The Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC) 2025 is shaping up to be one of the biggest and most influential yet. With credit union attendance surpassing last year’s record numbers, a sold-out exhibit hall, and a speaker lineup designed to inspire and equip leaders for the future, this year’s event is set to make history.
In the latest episode of CU On the Show, host Doug English sits down with Todd Spiczenski to preview GAC 2025 and highlight why this event is a non-negotiable for credit union professionals.
What’s Driving the Record-Breaking Attendance?
GAC 2024 set the bar high, but 2025 is already exceeding expectations. Here’s why:
- Advocacy at the Forefront – With growing concerns about credit unions’ tax-exempt status, advocacy is more important than ever. Credit unions are rallying to make their voices heard on Capitol Hill.
- Industry Growth & Collaboration – As the largest annual gathering of credit union professionals, GAC serves as a critical networking and learning opportunity.
- Must-See Speakers & Sessions – Attendees are eager to hear from top thought leaders and industry experts about the future of financial services.
New & Noteworthy at GAC 2025
This year’s GAC isn’t just bigger—it’s better. Here are some key updates:
- Enhanced GAC App – Attendees can now customize their schedule, access key resources, and navigate the event seamlessly.
- Expanded Exhibit Hall & Vendor Showcase – With every booth sold out, credit unions will gain firsthand exposure to the latest innovations and solutions.
- Recharge Stations & Lounge Areas – More dedicated spaces to network, recharge, and get work done between sessions.
- Unforgettable Keynote Speakers – From Coach K on leadership to Will Guidara on exceptional service, this year’s lineup is packed with high-impact insights.
Stream the Episode to Learn More
Want to get ahead before GAC 2025? Listen to the full episode to discover more:
GAC 2025 is more than a conference—it’s a movement. Will we see you in D.C.?
Todd Spiczenski is not affiliated with or endorsed by ACT Advisors, LLC.
Audio Transcription
[00:00:00] Doug English: Tom Spiczenski, welcome back to CU on The Show. We’re glad to have you here again to talk about GAC Preview 2025, why you and your credit union team need to be at GAC.
[00:00:14] Todd Spiczenski: Awesome. Thanks Doug. Appreciate the invite. Really excited to share what’s going on with GAC 2025. It feels like just yesterday you and I were chatting about GAC, but really it was, it was a year ago. GAC is one of those events that, um, always feels like a little bit of a credit union homecoming and, uh, family gathering and, uh, we’re going to have more friends and family than we’ve ever had before.
[00:00:40] Doug English: So let’s start right now. Tell us about that. What are the numbers for GAC 2025 looking like so far?
[00:00:45] Todd Spiczenski: Numbers are fantastic. The credit union attendance numbers are way up from previous years. Last year was a record year. We had Um, well over 3,000 credit union, um, attendees we’re 500 plus ahead of that pace already last year. So we’re probably looking 3, 500 to 4, 000 credit union attendees.
When you throw in all of the vendor attendees, we’re going to be well over 6,000 people in Washington, D. C. So we’re really excited about that. Um, and then additionally, I mentioned our vendor attendees. Exhibit hall is completely sold out. We’ve got every spot, every space you can possibly imagine. Um, so attendees are going to get a great experience, not only from what we’re putting on from a, thought leadership and keynote presentation standpoint, but also, um, from our vendor partners that are going to be in that exhibit hall sharing a lot of, uh, a lot of tools that, that can help credit unions continue to grow and evolve.
[00:01:44] Doug English: Yeah, I enjoyed going into the cyber truck that was in the middle of the expo last year. That was the first time I’d gotten close to one of those, and I decided conclusively, I do not want one of those.
[00:01:56] Todd Spiczenski: Well, there will be, there will be more and more of those types of experiences in the 2025 GAC Exhibit Hall, that’s for sure.
[00:02:05] Doug English: So what do you think’s behind the increase in attendance? And then, what would you say is the suggested reason that we need to bring the industry out for GAC this year?
[00:02:16] Todd Spiczenski: Good question. You know, we do a lot of analysis. We do focus groups at GAC trying to make sure that the program is constantly, um, evolving and, and growing to meet what our member expectation and member needs are.
