Find Your Rhythm at ICBA LIVE 2025

Education

ICBA LIVE Learning Labs: What’s your jam?

Whatever skills you want to sharpen, you’ll find more than 60 Learning Labs and seven different education tracks to dig into. Here’s just a sampling.

Workforce development

Give your bank a competitive advantage when recruiting, retaining and rewarding employees, and ensure that your employment policies and actions reflect industry best practices.

• Three Important Ingredients When Developing Future Leaders

• Strategic Succession: Preparing Your Community Bank for Leadership Changes

• Developing Resiliency in Your Team

Fraud, cybersecurity and risk

Explore the latest trends, safeguards and strategies in fraud prevention, cybersecurity and risk management. 

• Unveiling Fraud: Navigating Banking Risks

• Conquering Invisible Cybersecurity Threats

• Peer-to-Peer Fraud: Current Events and Reg E Expectations

Regulation and bank examinations

Are you up to date on supervisory, regulatory and operational risk issues at the federal level? After these Learning Labs, you will be.

• The Cost of Being Compliant

• New Rules, Lawsuits and AI: Managing Change Effectively

Management and strategy

Work on your bank from the top down to ensure continuity and steady leadership for the whole organization.

• Revolutionizing the Boardroom with AI

• Community Bank Ownership Issues

Digital transformation and innovation

Technology can enhance your bank’s bottom line in more ways than one. See how it can increase operational efficiencies, support evolving payment systems and boost bank competitiveness.

• Artificial Intelligence in Banking: A New Era

• GenAI in Banking: Driving Productivity and Compliance Beyond Chatbots

• Key Technology Trends Shaping Cybersecurity, AI and the Workplace

Lending and deposits

Understand how you can optimize money flow. Take this track to learn best practices on building deposits and your bank’s lending portfolio.

• ALM and Liquidity Model Performance Management

• Five Solutions to Fuel Ag Real Estate Loan Volume

• Future Commercial Lending Success Through Consumer Loans

Growth and marketing

Get your bank on the upward swing—draw in new customers with effective marketing and keep your momentum.

• Leveraging Core Data Insights to Grow Deposits, Revenues and Customer Relationships

• Reverse Engineering the Customer Journey

Keynote speaker

Kerri Walsh Jennings: Smiling when things get tough

American beach volleyball player and three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings maintains the spirit of a champion in all facets of her life.

The pursuit of excellence is a lifelong adventure. Five-time Olympian Kerri Walsh Jennings knows this well. 

For her Olympic Games debut in Sydney 2000 at age 22, Walsh Jennings competed with the U.S. indoor volleyball team, but it wasn’t until she switched from the gym court to sand that she saw her first Olympic medal. In 2001, fellow Olympian Misty May-Treanor asked Walsh Jennings to join the beach volleyball scene as her partner. 

The pair built an illustrious career as world champions in 2003, 2005 and 2006, taking Olympic gold in 2004, 2008 and 2012. After May-Treanor retired, Walsh Jennings competed in the Olympics once more, in Rio 2016 at age 38. She secured a bronze medal and her spot in history as the most decorated beach volleyball player of all time.

Walsh Jennings has faced many high-intensity moments throughout her life, whether it was participating in world-class tournaments or raising three children. Her advice when facing tough situations? “If you can smile when things get hard,” she shared on The Mindset Advantage Podcast, “it’s so fun, and it’s a superpower.”

Walsh Jennings has kept up the positive momentum. In 2018, she and her husband, fellow beach volleyball player Casey Jennings, started the P1440 Foundation to encourage and fund others to pursue their beloved sport. These days, she speaks to other individuals and athletes about her experiences and achieving greatness every day. 

During the Thursday, March 13, general session from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., you can hear about Walsh Jennings’ passion for life in her keynote speech, “The Unquenchable Fire Within: Sustaining Excellence.”

Signature events

5 rhythm-amplifying events you shouldn’t miss

Crank your ICBA LIVE experience up to 11. Discover these dynamic events happening at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center.

First-time banker reception 

March 10; 5:30–7:30 p.m. 

