Nearly 300 attendees laced up their boots and joined us for an unforgettable 52nd Annual Convention this September at The Hythe in Vail, Colorado. ICBC extends a heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended, sponsored and exhibited. You helped make this year’s gathering one for the camp history books.
As always, our convention delivered a full itinerary of professional development, meaningful connections, new vendor discoveries and a strong sense of community spirit. From sunrise to late-night campfire conversations, Camp ICBC offered something for every camper.
The opening reception on Wednesday evening set the tone, giving colleagues and friends a chance to gather around the campfire, swap a few fishing stories, raise a glass and get a first look at the annual ICBC High School Scholarship auction items.
Thursday morning began with the annual meeting and the announcement of ICBC’s 2025-2026 officer slate. Congratulations to:
- Mike Hurst, President, Del Norte Bank, ICBC Chairman
- Joe Martinez, President and Chief Lending Officer, San Luis Valley Federal Bank, ICBC President
- Robert Holt, Senior Vice President and Senior Credit Officer, North Valley Bank, ICBC President-Elect
We also extended sincere appreciation to our outgoing chairman and board members for their service and leadership:
- Tom Ogaard, President and CEO, Native American Bank, Chairman
- Sean Lening, President, GNBank, Eads, District C
- Wade Gebhardt, Corporate President, Mountain Valley Bank, Steamboat Springs, District D
We gave a warm welcome to new district directors:
- Jamie Santistevan, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Native American Bank, District A
- Kent Jones, President and CEO, Flatirons Bank, District A
- Peter Page, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Frontier Bank, District C
Derek B. Williams, ICBA Past Chairman and President and CEO of Century Bank & Trust in Milledgeville, Georgia, concluded the meeting with a timely industry update and an ICBA brief.
Camp ICBC then got down to business with two general sessions, beginning with “The Gift of Influence” from Tommy Spaulding. The second session was an expert panel on fraud, payments and loan review trends moderated by Bud Hollenkamp, Partner, Forvis Mazars, with insights from panel members Scott Wintenburg, Senior Vice President and Chief Growth Officer, Bankers’ Bank of the West; Brian Blauser, Supervisory Special Agent, FBI; and Mark Weitekamp, Managing Director, Forvis Mazars.
At lunch, we recognized the four Graduate School of Banking at Colorado (GSBC) scholarship recipients:
- Amber Hardwick, Wray State Bank, Wray
- Max Meints, FirstBank, Erie
- Jon Riedel, The Dolores State Bank, Dolores
- Scott Schlegel, Alpine Bank, Breckenridge
These $2,000 scholarships are given annually to the four top-performing Colorado-based ICBC member bank students and are applied to their tuition for their final year at GSBC.
In addition, five high school scholarship recipients were honored:
- Jon Bradley
- Bay Ellis
- Kieran Harris
- Quentin Kramer
- Lucas Lovato
Each student received a $1,750 one-year scholarship. We are excited to follow these young people on their individual journeys of academic success.
After lunch, and after enjoying the crowd-favorite s’mores ice cream sandwiches, campers dove into two rounds of professional learning sessions. Thank you to our expert presenters for helping attendees earn new merit badges in banking excellence:
- Inflation, the Fed, and Balance Sheet Management — Michael Benedict, Stifel
- Turning Your Traditional Commercial Lenders Into Fierce Deposit Hunters — Matt Regn and Ted Rosen, Expert Business Development
- Disruption: Navigating Today as a Community Bank CEO — Connie West, The James Paul Group
- Compliance Hot Topics — John Podvin and Jenny Small, Otteson Shapiro
- Financial and Other Banking Trend Perspectives — Ryan Abdoo, John Byczkowski, Cooper Dayton, and Andrea Pech, Plante Moran
- Bots, Brains & Banks: Using AI in Banking While Managing Risk — Chris Tuzeneu, Bankers’ Bank of the West
- Engagement is Falling: Rebuilding Culture in Community Banks — Connie West, The James Paul Group
- Preparing for All Weather Growth — John Curlin, Performance Trust Capital Partners
Thursday evening brought a full dose of camp spirit: camp-themed cocktails, lively conversations, dinner and a couple of friendly rounds of Family Feud. The night wrapped up with Rich Bratten (Bank Compensation Consulting) and Friends leading a lively campfire sing-along that kept the campers entertained well into the evening.
A huge thank you to the generous donors, enthusiastic bidders and dedicated volunteers who helped make this year’s ICBC High School Scholarship auction a standout success.
On Friday, campers gathered for two final sessions: “An Economic Outlook” with Nicholas Sly of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and “Stablecoin and Digital Assets: Where Do We Go from Here?” presented by Amy Ledig of ICBA. Both provided the kind of big-picture guidance that helps community banks chart their course with confidence.
Even as we packed up our gear and headed home from Camp ICBC, we were already marking our calendar for next year’s adventure. Join us Sept. 16-18, 2026, when we return to The Hythe in Vail for ICBC’s 53rd Annual Convention.