And last year we, we kind of attributed the, the growth and GAC attendance to, well, it was, we had just merged into this new association. There’s some curiosity. There are a lot of folks that maybe had never gone to a GAC before. And it’s like, Holy cow, we’ve doubled up. They must have told all their friends, Doug, because we’re, we’re so far ahead of pace than, than where we’ve been historically.
I think the biggest driver though, um, goes back to the reason that credit unions join America’s credit unions as their trade association and its advocacy. Um, there’s obviously a heightened awareness around, the potential of credit unions being on a taxation list and that tax exempt status that is critical to, um, how we’re, uh, better just better serve consumers in our communities.
Um, and there’s a heightened awareness around that. So I think it’s this combination of a we’re a new trade association. We put on a great show in ‘24. So we had a lot of new people tell their friends combined with the critical call out, don’t tax my credit union and telling our story to the new members of Congress, um, that are going to be, that we’re going to be able to visit with while we’re there in DC.
[00:03:41] Doug English: Yeah, advocacy is the number one reason that you need to be at GAC. Now, are there specific guidelines that America’s credit unions provides for hill hikers for things that you might want to do different this year or particular messages that you make sure to get across? Is there a resource for those things that credit unions might not be aware of?
[00:04:02] Todd Spiczenski: You know, we have, we have multiple resources. But let me just highlight a few. Um, first of all, our state leagues are, are extremely critical and strong partners, to putting on this national governmental affairs conference. I like to say we get, we get to be the host, but we do this, to be the voice. And collaboration with all of the leagues around the country, and they help orchestrate and coordinate all of the hill hikes for their respective states with their members of Congress.
So they’re always an important and critical resource for any of our attendees to understand what their state league or what their respective league is talking about as far as briefings briefing notes. In addition, we create a briefing book, if you will. It’s not really used to be a book. Now it’s on our app, and it’s electronic and digital, and people have the ability to use that.
So they get our high level and national talking points as well. So between the two, um, they have extremely strong resources on what they can talk about and how they should say things. And additionally, we have multiple breakout sessions and education sessions about critical talking points as well.
So, depending on what your learning style and how you best absorb all of this, you have individual contacts with your league and your lobbyists, you have the education format, and then you have it within your mobile app to be able to go and scroll through.
[00:05:30] Doug English: Excellent. You got it. Every way, you could want. So what’s, uh, so what’s besides GAC being bigger this year, how else is it going to be different? What are we going to see that we haven’t seen before? And what will be the same?
[00:05:43] Todd Spiczenski: As I mentioned earlier, like we do this, we’re constantly trying to evolve the program, yet at the same time, the foundation of GAC is so critically important. So, um, we’re not making changes for the sake of making changes. They want to be based on what our members are looking for. What are some critical things we should be talking about? So a couple of things I’ll, I would highlight, obviously all, all new keynoters, all the breakout sessions. We have a new app. I mentioned the app earlier.
We have a new app that not only we’ll have that briefing book on it, we’ll have , uh, all the programming in it. Um, but it will also give people the ability to maybe customize their own, their own GAC experience, if you will, so they can better identify, hey, is this breakout session for me, should I be going to this event or that event?
So that ability is, is brand new and kind of an evolution of our app from previous years. Um, as I said, we have more people than ever before. Where we can house all of these people is kind of a big deal when they’re on site at the convention center. So we’ve expanded some of our breakout session rooms.
[00:06:47] Todd Spiczenski: Those are typically as popular as the general session. So some of these get standing room only. So we’re doing a couple of different things. We have where our welcome center and where folks come in to register at the convention center. We’ll have several rooms down there that now will become breakout rooms so we’ll be more compacted, at least from a walking around the convention center so it should be a little bit easier on folks, but those rooms are also larger, so then we should be able to get more people in those in those breakout sessions room.
[00:07:19] Todd Spiczenski: The other thing I would call out is within our Welcome Center; we call it our Welcome Center it’s where people go to register, but they can also go in there to kind of recharge and relax. There’s a lot going on at our GAC. Um, in fact, there’s so much going on that people usually the number one issue people have is there’s too much going on.
