AOBA (ay-oh-bah): shorthand for the financial industry’s premier M&A and growth event since 1995. 

Its hard for me to believe, but in less than three months, more than 700 leaders from the financial community will gather at the Arizona Biltmore for Bank Director’s annual Acquire or Be Acquired conference.  Already, we are tracking more than 75 attendees ahead of last year’s record turnout.  The agenda is set, speakers have been confirmed, and our conference team has already reached out to set up speaker calls.  In addition to M&A, this event provides bank officers and directors with best practices and invaluable first-hand information on strategy, capital formation, deposit growth, dealing with criticized assets and alternatives for liquidity.  Why the shameless plug for this event? How else to "justify" posting this new promotional video?

With a wink and a nod towards last week, let me explain my over-eager, overly-ambitious plans to write daily from our Acquire or Be Acquired (#AOBA11) conference.  With well over 700 in attendance, I found myself dancing from one interesting conversation to the next.  The sun came up, the sun went down, and I talked, talked, talked.  Tweets?  You bet.  Posts?  Not so much.  A classic case of over-promising and under-delivering.  Sorry.

So all I can do is set better expectations for my blogging self before flying out to our next conference (our annual Chairman/CEO Peer Exchange conference in Chicago in April).  Now, I do like checking in from events like these, as I typically come away fired up with ideas for our business, our industry and my friends + colleagues.  And this latest one, focused on mergers & acquisitions along with growth strategies, certainly had me thinking in a number of new ways.

So I set aside some time this morning to write.  Admittedly, I'm rolling up to NYC in one of Accela's quiet cars, so distractions are far less frequent than when I'm home in D.C.  But on the heels of a great three days of presentations and networking, a few thoughts and observations:

1. Content remains king, just the shape of things has morphed.  

While some describe Bank Director as "just a magazine," the truth is we're a true information resource.  We blend on-line content, in-person events with in-print research, white papers and our quarterly magazine.  Social media, videos, web casts, webinars... yup, we're there.  Analyst Forums, quarterly research projects... the list goes on and on.  

Now, depending on your experience with us, you might look at us as a conference provider first, magazine second, and marketing partner third.  I look at things differently.  Let's say you're a the CEO of a bank with $5 Bn in assets.  Our "core" constituent if you will. You might be thinking about the changing regulatory environment and how it impacts compensation, buying the guy down the street from you, increasing deposits, or getting lending back on-track.  These are bank and board-specific thoughts.  To find one provider that is focused squarely on your needs appreciates in value over broader focused companies.  So the economics of our business continue to rest with the content that is created by the community, and bound together by Bank Director's 20 years of brand and service.

2. Behold, the power of cheese.  

Can you guess we're I'm going with this?  Here's a hint: it goes to the value of your network, and the chance to make a real positive first impression.  The corollary: if you're tacky, you're a goner.  Period.  That applies for online behavior as well as in-person presentations and conversations.  Cheesy might be memorable... its also forms a lasting impression.  Admittedly, we're in a period of massive investment in a lot of things that people will not see until mid-year, so you might cast stones at our online aesthetic.   But for what people can and did see at our "Acquire or Be Acquired" conference?  A 1st class conference and dynamic Bank Director team.  (For anyone that has seen a team come together in a few months will know what I'm talking about... I am so proud of our entire team for bringing their A games to the desert.  They rocked the conference -- gracious, professional and enthusiastic.  What a great group to work with).

3. Take it to the bank: know what you're good at -- and than do it over and over and over again.  

Some of our best relationships involve major investment banks, consulting firms, law firms and accounting firms.  They know what they do best, and rather than stray from their area of expertise, they work like crazy to make sure what they present matches up to what they deliver.  While we continue to add to our portfolio of online resources (check out the beta version of BankBusiness.com and our blog.bankdirector.com), we're ruthlessly focused on serving the needs of CEOs, CFOs, key management and board members of financial services companies.  We are not going to dip too far down in the information we provide, conferences we host or research we conduct.  For example, while the heads of retail banking benefit from the information we provide, they do so because our focus centers on what their boss -- and his board -- need to know.

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I mentioned in this post that we're growing our business in a number of ways.  As we design and develop Bank Director "2.0" we're looking for some sharp, ambitious and fun people to join our team.  In the spirit of today's post, let me share two openings: one for our conference team, the other, for sales in the Southeast.  

For the conference position, we're looking for someone to work in our Brentwood, TN office (just outside of Nashville).  I can see an extrovert thriving in this role, as he/she will be traveling to all of our conferences throughout the year, working with sponsors and speakers throughout the year, and helping develop and market agendas and conference materials.  Detail oriented folks with a creative/marketing inclination will have a lot of fun here.

