PORTLAND, Ore. — More than 80 industry leaders turned out for CU Business Group, LLC's first annual national business services conference held March 12-14 at the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The event began with two break-out education sessions–"Guerrilla Marketing," which focused on ramping up business program sales efforts and "Advanced Business Lending," which covered more complex business lending products, including construction loans, Small Business Administration lending, and how to improve negotiation skills in a business loan transaction.

The full conference speaker lineup featured experts from a number of credit union business programs including Evangelical Christian Credit Union, Hoosier Hills Credit Union, North Island Credit Union, CEFCU, and California Credit Union. The conference also included other industry leaders speaking on everything from fraud prevention to enhancing small business owner loyalty, from technology and payment options to environmental hot buttons and from trends in business services to high performance strategies. Attendees participated in a question/answer/dialogue session, where they were given the floor to ask questions and discuss important issues with their peers. CU Business Group is planning its second annual national conference for March 10-14, 2008 in Scottsdale. The CUSO is jointly owned by eight corporate credit unions and currently works with over 225 credit unions in 29 states.