Speaker 2:Can we get like the, that explicit, like sticker, that goes on like the old, like rap albums and put it on like we're not doing that can we please, please, please please, I'll look into it. Yes, that'd be so awesome we'll look into it. I'll spend a lot of time on it, I promise thank you, maddie, since you're now the new editor on it.
Speaker 3:I can pipe in if you guys want no, it's Justin's turn.
Speaker 2:He's not in the hot seat.
Speaker 4:Alright, you started it you started it with the excellence comment that was all.
Speaker 2:I had, so that's his new lesson. Learned that he's going gonna keep his mouth shut too perfect.
Speaker 4:No, um no, I think for lessons learned, um kind of goes to I get or wish you could do better or wish you could do better or wish that we could do better.
Speaker 4:Yes, I don't, you know, that's a, that's a. That's a tough one, I'm not gonna lie. Uh, I I do really think that, as a team, we perform at a very high level, and I think that there's a lot of moving pieces all of the time. I think that the things that I would like to see us do better it really comes to some of the things that I'm responsible for, which is just like the websites, the event websites. Cvent it's the company that we use for our event websites, and learning more about that would be something that I would say is a lesson that I can learn, without a doubt, because that platform is a little bit tricky and I think that there's a lot more bells and whistles that we're not using that our members would benefit from, and I think the more that we can continue to grow or I can continue to grow professionally and the platforms that I'm not as familiar with, we'll just make the experience for our members and that much more greater. Yeah, we do, I'll go next.
Speaker 2:You know, for me yeah, I say this a lot yes, education is first, experience is number two. You know, last year, in 2023,. Since we're already explicit, I'm going to say this Okay, I use the S word yes, I can.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you can say that I don't care Really. Yeah, you can say shit, I don't care. Okay, it's already explicit. We went explicit with piss. Well, I mean, we've never used the S word yeah, we have. When there was an episode, it was See. Why are you going to ask me names? I mean it's definitely. I mean Logan used the F word. Yeah, he definitely did, but oh, it was Jen, jen Ponatowski her motto was get shit done. That's right. Okay, good, it happened like five times in a row, so all right good, all right.
Speaker 2:So again, it's about experience. So I'll go back to that education first. Experience number two 2023. Again, this is not a knock on anyone, and I've said this before, when, after the opening ceremony and when we left the opening ceremony and walked to the general session. When I walked into the general session, the first thing I said was shit. Yeah, like that was the first thing I said when I walked into that general session.
Speaker 3:Do you mean the exhibit hall?
Speaker 2:Peter, sorry, the exhibit hall, yes, like the energy in there was rocking Right.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:This year it just wasn't, the energy Just wasn't like. Again, it's not a lesson learned. So one thing I wish we could have done better like, like, again, it's not a lesson learned. So one thing I wish we could have done better like how can we like that opening ceremony, that opening night, like that's we're supposed to get the party started, that's when we're supposed to, like, really get things hyped up like we're supposed to kick the part. You know, we're supposed to make everything, get our members excited for the week. And I don't know how we do that because, yes, our members voice concerns that they couldn't hear each other, you know, have the conversation, you know, because the band was too loud. So I don't know how we do that. Right with the music, but the energy just wasn't there this year. And again, it's a, it's a lesson. A lesson I don't know I don't have the answer for, but I just didn't walk in there and be like it wouldn't trust me.
Speaker 2:The exhibit hall was beautiful, you, it was set up, fantastic, right, but again, I just walked in there, I was like one. It just wasn't there for me it was. Again, I wish we could just done that better. That's all. That was the one thing, and again, it's not that big of a deal and no one complained about it. It's just me Again, because last year, last year, I was like shit yeah you were just right so yeah, no, I mean it.
Speaker 3:Definitely you were there. Yes, you were exactly like that for 2023.
Speaker 2:So that's it. That's it. That's the one thing, and if that's the worst thing, I wish we could have done better. It's not that bad.
Speaker 3:For sure.
Speaker 3:But that's interesting that you said that, because I have that written on my notes, so I'm going to piggyback off of what you said.