For the sales role, we're keen to find someone that can call on the service providers and product companies that support the financial community.  We're going to carve out a nice territory -- I'm thinking south of D.C. and as far west as all of Texas.  I'm happy to talk with folks about either spot.  Drop me a line below or shoot me a note on LinkedIn or Twitter.

These days, a lot of what I write on DCSpring21 centers on the media + publishing industry.  While tempted to throw a few screenshots of the in-development BankDirector.com up today (to juxtapose where we are with where we're going), let me instead share the latest digital issue of Bank Director magazine and a "programming note" for the next week to ten days. 

Starting on Saturday, I'll be in Scottsdale, Arizona for our 17th annual Acquire or Be Acquired conference. Long recognized as the premier M&A and growth event for Chairman and CEOs of financial services companies, I'll be sharing thoughts from our 3 day conference via Twitter, LinkedIn and on this site. Corresponding to what I write?  Our team of writers and bloggers will be posting to our official blog too.  

Now, with so much time and attention being placed on the digital nature of our business, I think this is an ideal time to remember that information resources like ours, thrive, in part, on the quality of content that is both created and shared at events like this one.  So if you're interested in growth strategies, merger and acquisition ideas or what the leading investment banks, consulting firms and legal advisors believe is on tap for 2011, be sure to check back regularly.

Need more?  Here's the plan:

• On Saturday morning, I fly into the desert from Washington.  At some point that day, I'll set the table for the coming discussions with a post on what I'm expecting + looking forward to learning;

• During the day on Sunday, I'll regularly check in with observations via twitter.  We have well over 700 attending -- a record number for this event -- so I'm excited to think about the idea sharing and Q+A;

• On Monday, I'll be introducing various speakers.  Over the last few months, a number of investment bankers have shared with me their sense of a coming "wave of deals."  As I'll be introducing a number of them, I'll try to share some of their quantitative data as part of my post;

• Tuesday sees the curtain come down on the conference.  Before heading out to our golf tournament, I'm going to put some info. up from a few of the morning presentations; 

• Finally, on Wednesday, I'll test American's WiFi capabilities and put into words the trends I think readers of this blog would be interested in.

So at the very least, you have a framework for the next five Bank Director-inspired posts.  If you're attending the conference and want to talk -- or have a few ideas about what might make it onto this site -- drop me a comment below and I'll make sure that we connect.

When the Wall Street Journal blasted the news that IBM acquired Netezza earlier today for $1.78 billion, I immediately dropped a note to my brother + soon-to-be brother-in-law to give them a heads up.  You see, the three of us have been talking about the "Big Data" space for a while now (thanks in part to my connections with some great folks at Aster Data).  Both family members are in the world of finance -- James in NYC, Nick in London -- and like to engage in pre- and post-deal talk at crazy times.  Like during a football game or at a wedding.  While I'm not on their level, I certainly appreciate that they include me in their discussions!  

Professionally, I'm fascinated by companies like Aster, Netezza, etc. that allow media companies to perform real-time, in-depth analyses of year-over-year data to optimize digital media "solutions."  But to James + Nick's interest, IBM's acquisition, preceded by EMC's purchase of Greenplum this July, suggests that other tech companies might soon be fielding new calls from potential acquirers.  While I could fill the rest of today's post with my own ideas of who might be next, I'd like to take it in a different direction that ties in with my new role at Bank Director.  

As I see it, the deal reinforces the value of enterprise-wide analytics in and among companies and government agencies.  In the past, I've written about how tools -- like those offered by a Netezza -- continue to gain mainstream support in companies and government agencies.  One such agency interested in the potential power of data analytics is the Comptroller of the Currency, a self-funded agency within the Treasury department (*if you're not familiar with the organization, OCC charters, regulates and supervises all national banks).  Before I left my old tech firm for Bank Director, I'd called on OCC's CIO to explore the promise of agile data management (which ties deep analytics with Big Data tools and data-driven dashboards).  So as I read this morning's press release, I couldn't help but reflect on what I'd learned about OCC's needs -- and the types of companies that might be well positioned to meet them.

Ironically, I switched from the WSJ article to a conference call with my new colleagues who themselves are going through a culture change (having been acquired by the NYSE).  Guess what I heard?  Nothing more than the former head of the OCC agreeing over the weekend to speak at Bank Director's flagship conference: Acquire or Be Acquired in Arizona in early 2011.  So too much of a coincidence not to share the overlap on DCSpring21.  Yes, it will be interesting to hear how he fields growth-oriented questions from sponsors + attendees, especially as government and financial institutions continue to converge around areas and opportunities designed to fuel expansion or acquisition.  But for the purposes of this post, how appropriate that the day starts with an M&A story and ends on the same note?  Albeit, one is about what's already happened, the other, what will be.