General Session: Family Networks: The Most Overlooked Marketing Engine in Banking

Dean DeCarlo
Managing Partner, Growth & Strategy

Dean DeCarlo is a digital marketing strategist, A passionate educator and speaker, he delivers tactical, actionable insights on analytics, digital ad strategies, and best practices for increasing website conversions. He has spoken at credit union and financial marketing events, sharing data-driven strategies that help marketers attract new members, deepen relationships, and drive long-term growth in an evolving digital landscape.

General Session: Mastering Marketing ROI: How to Prove Value and Drive Bank Growth

Kelly Doherty
Lowell Five Bank

Kelly Doherty is currently Senior Vice President of Marketing at Lowell Five Bank where her primary focus is leading an organization-wide rebrand and reinvention of marketing as a strategic revenue function. The rebrand has been instrumental in the Bank’s recent growth.

Prior Kelly led marketing and creative for Ace Hardware’s innovation and e-commerce unit, The Grommet. She was also head of marketing and creative for the University of New Hampshire and oversaw the marketing and communications for Southern New Hampshire University during their explosive growth and ascent to the largest provider of online education.

Kelly spent the first half of her career on the agency side at top-tier firms such as Young & Rubicam and Landor, advising senior executives on advertising and direct marketing.

General Session: A Brand Story from the Inside Out. The 3 A’s: Awareness, Alignment, and Activation

Tom Hickey
HMC Advertising

Tom is a well-versed communications pro with experience working on some of the largest and most respected brands in the world, including Audi, NASDAQ, Sony, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and the Quaker Oats Company. He marries his large-brand experience with plenty of time helping smaller companies and brands find their voice in an increasingly complex and cluttered world.

Tom has spent his career determining the most appropriate opportunities for brands to connect with their best customers or prospects, relying on a sharp sense of what motivates (or discourages) someone from forging a deeper relationship with a brand. He is a creative thinker with an extensive history of finding unique, innovative and effective solutions to marketing challenges based on relevant, supportable and distinctive insights.

When asked what differentiates his approach to comms planning, Tom said: “We don’t pick up a pencil to write a plan until we have clear alignment on a campaign’s core objective. It still amazes me that there are media planners crafting recommendations without knowing exactly what determines success.”

Interactive Workshop with HMC Advertising

Tom Holmes
HMC Advertising

Bio Coming Soon!

Interactive Workshop with HMC Advertising

General Session: Family Networks: The Most Overlooked Marketing Engine in Banking

Mike Panagako
Ten Feet Tall

Mike is a 25-year veteran working in the power of brand. His expertise covers a wide variety of professional services industries with primary focuses on banking, finance, real estate, destinations and hospitality.

He is both an 'agency person' and a 'client-sider', having split his time between the agency world and the client-side, working in commercial finance, real estate construction and development.

As the Managing Partner/Growth & Strategy for Ten Feet Tall, Mike sees ways to utilize the power of your brand to move the needle in both expected and unexpected ways. Working across many industries, Mike has made it a mission to bring best practices from beyond the world of banking to his bank partners.

Beyond my client partnerships, I oversee the agency’s growth and development.

Outside of Ten Feet TalI am a team leader and fund-raiser for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and a co-founding member of B/GREG, the Boston Gay Real Estate Group.

General Session: Using Brand to Blur the Lines of the Traditional Marketing Funnel

Jim Perry
Market Insights, Inc.

Jim Perry is the Senior Strategist at Market Insights, where he helps financial institutions across the country make smarter decisions and unlock new paths to growth through custom research and data-driven strategy.

A trusted advisor to banks and credit unions coast to coast, Jim brings clarity to complex challenges—and a fresh perspective to conversations about growth, innovation, and relevance in a rapidly changing landscape.

Named one of the "Top 100 Fintech Influencers" by Onalytica, Jim is a regular on the speaker circuit at industry events of all sizes, from local associations to global conferences. He’s also a familiar voice on top podcasts like Breaking Banks, Banking Transformed, One Vision, and the American Banker Podcast. Jim co-founded the Fintech Book Club and serves on the board of the National Alliance for Financial Literacy and Inclusion, championing broader access and opportunity in financial services.

Thousands of community bankers and credit union leaders follow his daily posts and weekly emails for fresh takes on the latest in fintech, AI, marketing, M&A, and more. Deluxe named him one of the 20 leaders in modern banking every community banker should follow.

Whether he’s consulting, training, or speaking, Jim is known for making make complex concepts easy to understand and simple to apply.

Keynote

Tom Stirling
Stirling Brandworks

Tom Stirling is a seasoned brand strategist helping banks, credit unions, and growth-focused organizations across the country build insight-driven marketing that earns attention and trust. He is the host of two podcasts–No Assigned Seats & Brand2Brand–exploring brand strategy leadership, and growth inside complex organizations.

As CEO of Stirling Brandworks, Tom leads a strategy-first team partnering with regulated and mission-driven brands to move beyond category clichés and build work rooted in real customer behavior, cultural context, and business reality. His approach balances bold creative thinking with operational discipline — ensuring marketing doesn’t just look good, but performs.

General Session: Reaching Gen Z (and Looking Ahead to Gen Alpha): Channels, Behaviors, and Practical Playbooks for Engaging the Next Generation

Jordyn Swanson
Social Assurance

Jordyn Swanson heads up business development at Social Assurance, where she works with community banks and financial brands nationwide. Jordyn is particularly adept at helping financial brands navigate their unique challenges when it comes to marketing, compliance, and digital transformation. She takes a practical approach, helping community banks lean into their strengths as values-driven, community organizations with deep ties to their communities. A skilled marketer in her own right, Jordyn’s channel of choice is social–where she’s guilty of falling down the occasional TikTok rabbit hole and posting photos of her adorable small humans, Ryker and Zoey. Jordyn is based in Lincoln, Nebraska, where she enjoys lake days with the family and watching Nebraska volleyball.

Power Session: Strategic Social Content for Financial Marketers: Driving Trust, Engagement & Growth

Ryan Young
BankBound

As Director of Business Development, my focus is on understanding your goals and matching them with the right strategies to drive long-term, measurable success. With more than 12 years of experience in digital marketing, I’m passionate about building strong relationships and delivering solutions that make a real impact.

Power Session: The AI Impact on SEO and Search Behavior