Um, so we, we build within within the confines of the convention center places where people can kind of recharge, take a break. So we’ll have these relax and recharge stations within that welcome center. Also down there, there’ll be these plug in stations. So if, hey, you get called out because, you know, work is still going on back at your credit union, um, you have a place you can kind of plug in, get away from everything going on at GAC, stay close to what’s going on.
But have enough of that kind of privacy to get some work done if you need to step away for a minute. So those are the highlights of some of the newer things that are happening.
[00:08:14] Doug English: Second ago, you also mentioned the general session speakers, and I know you have some breaking news for us. Let’s hold that, let’s hold that for the end time. Tell us about a little bit about the general session speakers.
[00:08:26] Todd Spiczenski: Doug, you and I have done this a couple times now. I say, I say this, I feel like every year, but our lineup is absolutely fantastic. Once again, um, from the keynote stage, uh, standpoint. So we’re going to have, um, Jim Nussle, our CEO, and we’ll have, um, the new NCUA chair, Kyle Hauptman, um, on stage and members of Congress. That’s the traditional part that we continue to evolve, and people want to hear, but from a keynote session standpoint, we’re bringing in on Sunday night, sponsored by our councils, um, Will Guidara, who has wrote a bestselling book called unreasonable hospitality.
[00:09:03] Todd Spiczenski: If you haven’t read it. Absolutely must read, probably one of the best business books I’ve ever read. Um, in fact, within our own organization, our entire staff and team, um, are reading that now. It is, it’s a fantastic book and it really talks about, um, what you can do on an everyday basis to extend this member service this customer service to credit unions and how you can do that in a creative and unique way, um, that make them feel special.
You know, we’re a very unique industry member owned, industry and, um, always rank really high on this customer service piece of this. What Will’s going to come in and do is kind of share his story about how he did this in the restaurant business, and then how we translate into things that we can do maybe differently and evolve our own service experience to help create even a better member experience for, for credit unions.
Even on day one, he’s going to hit an absolute out of the park, show up on Sunday night. It’s you’re not going to regret doing so. Monday we have Karla Harris. Karla is, Karla is everything, man. She is going to be awesome. She’s dynamite. She’s known for kind of her fearless approach and strategic insights.
[00:10:18] Todd Spiczenski: Um, she’s from, she’s a partner at Morgan Stanley. She can, she talks really more about your own individual strengths and how you can leverage those to lead to better outcomes for yourself. So Will’s going to talk more service, Kyle’s going to talk more about what you can do individually. And then on Tuesday, Coach K, love him or hate him as I’ve learned.
If he’s, if Duke has beaten your team while Coach K was coach, um, I’m a Wisconsin, big Wisconsin Badger fan. He beat my Wisconsin Badgers in the national championship game in 2015. I’m still bitter. I’m slightly over it, but he’s going to hear about it for me. Let me tell you. Coach K is fantastic. If you’ve seen anything about him, he’s had a story career, but the big thing about him is how do you lead your team?
[00:11:08] Todd Spiczenski: And what you can do to continue, share your vision and, fulfill your strategic vision through the power of your team. And so he’s going to focus on that. And then last but not least, um, which is breaking news. We just finalized, Stacey Hanke, who’s a communication expert and a hall of fame speaker as our closing speaker on Wednesday morning.
And the way I describe this Doug is, people are going to hear all about Will’s story and Karla’s story and Coach K’s story. And what Stacy’s going to do is help us better tell our own story, um, and how we can do that. How we elevate our influence as credit union professionals, as credit union board of directors to tell our story. To those lawmakers on Capitol Hill, so a great way to close out the session, but the lineup is going to be fantastic. And my last piece in the general session, get there early because it is a jam packed show.
[00:12:08] Doug English: Yeah, earlier. Be willing to stand. Wow. Wow. Boy, your conference services team has done it again. It sounds like it’s going to be a great GAC. Uh, an important event for the entire industry to attend, uh, and to get those hill hikes to make sure they don’t tax our credit unions and to learn how to continue to serve your membership. So credit union leaders, members. Thank you for tuning in to the episode today. Join us at GAC and thank you for your leadership in the credit union movement.
And thank you, Todd, for joining me again this year.
[00:12:42] Todd Spiczenski: Great to see you again, Doug. Appreciate the opportunity. Look forward to seeing y’all in DC. Take care. Thank you.