Speaker 3:It isn't what you said when you walked into the hall, but for me as an event planner, I'm always trying to figure out like the better experience we can give not only the members who are attending, but also the exhibitors that are in the kiosk and our sponsors.
Speaker 3:And I was thinking about all of this and in 2023, to me, the exhibit hall was too small.
Speaker 3:We were all crammed in there, which all of the kiosk vendors loved, because the credit union attendees were up close and personal to them all, and then this year the exhibit hall was too big, so in my professional opinion. So I think the credit unions probably liked that a little bit more because they had more space to move around, but I don't think the kiosk sponsors were loving that as much, because everyone was more spaced out. So it is definitely that fine line of how do you make the hall the right size for the number of kiosks we have, make it more interactive, make it more exciting when you walk in that first night on Sunday night, and how do we continue that momentum. So that's something that we're already working on for 2025, and we'll have some fun surprises inside the hall this year in Denver. But that's definitely my lesson learned and my things that I'm thinking about from 2024 is just making that exhibit hall experience better than it was this year in Vegas.
Speaker 2:If I could chime in on that. Sure, certainly, you know, kind of going back to the Bellagio and room size, you just never know Like we can look at the maps and the blueprints to where you know, to where our eyes get glossed over, right. We just don't know till we get there and it's all set up, until what it's actually going to look like.
Speaker 3:That's the tough part, you know on, when we look at these, you know, in the drawings we could say, hey, this looks fine, right, but when we get there, because that Bellagio room was massive, it was massive, yeah, and you also don't really know until you get everything set up, like you said, and you get all the tables in there for people to use for meals, and it still felt massive.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean, we can rework it as many times as we want, and you just never know until you're there in person. Agreed, so we can rework it as many times as we want, and you just never know until you're there in person. So we can keep trying. We just keep playing with the configuration. That's all we can do. Try on there.
Speaker 5:I can go next. No, I'm just sorry.
Speaker 2:Rock paper, scissors, let's do it.
Speaker 5:So I think my lesson learned for this year just was to be adaptable. I think when you start any new job there's new learning opportunities and just adapting to the new work environment. You know new people you're working with, you learn different communication styles and it's really I think it's important to continue to practice your adaptability to make sure that you're communicating well with others, just to really enhance your efficiency is working as a team. So I'd say that was kind of my. My biggest piece just is like a professional side of continuing to practice that adaptability piece.
Speaker 2:That's a good one. It's tough I mean, it's never easy, you know being tossed into the fire of a new position, especially one like this. Yeah, you were thrown to the wolves a little bit.
Speaker 5:I think it was great. You know, justin's been awesome in terms of helping me kind of get up to speed and I feel like I'm up to speed now and I think together we're a pretty good team with working on getting all of our marketing and communication material out, and so I appreciate kind of the leadership that he's taken the marketing department. So, yeah, I think it's. I think it's been great. They're just learning to work with not only Justin but everybody on the team and all the little nuances that people have to I don't know make sure that you're really just focusing on pushing the ship forward.
Speaker 4:Thank you.
Speaker 5:You're welcome.
Speaker 4:I didn't pay her to say it, I promise.
Speaker 1:Alrighty. So for me, a couple of things. One, and I know you guys will all agree with this I need to get better at posting looms.
Speaker 4:Don't we all, kim, don't we all? I haven't missed one on schedule. I'm just saying Granted, it's my schedule.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, but I need to get more comfortable doing it and keep with the schedule and post. Maybe more frequently than that, who knows. So that's one thing Also, just you talked about systems a little bit, Justin, but for me, we got a new CRM and just learning how to utilize that a bit better. You know there's so many features that it has that we could probably utilize that. We're not just like sort of what you said with Cvent, but really taking advantage of that and focusing on that more next year is a focus. And then this is something that we actually put into place this year and I'm really glad we did is the Cvent on arrival registration. Krista, I'm sure you agree. I don't think we're going back to not having that digital kiosk sign in. We are not going back.
