Inside ICBA Education's Webinars

Since the 1980s, ICBA Education has helped community bankers of all experience levels grow at a pace that best suits them, and its best-in-class webinars are just one of the many resources at ICBA members’ disposal. 

“Bankers can come to us, and depending on the situation they’re in or how they’re trying to obtain that training, we’re probably going to have something available to them,” says Edith Peña, senior director of education events and training development with ICBA Education. 

These webinars span topics from compliance to marketing, and attendees can ask questions and get real-time feedback from instructors. 

Whether you’re looking to expand your skill set or just want to stay on top of recent updates or changes, there’s an ICBA webinar ready to give you the guidance you need.

Before you get started with webinars

There are hundreds of pre-recorded webinars spanning a variety of topics accessible to community bankers on the ICBA Education website. Bankers can also see upcoming webinars they can attend live. Webinars are either 60 or 90 minutes long. One recorded webinar costs $229 for members and $329 for non-members, and you can earn continuing professional education (CPE) credits by attending. ICBA members can also purchase the Unlimited Webinar Pass, which gives their whole organization access to the full library of webinars for 12 months for $1,649.

Shaping webinars through banker feedback 

ICBA Education encourages bankers to submit feedback often and incorporates this feedback into the development of new webinars. Attendees are given a survey link at the end of a session that asks about their experience with the topic, instructor and materials, and which topics they’d like to see covered in the future. 

“We really, really value banker feedback,” says Peña. “If it is something within our means and we know who can teach that topic, we’ll definitely try to get it in a webinar.”

Staying on top of industry trends

ICBA Education combines feedback with staff insights to make sure webinars are current to the needs and wants of community bankers. Webinar instructors are experts in their topic, and they bring ideas based on the work they do with community banks. 

Additionally, many ICBA Education staff, including Peña, worked in community banking prior to joining ICBA Education, and that experience gives them a unique perspective into what community bankers are looking for.

Something for every banker

There are webinars available to community bank staff in every department. Topics like fraud, compliance and legislative updates are popular and see high registration numbers, but webinars on topics like marketing strategy or public relations are also well attended and see high participant engagement. 

“Some of these community banks, they might only have one or two people who are doing the marketing of the bank,” says Peña. “So, when they get into these sessions, they are engaged and asking questions of our instructors.” 

There are basic and introductory webinars for bankers fresh to the industry, and intermediate and advanced webinars for bankers looking to build on their existing foundation or just refresh themselves on industry updates.

Expanding offerings

Peña estimates that when she joined ICBA Education, there were 60 to 70 livestreamed webinars happening each year. But since she came on board, this number has expanded to about 90 livestreams annually, a number she hopes will continue to grow. As an example, ICBA Education’s series of five webinars on digital assets just came out in February. 

“Every year, it’s about what’s going on in the industry, what’s a hot topic, what can we put out there for our bankers,” says Peña. “So we want to continue on that path, with quantity but also good quality webinars on those topics.”

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