Workshops

In today’s workforce, attracting and keeping talent often depends just as much, if not more, on employees loving the city where they live as on loving the job they do. Research shows that place attachment — the emotional bond people feel with their city or town — is a key correlate of job satisfaction, employee engagement, and talent retention. This is especially true for younger talent, who increasingly choose the city they want to live in first, then find a job once they get there.

Dr. Katherine Loflin, a North Carolina native based in Cary, is the world’s leading expert on place attachment. She brings her global expertise to this session in which she will provide an overview of the connection between place attachment and talent. She will also share practical tools organizations can deploy to boost employee engagement and talent retention through place attachment.

Dr. Katherine Loflin

This session is designed for professionals, entrepreneurs, and knowledge workers eager to reclaim time and enhance productivity. This session moves beyond the AI hype, offering immediate actionable strategies to integrate AI tools into daily routines — helping attendees save 2–4 hours per week while improving the quality of their work. Participants will learn how to pinpoint the five biggest productivity bottlenecks where AI delivers the most.

Manisha Khanna

Restoring dignity, one kit at a time.

At the core of the credit union movement is access — access to opportunity and a better future. But for many women and girls, the lack of access to basic hygiene products creates barriers that go far beyond personal care. It impacts health, education, workforce participation, and overall development.

In this spotlight session, we will explore the hidden impact of hygiene insecurity and why addressing it is essential to restoring dignity and creating opportunity. Attendees will hear from a nonprofit leader dedicated to providing hygiene kits for women and girls, as well as from a dental professional who will highlight the critical health connection tied to one of the kit’s essential items.

This is not a passive conversation. Participants will take part in a hands-on activity by assembling hygiene kits that will be donated directly to women and girls in need — making the issue tangible, personal, and impactful.

Why Attend:

• Learn how hygiene insecurity affects health, education, and economic opportunity.
• Connect this work to the broader values of access within the credit union movement.
• Engage in a meaningful hands-on experience that creates immediate impact.

Join us as we embrace the risk of awareness, empathy, and action — and discover how restoring dignity, one kit at a time, has the power to change communities.

Coastal Credit Union

Shirnetta Harrell
Dr. Siti Lowery