Speaker 1:It was a game changer, so that's something I guess that's more of a lesson learned from 2023 that we put into place in 24, but definitely going to continue to do that.
Speaker 3:It's a great efficient process for our members when they check in too. It's just really simple and smooth, totally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, makes a big difference.
Speaker 2:Good, good, good Good, all right. Well, thank you all for sharing that All right. Last question is what are you looking for forward to in 2025?
Speaker 1:I can go. Go, kim. I think, justin, you might have already touched on this too, but we have multiple networks that are coming soon in 2025. So these have been requested by members and just excited to see these launched. I mentioned the impact that YPN has had on me and others in the Acuma community, so just excited to see what these other networks can do and bring those respective groups together. So that's what I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 4:Good Krista.
Speaker 3:So for me, just looking forward to offering some new destinations for our members I think Acuma might've been to Seattle, but that would have been several years ago, like maybe decades ago, and Savannah is a new location for us. So I'm excited to take us our members to some different cities next year and I'm also excited to offer them the convention center experience for one of our meetings in Denver, so just so they can be part of that and experience, you know, doing a meeting inside the convention center and having a chance to walk around outside and go over to your hotel and things like that. So I'm excited for those, those new destinations.
Speaker 2:Maddie.
Speaker 5:So I feel like you're going to notice a theme in all my answers with being a new employee and this is no different, I think. For myself, I'm looking forward to kind of seeing everything come together. You know, when I started in May, we were already like halfway through the planning and execution of all of the events for the year, and now that we've already started planning for 2025, I've kind of been able to get an idea of the whole process and how much organization goes into the events, and so I'm excited to kind of be here through a full cycle, to kind of really experience everything from the very beginning of when you start planning to the end and kind of that like post-mortem meeting that happens after events. So I'm looking forward to the full cycle.
Speaker 4:Okay, I'm going to piggyback a little bit off of Cameron.
Speaker 4:So something I'm really excited about is our marketing network, which has been something that has been talked about a few times.
Speaker 4:Towards the end of this year and in January, we'll be having our inaugural meeting, and so I'm really excited that for our marketing network that's going to kick off. And then the other so I'm really excited that for our marketing network that's going to kick off. And then the other thing I'm excited about, which I'm going to be super vague with and I'm sorry but I have to is I've been working on a project for the majority of this year and I am super excited that it will be coming in January to all of our members and to pretty much the entire world to see an unveiling, and I cannot wait to showcase the hard work that everybody on this team has put into making this initiative that we started possible. But I know it's vague. The team knows what I'm talking about. I'm sure that if you look online, you'll be able to figure it out soon enough, but it is something that I am super excited about and I'm proud that we as a team have been able to accomplish.
Speaker 2:Good For me. I actually have several things I'm looking forward to and I'll just quickly hit them One Seattle, the Pacific Northwest. There's just something about it. It's like my happy place. I've been wanting to go to pacific northwest since we started krista knows that like I've been begging to go to the pacific northwest, um, so I'm happy that we're going there. Portland actually was a workshop when I first started. That was just like luck of the draw. That was already pre-scheduled when I started. So I'm happy that we're going back. But I love the Pacific Northwest. Seattle's one of my favorite places. Looking forward to there Forget the workshop, just Seattle.
Speaker 2:In general, we're looking forward to seeing Acumet Services grow. We're going to keep pushing hard on that, got some crazy ideas on that and some offerings that we're going to bring to our team. I think we have some awesome things that we're going to do with Acuma services. We're going to grow our team next year, so looking forward to that. Again, a lot of great things happening next year. So 2025 is going to be another fantastic year for Acuma. So it's going to be awesome.
Speaker 2:Another great year for this team and another great year for this association. So looking forward to it. So that's what I have for next year. So great conversation, guys. Thank you very much for contributing it. But it's now time to transition to the second part of our conversation, where, you know, in the second part, we sometimes, you know, we play Jeopardy, sometimes we do trivia. But here we are in our year in review. This is where we're going to do dad jokes, as we always do in our team podcast. Prior to the podcast, you were all asked to bring two dad jokes, so did everyone come prepared?
