Next week – May 3 to 6 – a sold-out crowd of more than 700 attendees from across the U.S. will convene in the San Diego area for the CO-OP-sponsored THINK 16 conference. With a speaker lineup that includes Upworthy's Sara Critchfield and Fast Company's Polly LaBarre, THINK 16 will once again challenge our industry to innovate beyond previous boundaries.

Why do we at CO-OP believe innovation is so critical? Put negatively, those that fail to innovate run the risk of losing ground to competitors,. Put positively, innovation can be the key differentiator between market leaders and their rivals. Innovation can also help you discover what opportunities exist now or are likely to emerge in the future. Successful businesses not only respond to their current needs, but innovation enables them to anticipate future trends and meet those trends rapidly and effectively.

For credit unions in particular, as smaller financial institutions, they must work smarter, on top of everything else.