AUSTIN, Texas — The CU Water Cooler Symposium opened at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, The Ritz, with 6th Story Founder Matt Davis and gameFI challenging credit unions to innovate.

Davis kicked off the fist session of the two-day event discussing how Pringles was able to compete with potato chip giant PepsiCo/FritoLay through innovation by creating a can that would keep chips fresh.

So what about credit unions?

“What a difference 100 years can make,” Davis said. “We got our start by people with a passion to change lives, activists, and now we've become bureaucrats who are interested in protecting what we have but not the people we're trying to serve.”

With the credit union industry at an inflection point, facing issues of relevance, he asked attendees to walk the path of rebirth rather than settling. Sharing a few truths, he noted that an industry rebirth won't be an accounting trick and encouraged attendees to embrace frustration.

“It's time to look for people with imagination, grit and a focus on getting back to the path of dreaming again,” he said. “Credit unions don't have a regulation crisis but an identity, innovation, empathy and urgency crisis.”