If you’ve never been to ICBA LIVE before, the first-time banker reception will help you get the most out of this incredible event. You’ll be able to network with other people new to LIVE who are just as enthusiastic about our electrifying industry as you are. First-timers will receive an email invitation with an RSVP prompt soon.

Welcome reception in the Expo

March 11; 4:30–6:00 p.m.

The Expo—LIVE’s dedicated space for vendor–banker interactions and conversations—opens on Tuesday, March 11, at 2:30 p.m. To mark the occasion, ICBA is rounding up bankers for a welcome reception themed “Where Neon Lights Meet Cowboy Nights.” You can lasso yourself some fine refreshments while you mingle with other attendees. 

ThinkTECH Showcase

March 11; 1:00–2:30 p.m.

Ready for the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator’s next cohort? On Tuesday, you’ll get a glimpse of the latest solutions that will advance our industry. These fintech and vendor leaders will give you the lowdown and share what their solutions have to offer your community bank. Be there and witness it for yourself.

State association receptions

Evening of March 11

ICBA is affiliated with 44 state associations across the nation, and many of them are coming together for LIVE. Stay in touch with your state association to find out its plans. Whether your group explores Nashville or has a social hour at the Gaylord, every gathering is sure to be a good time. 

ICBA PAC Auction

March 12; 5:30–7:30 p.m.

ICBA PAC—the only political action committee that exclusively serves the community banking industry—will rock, roll and raise money at its 36th annual auction. The ’80s-themed fundraiser opens up bidding for prizes, with proceeds going to the PAC’s advocacy efforts. Dress up in rad neon attire and bid for something exciting. Get your ticket at icba.org/auction or in person at ICBA LIVE by visiting the PAC office or ICBA Central in the Expo.

Keynote speaker

Rohit Bhargava: Feeding the creative mind

Thought leader and best-selling author Rohit Bhargava encourages leaders to think outside the box. 

Picture this: You’re in a room of fellow community bankers. You all have the same years of experience and job title, and you’re going into the same meeting. How can you stand out from this crowd of similarly talented individuals and make your voice heard? The answer: Be a “non-obvious” thinker.

This concept is the bread and butter of author and ICBA LIVE keynote speaker Rohit Bhargava. In his book Non-Obvious Thinking: How to See What Others Miss, he describes non-obvious thinkers as “people who taught themselves to pay attention to the details overlooked by everyone else.” 

Bhargava’s four-step method, which he’ll detail in his keynote speech “How to be a Non-Obvious Thinker (and See What Others Miss),” can help cultivate a more innovative, creative mindset and enhance brainstorming. Bhargava calls it the SIFT (space, insight, focus, twist) method. The word “sift” itself means “to isolate that which is most valuable,” Bhargava notes in his book. That’s what this method aims to do, so that you can open your mind and welcome new perspectives.

Bhargava has spent 15 years in trend analysis, which has informed his outlook on industry disruption, marketing and the contemporary future. He helps others take the road less traveled, leading hundreds of workshops for companies around the world and publishing 10 books on trends and marketing. 

Dive into the SIFT method and see Bhargava’s non-obvious thinking in action during LIVE’s general session from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, March 12.

Closing night celebrations

ICBA LIVE will go out with a bang

Your ICBA LIVE 2025 experience won’t be complete until you attend the Feel the Rhythm reception and dinner on March 13. Starting at 4:30 p.m., you’ll get the chance to connect with fellow attendees over an excellent selection of dinner and drinks. 

Then, stay in the groove and keep the fun going by celebrating 100 years of the Grand Ole Opry. Starting at 7 p.m., enjoy a special evening honoring the history of country music on the iconic Opry stage in Nashville. 

Since 1925, the Grand Ole Opry has been the biggest venue in country music, with stars like Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton gracing the stage during their illustrious careers. 

On ICBA LIVE Opry night, you’ll get the chance to sing along with a mix of past and current country music stars. Artists will be added until the week of the show, so be on the lookout for new lineup additions as they’re announced.
Tickets are limited, so be sure to register early—you don’t want to miss out on these exciting experiences. Register today for ICBA LIVE at icba.org/live to secure your space at both of these special events.