LEAD Conference
Build the Skills to Lead What's Next.
October 7-8, 2026
The Park Event Center | Waite Park, Minnesota
Registration is open for the 2026 LEAD Conference.
Register for LEADThe LEAD Conference brings together emerging community bank professionals for two days of leadership development, industry education, and connection. Broaden your perspective, strengthen your leadership skills, and develop relationships with peers who are building their careers alongside you.
Grow as a Leader
You don't need to wait for a certain title to start becoming a stronger leader.
BankIn Minnesota's LEAD Conference – Leadership, Education, and Development – is designed for community bank professionals who want to keep learning, take on new challenges, and make a greater impact at their bank.
Through practical leadership development, exposure to perspectives beyond your current role, and opportunities to learn alongside peers from across Minnesota, LEAD helps prepare you for greater responsibility while building skills you can put to work right away.
Who Should Attend?
LEAD is designed for rising talent, emerging managers, and community bank professionals who are ready to grow.
Consider LEAD for employees who demonstrate initiative, want to better understand the bank and industry, or are beginning to take on greater responsibility. Attendees don't need to hold a management title – just an interest in learning, growing, and making a greater impact at their bank.
What You'll Gain
Lead with Confidence
Strengthen the communication, decision-making, and problem-solving skills that support effective leadership.
Broaden Your Perspective
Gain a better understanding of community banking and how different roles, priorities, and challenges come together across the bank.
Build Your Network
Connect with peers from community banks across Minnesota who are building their careers and taking on new challenges alongside you.
Bring It Back to Your Bank
Leave with practical tools, new ideas, and stronger connections you can put to work right away.
2026 Program
LEAD combines leadership development with community banking education, peer discussion, and opportunities to connect with bankers and industry professionals from across Minnesota.
Wednesday, October 7
Thursday, October 8
2026 Session Details
Explore the sessions planned for the 2026 LEAD Conference. Select a session below for additional details.
Keynote Sessions
Beyond High Performance: What Great Leaders Do That Good Ones Don’t
Austin Walker
Wednesday, October 7 | 10:20-11:40 a.m.
Beyond High Performance is designed for leaders and teams who are already performing at a high level — and know there's still room to grow. This session explores how you can expand what you believe is possible, identify where you want to go, and build the mindset and momentum to get there. You'll consider what it takes to move beyond high performance and reach a new level of leadership and growth.
About Austin Walker
Austin Walker is a Meta Performance™ Coach and sought-after keynote speaker with Novus Global who helps leaders and teams perform beyond what they thought was possible. His work spans industries and organizations ranging from global companies to startups.
Austin holds a master’s degree in Transformational Leadership and has partnered with a wide range of clients, including CEOs, executives, professional sports organizations, founders, athletes, educators, and mission-driven teams.
Reset Your Algorithm: Building Habits for Better Well-Being
Jen Holper, HealthPartners
Wednesday, October 7 | 2:50-4 p.m.
Stress is part of every job, but staying healthy and resilient takes more than occasional breaks. This session explores how stress affects your energy, performance, and mental well-being and provides practical, evidence-based strategies you can incorporate into your daily routine. You'll leave with realistic tools to manage stress, build sustainable self-care habits, and recognize when additional support may be needed.
Learning Objectives
- Understand how stress affects your mental health and energy.
- Learn practical strategies to complete stress cycles and build resilience.
- Identify simple self-care habits you can incorporate into your daily routine.
- Recognize when it's time to seek additional mental health support.
Don’t Act Like a Leader. Be a Leader.
Larry Williams, ExecutiveSense Consulting
Thursday, October 8 | 9-10:15 a.m.
Don't Act Like a Leader. Be a Leader. challenges the idea that leadership is about performance and posturing and invites you to consider authenticity, vulnerability, and service as qualities of effective leadership.
Through honest insights, engaging storytelling, and practical frameworks, you'll explore how insecurity, isolation, and expectations can cause you to "act" like a leader rather than lead authentically. You'll leave with a clearer understanding of your own leadership and practical ways to lead with greater purpose and impact.
Learning Objectives
- Leadership is not a role — it's a way of being. Discover how vulnerability, service, and people-first thinking form the foundation of authentic leadership.
- Stop performing, start connecting. Learn how insecurity and isolation can cause leadership "acting" and how to break free from those patterns.
- Reframe expectations. Uncover how internal and external pressures shape your leadership style and how to reclaim your own narrative.
- Know yourself to lead others. Examine how your communication style, motivations, and internal drivers influence your leadership presence.
- Build a leadership identity that lasts. Gain tools to align your self-image, personal values, and professional roles into a cohesive, sustainable leadership approach.
About Larry Williams
Larry Williams is an executive consultant and coach with more than 21 years of community banking experience and nearly a decade as CEO of a national bank training firm. His banking career includes senior leadership roles as Chief Credit Officer, Chief Lending Officer, and Executive Vice President, overseeing teams across multiple Montana markets.
Through ExecutiveSense Consulting, Larry helps organizations and leaders strengthen collaboration, build trust, and plan for succession through job benchmarking and candidate selection.
Breakout Sessions
2026 breakout session details are coming soon.
Connect Beyond the Sessions
Some of the most valuable conversations at LEAD happen between sessions. You'll have time throughout the conference to meet community bankers from across Minnesota, exchange ideas, learn from one another's experiences, and build relationships that continue after the conference ends.
Hotel Accommodations
Hilton Garden Inn St. Cloud
550 Division Street, Waite Park
Conference Rate
$169 per night
Reservation Deadline
September 6, 2026
Prefer to book by phone? Call the Hilton Garden Inn St. Cloud at 320-640-7990 and use group code 91P to receive the conference rate.
With Support From:
Silver Sponsors
Bronze Sponsors
Amplio Economic Development Corporation • Edge One • Graduate School of Banking at Colorado • Ironcore, Inc. • Kameo Marketing LLC • Loffler • Teslar Software
Help Shape LEAD
The LEAD Conference Committee brings community bankers together to identify relevant topics, shape the attendee experience, and bring fresh ideas to future conferences. Interested in helping shape what's next? We'd like to hear from you.
Invest in What's Next
Strong community banks need people who are prepared to keep learning, take on new challenges, and lead with confidence.
Invest in your development – or the development of someone on your team – with two days dedicated to building skills, expanding perspectives, and strengthening connections across Minnesota's community banking industry.
Register for LEAD