The 2016 Global Insurance Symposium was a smashing success. I’m proud of this event, proud of Iowa, proud of Des Moines and I’m glad others are too!

I’d like to thank all of those that had a hand in it. Everyone – the partners that helped plan the Global Insurance Symposium, to the speakers and moderators sharing their thoughts, to the attendees fully embracing the ideas at the event, and to the staff working tirelessly – showed what the insurance industry and innovators can do when we sit down and work together.  It was the best program put together for the Global Insurance Symposium yet.  Make no mistake – we are already working hard to make it even better and bigger for 2017.

We had a record crowd this year. I know that the dialogue around the many issues we discussed will grow, and new challenges and innovative solutions will occur.  I expect that next year the attendance will be greater when we host our fourth Global Insurance Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa on April 25-27, 2017. To entice people to hold that date, here is a snapshot of what those not in attendance missed out on. 

First and foremost, the attendees at the event included many world class leaders in the insurance industry, regulatory community or insurtech world. The program was packed with incredible information on challenges facing start-ups, opportunities presented to start-ups, and how start-ups can raise capital and break in to the insurance industry. It was equally packed with discussions of regulatory issues facing the industry such as capital standards issues, global economic issues, and cyber security issues.

State insurance commissioners from Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Illinois and New Jersey shared their perspectives on the important issues facing the industry. They had a lively discussion on issues that all innovators looking to participate in the insurance industry would benefit from hearing. 

Those on the CEO panel shined as they offered the audience insight into how large carriers view innovation and how active the leadership teams are on working toward innovative solutions for customers. These business leaders stressed the need to work harder to improve customer experience with everything from underwriting to communications.  They also stressed the need to enhance and enable better digital platforms to enhance consumer interaction.  It was encouraging to hear from these business leaders that they are all working on putting the customer in the center of how they do business.  Neither industry nor regulators can ever lose focus on the customer. 

While I am hesitant to highlight one panel, I had the opportunity as moderator of the Corporate Innovation panel to work with four amazing individuals. During the panel, each gave a 12 minute TED style talk about how to innovate from within and then came together to discuss the issue as a panel.  We heard from Maria Ferrante-Schepis of Maddock Douglas, Guy Fraker of AutonomouStuff, Jag Randhawa of CAMICO Mutual Insurance and Neil Sprackling of SwissRe on the opportunities and challenges facing insurers and the need to innovate.  One theme from these talks that may surprise many reading this is that these innovative thought leaders believe the traditional carriers are in the best position to carry innovation forward  by moving customer-centric needs to the forefront. However, as many of the speakers stressed, simply being in a better position to do it is only an advantage  if companies  actually begin executing on innovative strategies.

The Global Insurance Symposium was the first event created to bring together regulators, innovators and insurance industry executives. In its third year, we had an incredible opportunity to learn from one another.  Now we must take that information and the connections we’ve gained to work together to create an insurance ecosystem that will benefit all consumers.  At the end of the day, innovation is not worth much if it does not improve the consumer experience and further the industry. I hope you consider attending the event in 2017. 

If you want to consider being a speaker or panelist or know someone else that would, please email me at nick.gerhart@iid.iowa.gov.  Success breeds more success and we can’t wait to start working on the 2017 Global Insurance Symposium! 

In closing, I will leave you with these tweets that sum up exactly how I hope every attendee felt after attending the Global Insurance Symposium.