Credit union keynote speaker
Big banks outspend you. Members choose you because you are part of their community.
Real rooms. Real people. Real change.
Everyone now has the same AI, the same data and the same tools.
The only difference left is your people.
The big banks have the ad budgets, the fintechs have the slick apps, and both are courting your members’ direct deposits.
Your edge was never the rate. It is the people who know members by name.
A member opens a high-yield account with a fintech on their phone and stops coming into the branch. The relationship fades quietly, until the auto loan or the mortgage goes somewhere else.
Younger members don’t know what “member-owned” means or why it should matter to them. If your people cannot show it, cooperative values start to sound like a slogan.
Tellers became universal associates, then covered the call center, then the chat window. When people are stretched that thin, the “people helping people” feeling is the first thing to go.
Member-focused organizations that trusted me, among others
From the boardroom to the branch lobby, your team is quietly asking one of them.
Will a machine do my job?
The better the machines get, the more your people will set you apart.
Why it lands with credit union audiences: Digital banking, chatbots and automated lending decisions are arriving at every credit union, large or small. This shows your staff and volunteers what technology will never replace: sitting with a member after a job loss, a divorce or a first home purchase.
Why does someone else get chosen?
What your people know rarely gets them chosen. What others see in them does.
Why it lands with credit union audiences: members choose where to bank based on whom they trust, not on a quarter point. This shows your people the five dimensions that make a member pick the credit union over the bank down the street, and then recommend it to their kids.
I work closely with your conference team to understand your leaders and frontline staff, so the keynote speaks your language: field of membership, share drafts, member service reps, the cooperative principles. Your people hear their own branch on stage.
I can open the state league annual meeting, kick off an all-staff training day or speak to board and volunteers at their retreat, in person or virtual. When the member experience summit needs a moment people retell back at the branch, I bring the 3D immersive version.
Credit union rooms mix CEOs, board directors, supervisory committee volunteers and frontline staff. I build the keynote so each of them leaves knowing what they personally do to keep members choosing you.
I spent nearly two decades booking speakers myself, so I know how stretched a league or credit union events team can be. You get materials early, a calm rehearsal and a speaker who adapts when the agenda shifts, and my team handles the rest with you or your bureau.
Credit union audiences are wonderfully mixed, from volunteer directors to the newest teller.
No slides, no pre-recorded hologram beamed in from somewhere else.
I stay live in the room while your leaders, sponsors and theme step into the story.
How clients describe it, in their own words.
How clients make it their own.
You don’t have customers, you have owners. I help your people treat every one of them that way.
I’m Sylvie di Giusto. My first career lasted nearly twenty years inside corporations, ending as head of the management academy of Europe’s largest retail and tourism group, where I booked speakers myself, so I know the weight of handing someone your stage. Today I’m a CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame keynote speaker, and member-focused organizations hold a special place for me. Among others, Thrivent, The Co-operators or TIAA trusted me with their people, and the foreword of my Financial Services edition comes from a credit union leader, Sarah Leslie. Credit union people already believe in people helping people. My job is to show them why that belief is now their sharpest competitive edge.
In their words, not ours.
It couldn’t have gone better! With her high energy style and sense of humor, she quickly had everyone’s attention. She showed us how we assess, and judge people based on just a few seconds of visual contact. But it went even deeper into other concepts around our motivations, our self-perception and how it impacts those crucial first seconds when meeting someone new. The interactive exercise engaged everyone as part of the program, not simply as the listening audience. She was a gem and I highly recommend Sylvie and her program in today’s return to work business environment.
This woman will leave you hanging on to every word. I walked away inspired to be the best version of myself. Watch out Wonder Woman; there is a new superhero in town who goes by Sylvie.
Having selected speakers for over 30 years, the challenge is to be relevant to your audience, be personable, easy to work with, flexible and genuine! Sylvie di Giusto is all of those! She’s among my top picks.
In 27 years of planning conferences and hearing thousands of speakers, it’s truly rare to be enlightened and moved by one. I heard Sylvie di Giusto speak recently and she blew me away.
Thrivent · 3D immersive keynote
The Power of Choice is built on my book The Image of Leadership, and its Financial Services edition opens with a foreword by Sarah Leslie of 1st United Credit Union. She knows firsthand that members judge their credit union by the people they meet.
The book shows frontline staff, managers and executives how appearance, behavior, communication, digital presence and environment decide whether members trust you with their next loan. Many organizations give every attendee a copy, so the message reaches the branches long after the event.
Chatbots, mobile deposits and automated loan decisions are reaching credit unions of every size. Forever Human makes the case for what a member still needs a person for, especially when life goes sideways.
Frontline staff, managers and board volunteers learn how to use technology without giving up the relationship that sets a credit union apart from a megabank. Some credit unions pair it with the Financial Services edition, so leaders and staff get both sides of the member relationship.
Sylvie di Giusto is a CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame keynote speaker whose message fits the credit union movement: people choose the people they trust. Member-focused organizations such as Thrivent or The Co-operators trusted her, among others, and her Financial Services edition carries a foreword by Sarah Leslie of 1st United Credit Union. She can appear live or as the world’s first 3D immersive keynote.
Credit unions win on trust and community, not on ad budgets or app features, and Sylvie’s keynotes show staff how to make that visible every day. The Power of Choice focuses on the first impressions and member moments that build loyalty, and Forever Human on staying human as digital banking grows.
The Power of Choice fits conferences focused on member experience, growth and frontline service. Forever Human fits leadership and board audiences thinking about AI, digital transformation and the future role of the branch. If your agenda covers both, Sylvie will help you weigh them.
Yes. Sylvie customizes the keynote for mixed credit union audiences, so directors, supervisory committee members and frontline staff each see their own part in member trust. It works especially well at annual meetings where all of them share one room.
Yes. Sylvie shows staff how to make cooperative values visible in everyday behavior, from the teller line to the app, instead of explaining them in a brochure. Younger members decide on experience and digital presence, two of the five dimensions in The Power of Choice.
Yes. Both keynotes are available in person, hybrid or virtual, which helps credit unions with branches across a wide field of membership include everyone.
As soon as your dates are set. The most popular conference dates go first, and a customized 3D immersive keynote needs extra preparation time. Check availability to hold your date.
I also serve audiences in financial services, insurance and association. See every audience I speak to.
Dates, formats, the 3D experience and logistics for your event.
