ATLANTA – A record 1,750 attendees participated in Harland Financial Solutions' fourth-annual Connections Conference, this year a four-day event held recently in San Diego. The conference included more than 275 sessions as well as product demonstrations, a partners' expo featuring 75 vendors, and keynote speaker Capt. James Lovell Jr., the commander of Apollo 13. "As users of several Harland solutions, we truly benefit from interacting with the product experts to learn more about integration points and how the solutions will continue to support us as we grow," says Keith Malbrue, CIO of $993 million Affinity Plus FCU in St. Paul, Minn. "We also find the ability to participate in multiple users' group meetings is extremely cost effective." Attendance has more than doubled since the first Connections Conference in 2002, HFS says. Next year's conference will be held Aug. 7-10 at the Swan and Dolphin Hotel at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. Harland Financial Solutions (www.harlandfinancialsolutions.com) is a subsidiary of John H. Harland Co. and provides core processing and other services to more than 650 credit unions.