Speaker 3:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Yes, all right, prepared. Yes, yes, all right, good, good, all right. So we'll just go around the horn and we'll all just deliver our two dad jokes and we'll wrap up after that. So we'll let Maddie go first as the new person, maddie go.
Speaker 5:Okay, what's brown and sticky A stick. Sorry, what's brown and sticky A stick.
Speaker 4:I love that one.
Speaker 2:Did I already do that one, and Justin gave me this like don't make this explicit.
Speaker 4:Yeah, probably, but it's like one of my kind of jokes that Peter just gets annoyed of my stick. You can't lie.
Speaker 5:One more what do you call a fish wearing a bow tie?
Speaker 4:That's a good one.
Speaker 5:So fish to catered.
Speaker 2:I hate that. I knew that and I blanked OK. I hate that. I knew that and I blanked Okay. All right, cam go.
Speaker 1:Okay, which days are the strongest?
Speaker 4:Anyone know? Oh yeah, I do, I do what? Well, I mean, I know which ones aren't.
Speaker 1:Saturday and Sunday. The rest are weekdays.
Speaker 4:I knew it had something to do with weekdays.
Speaker 1:I can't go, you guys want to hear the joke about pizza? Yes, never mind, it's too cheesy, that's silly, that's good.
Speaker 3:That's good.
Speaker 5:That's good All right Krista.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So I did a Christmas dad joke theme how much does Santa pay for parking?
Speaker 2:How much?
Speaker 3:Nothing. It's on the house Parks. A sleigh on the house. Do you get it? That one's funny.
Speaker 5:That was good. Why are Christmas trees bad at sewing? Why they keep dropping their needles?
Speaker 2:on the house. Do you get it? That one's?
Speaker 3:funny, that was good. Why are Christmas trees bad at sewing? Why they keep dropping their needles?
Speaker 5:I knew it was going to be something about needles, but I couldn't put it together. That's funny.
Speaker 2:That's good. Okay, all right, I'm done. All right, justin.
Speaker 4:Okay, so I have so many good ones, so there's something I decided to do. I started to invest in stocks. My stock no beef, chicken and vegetable.
Speaker 3:And one day I'm pretty sure I'm going to be a billionaire. There you go. I haven't heard that before, that's funny.
Speaker 4:Okay, you can be mad at it. It was great. You know it was. I'm laughing.
Speaker 2:I'm laughing.
Speaker 4:I'm laughing, alright so my next one would be why can't you trust Adams? They just make everything up, that's funny they make up everything. I got the punchline wrong, it's okay. They just make everything up. They make up everything. They make up everything. I got the punchline wrong, it's okay.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, it was still good. Do you want to do one more?
Speaker 4:a polar bear walks into a bar and says to the bartender I'll take a rum and coke. The bartender says what's with the paws? The polar bear says I was born with a good one there you go.
Speaker 2:All right, good, all right, I'll wrap up. My wife asked me to clear the kitchen table. I had to get a running start, but I made it. That's a good one, thanks. Uh, I love fun facts. Um, did you know it's illegal to laugh out loud in public in Hawaii? You have to keep it to aloha.
Speaker 3:That's a good one. That's a good one.
Speaker 2:That's good. Thanks, well, guys. That wraps up dad jokes for this episode of the year in review. Thank you very much for participating and, of course, great conversation in this episode, as always. I appreciate everything that you do for this association, and our members Couldn't have done all that we do without you. So again, well done, guys. Great year Truly do appreciate it.
Speaker 3:And right back to you too, peter, thank you so much for all you do for us and our association as well.
Speaker 2:Of course, of course, my pleasure. Well, we'll close out, guys, and to all of you, we know your time is valuable. Thank you for tuning in to the latest episode of ACMA's On Point podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, be well, my friends.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time at the ACMA On Point podcast. If not already, be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating For more great episodes and information. Be sure to visit us online at acumaorg and to get the latest updates, head over to our LinkedIn page.
