ITC 2019: It's a wrap!

I flew in on Sunday for the 4th InsureTech Connect with a pretty good sense of what to expect. With +7'000 people signed up for the conference, it would be big and loud and fun, full of insight and overall it would be a downright mad (in an entirely positive sense) experience ... it was all of that and then some!

Who's kidding who, it was exhausting! So much so in fact that, at the end of it I returned to my room and fell into a coma, while many surely went on to enjoy the after-party where they rebel-yelled and danced with themselves in the hot city at a white wedding (the odd sentence might give you a clue about the star of the party). Honestly, though, I'm entirly fine with having missed all of that ... after three days surrounded by thousands of people and insights, weaving through crowds, up and down escalators and along endless hallways, the senses constantly stimulated at all times with yet another face, another story, another brand and another solution - I needed a bit of coma, time to switch off for a while.

InsureTech's grown massively in just four years. For me it was the first time and I can only congratulate the creators Jay Weintraub and Caribou Honig and their teams for delivering a stellar event. If I could ask for anything for a next time it would be this: "Less, please!" Mind you, I understand the silliness of the request - naturally, with a conference such as this the expectations are high and as organizers one wants to offer attendees as much as possible ... and they most certainly did that with excellent keynote speakers and expert panels and parallel tracks and expo halls and and and ... this wasn't an event, it was an extravaganza. The funny thing was that, as mad as ITC2019 was, it was dwarved by another conference taking place at the same time. When arriving, the customs officer, followed by the cab driver, both informed me that the packaging industry was in town for a conference with 50'000 people! Now, Jay, Caribou, I'm not advocating you go for that size ... I'm just saying that, should you aim for it, it appears that this is entirely doable.

Over the course of these past few days, I had the opportunity to learn a great deal - and spend a bit of time with some of my Swiss Re colleagues as well! Kassie Brian, Jeffrey Lee, Jennie McGinnis and Niels Keuker shared insights on expert panels and several more colleagues were busy connecting with clients and both existing and potential insurtech partners - an event such as ITC may be exhausting, sure, but it also is an opportunity the meet a great many people in a very compact bit of time. Just looking around at the many people, engaged in one conversation after another, made it clear just how much value was generated here from one moment to the next.

I've written about some of my experiences already and, instead of rehashing them here, I'll share the links instead. Here a first article from the end of pre-conference day that brought with it a first immersive experience, and an impromptu meet with Caribou, the man with the hat himself.

Following the pre-conference day, Jay Weintraub and Caribou Honig took to the stage to ring in the official start of InsureTech Connect 2019. Here Caribou shared key thoughts on what insurtech is - and how M&As are more likely to reap the intended benefits - and yes, they announced InsureTech Asia (2-4 June 2020 in Singapore).

Next up was the opening keynote by Lippincott's Chief Experience Officer Chris Colborn - he made the case for the connection between purpose and innovation, pointing out that the most lasting innovations are purpose-led. The focus on purpose, and asking everyone in the room to reflect on their "why" was excellent.

And with that, we were squarely in the world of insurance. It was time for Glenn Shapiro, President of Allstate Personal Lines, to address the packed room with an excellent presentation that creatively showed how banking was disrupted. He showed what Allstate is doing but was clear in saying that disruptive technologies have not seen wide adoption. His call to action was clear: The industry needs to disrupt itself.

Day 1 of ITC2019 rolled on with a tidalwave of insight and news and announcements and rich connectivity. On announcements - here's a glimpse provided by P&C360. The morning of day 1 brought more keynotes (among them particularly Karen Swisher who was mentioned as hugely quoteable again and again (I'll write a separate post when I get around to it!)). Then the afternoon split into 8 (yes, eight!) different tracks that turned the relative calm of "all in one big room" into anthill-like hyperactive rushing about for the rest of the day.

One of those many sessions among those many tracks was an expert panel (on the customer of the future) that featured Niels Keuker. Today he is Chief Marketing & Sales Officer of Swiss Re's iptiQ ... I remember seeing his name the first time probably a decade ago, I believe he was at our London office then. Long before most people There was that guy who searched for insurtech innovations and put the insights together in a concise way to highlight what was going on for the people at Swiss Re. He had a passion for insurtech long before many others discovered it - and he clearly still has that passion!

Day 2 again began in the big room with Jay welcoming everyone and then leading over to a interview with two risk experts, Microsoft's Brian Warren and Google's Loren Nickel. There's always talk/concern that the big tech companies could step into insurance and entirely disrupt the industry. There was lots of food for thought coming from this conversation, especially when it came to the lack of pioneering spirit in the insurance industry - and Nickel's thoughts about pushing the envelope and thinking bigger.

After a CEO "fireside chat" with Markel CEO Richie Whitt (another session I'd like to write more about, time permitting!) it was time for Patrick Gee, Senior VP PI Claim at Travelers and a close look at how Travelers embraces technology - the focus was on property claims and the advances made are quite something.

The rest of the day was, once more, packed with many tracks and countless sessions on a myriad of topics - if you'd like to get a sense of it all - just visit the agenda! I was able to joint three more sessions, all of them with Swiss Re colleagues sharing their expertise in panel sessions. One was with Kassie Bryan (Head Solutions P&C Americas), a look at where insurance innovation is heading; another was with Jennie McGinnis (In Force Portfolio Manager) about evolving distribution models for Life & Health insurance; the third was with Jeffrey Lee (Senior Pricing Actuary) on "how to speak incumbent" (see below for more on this session). Overall, it was great to see these and several other colleagues reach out, connect and engage throughout the conference. Again, the value of something like ITC cannot be overstated. What can happen here in terms of network and insight in just a few days is something that otherwise would be a matter of several months.

And that was that! What followed, for me, was writing, coma, writing and more writing - an overall richly insightful and massively exhausting experience. Well, "that was that" of course refers to just me - there's lots more about there about this year's ITC extravaganza - look up #ITC2019 on your preferred social media platforms and you'll be sure to come across more insights, more experiences, more pictures. Here, just as an example, is the Nigel Walsh's wrap-up. That's it from me and, who knows, I might see you at ITC2020!