Stang to Credit Unions: Move Faster, But Don’t Innovate Away What Makes You Different
By CU Today Staff —
DENVER — Credit union professionals from Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Oregon, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming are gathering this week in Denver for MAXX 2026.
The event features more than 100 speakers, 50+ content sessions, nearly 200 companies at the GoWest Solutions Marketplace, keynotes, a Credit Unions for Kids charitable auction, the GoWest Awards Dinner and Gala, and new and interactive ways to engage with peers and grow leaders, the league said.
This year’s MAXX theme, “Our Next 250 Miles: Celebrating Where We’ve Been. Building What’s Ahead,” gives a nod to America’s 250th anniversary and uses a road-trip theme to explore the people, milestones, and moments that have shaped the credit union movement and looks to what’s coming on the road ahead.
“Opening MAXX here in Colorado following America’s 250th anniversary feels like coming back to a story that started here,” GoWest President and CEO Troy Stang said. “Colorado played such an important role in the early history of the Credit Union Movement, and we’re still building on the same simple but impactful idea: people can do more when they come together. It’s a powerful reminder of just how far a people-powered movement can go.”
In his opening address, Stang challenged credit union leaders to embrace technology and change without losing sight of what has made credit unions different for generations: trust, relationships, and human connection.
“We have to modernize. Evolve technology. Rethink how we operate. Move faster,” Stang said. “But we cannot innovate away the very thing that makes us different: the human connection. It’s the human-centered approach that is our enduring advantage.”
Stang said technology, products, and services can be replicated across financial institutions, but the trust credit unions have built with members and communities must remain at the center of the Movement’s future.
“Technology was never the destination. People were always the purpose,” Stang said.
Throughout the event, attendees will hear stories highlighting how credit unions are responding to the needs of their members and communities; from housing and small-business challenges to advocacy, disaster recovery and the rapidly changing financial technology landscape.
Stang challenged attendees to think beyond protecting the Movement they inherited and focus on building the Movement future generations will need.
“Our opportunity is to be excellent at both,” Stang said, referring to technology and human connection. “Our organizations will evolve. But our purpose must not.”
Originally reported by CU Today.