Page 12 - Contact Magazine: 2nd Quarter, 2016

This How can an event that’s been taking place for decades
be so exciting and keep attendees coming back year after
year? One word: Reinvention.

Year’s Just as Michigan’s credit unions have reinvented them-
selves time and again over the years in order to better
serve each generation of members, so too does the

Annual Convention and Exposition (AC&E) from

Model the Michigan Credit Union League (MCUL) and
CU Solutions Group (CUSG).

This year will mark 30 years since Greg Gurka

Why AC&E Is began attending AC&E, and the East Traverse
Catholic FCU CEO pointed out that he’s been

So Much More a regular since the days when the event was
still known as the MCUL Annual Meeting

Than Just and Exhibition.

a Meeting Gurka said that even after so many years,
AC&E still serves a purpose for him—

particularly the speakers.

“The speakers are always good and the
content is always up-to-date and worth-
while,” he said.

Gurka, like many others interviewed for this story, said that being a part of
such a large gathering of credit union professionals helps to inspire him.

“I have used connections [from AC&E] all the way back to 1985 to solve
problems and further my career,” he said. “When you go there, you
have a cross-cut of people new to the industry and old dogs that have
been there forever and go back to the beginnings of time with the credit
union movement. There’s a vast wealth of knowledge those people have
been able to share with me over dinner or a drink. The knowledge you
can pull from those people and those different areas fills such a gap in
what we need.”

He always finds himself recharged and reinvigorated about the
credit union movement after coming back to work from the annual
event—and he’s hoping some of that enthusiasm is contagious,

because he’s bringing some of his staff with him this year.

“If you’re just staying in the office, you get tunnel vision,” he said.
“You go to all the vendors at AC&E and you speak to people and

you hear things and you just get enthused.”

12 Second Quarter 2016 I Contact