Specialty Podcast: RISKWORLD Recap - Key Takeaways for Public Entities

Intro (00:00):
You're listening to the Alliant Specialty Podcast, dedicated to insurance and risk management solutions and trends shaping the market today.

Dan Howell (00:09):
Hi there, this is Dan Howell. Glad you're joining me for another Alliant Specialty Podcast. I've got Karen Caterino and Mark Goode, leaders in Alliant Public Entity. On this podcast, we're going to do a RISKWORLD recap to talk a little bit about what we experienced and saw at the RIMS conference in Atlanta. First of all, I want to say Atlanta was really lovely and a wonderful venue and a great place to be. So, hats off to Atlanta. Karen, could you start with some of your thoughts on what you saw and experienced and takeaways?

Karen Caterino (00:45):
Yeah, by far, I think this was my favorite RIMS conference that I've been to, which is saying a lot. I think just coming out of COVID and the networking and connecting that was happening, the venue and location was really spectacular, the opportunity to casually run into folks and connect and reconnect after a year of not seeing them, including the buzz in our meeting space that Alliant had, I think it was our first year with having the fantastic meeting space that we had where it was just really electric. We had a lot of impromptu meetings with our new Data Analytics launch, to seeing clients in the meeting space, connecting with each other. I thought that was fun too, and great job to our team, making that really special for folks where they could grab a bite or a snack or an awesome ice cream sandwich. So, that was pretty fun for me and certainly some trending topics were around cyber and clearly, I think we were attuned to it because of our new cyber vertical. So, we had a great presentation that was given by our Cyber vertical team during the RIMS conference and certainly they were also available at our meeting space. So, all in all, it was just really a lot of fun. Again, I think by far it was my favorite RIMS conference to date.

Dan Howell (02:05):
Well, I have to agree. It was really a good one and definitely getting together those impromptus, I had one of those where a client walked into our meeting space, I didn't even know she was there, and we had a great conversation, so it really was helpful. Mark, how about your thoughts?

Mark Goode (02:21):
Yeah, my thoughts pretty much mimic Karen, but as far as the comments that I heard, again, my congratulations to the Alliant team. I heard nothing but raves from our clients, from our analytics platform to our booth, to our golf outing. Nothing but great reviews. As far as topics that I heard a lot of our clients talk about, the hard market as we all know what's going on there and you could not have a conversation where people were not talking about that. And the need, particularly in the property arena, to have those experts guide them through this process. We also heard them talk quite a bit about, a problem we all know is out there, which is lack of staffing. It's very difficult. Most everybody that we talk to has a lot of openings in the various departments and that was a major concern for them. But what do we do, moving forward, to attract people to come in and fill positions? We see it in our space as well. How do we bring young people into what we are doing? Cyber was a big topic on more of an improving era. We've all been through the last several years of awful increases as far as cyber that seems to be flattening, and climate change. Those were other issues that I heard on a repeated basis throughout our conversations with clients.

Dan Howell (03:32):
Well, I agree that climate change really is having impacts and popping up in ways that people are being surprised sometimes by. For me, I would have to say analytics, analytics, analytics. Not just Alliant Analytics, but just throughout. I think one of the things that I'm seeing that was discussed at RIMS and is really coming to a head is how deep underwriters are getting nowadays. Certainly, this year's even more than last year and the year before, as far as the modeling and the granularity of the data. And I think that what I took away was having tools like the new Alliant Analytics platform and the artificial intelligence enhancement of the data that we're working towards, that is going to help us be ahead of the curve with those underwriters because the questions are coming on valuation and on modeling exposures and I think we're all going to have to pedal a little faster than the underwriters to make sure we're out ahead of that curve.

So, it really was an eye-opener to me, and I think that's a takeaway. I will say RIMS seemed more relevant than ever to me for public entities. In the past, public entities felt like it was more of an opportunity just to get together as opposed to really engage with RIMS. And it seemed really quite relevant, and I just checked, it looks like we're in San Diego next year. That's a fabulous venue like Atlanta as well. I encourage any public entity visitors out there who may be on the fence about RIMS to think about it because it really seems to be becoming essential as a part of the major risk management programs. Any parting thoughts?

Mark Goode (05:21):
Yeah, and Dan, I would agree with you there. Historically, we all know that RIMS has not been a high bid of attendance for public entities, but we're starting to see more and more of them attend and I think it's just a feeling that they need so much information with this as difficult as this market is, they're reaching out to places maybe that they haven't done so in the past looking for solution.

Karen Caterino (05:45):
I completely agree. I think what was unusual a little bit this year is the fact that due to some of what Dan was mentioning with the underwriters asking and requesting so much information, RIMS was the perfect opportunity to take your client around to introduce them to a number of those underwriters so that they in turn could tell their story directly to the markets, as well as learn why the markets are asking the amount of detail they are. A lot of times as a broker being in the middle of that always feels like it's us asking for all this information. Really, it's the market so that we can help them write the best policy on behalf of the client. I've found this year with RIMS as well, a couple of clients I brought around were able to be introduced to new services and there are a lot of new vendors there. For example, ones that were offering AI as a tool for offsetting workplace injuries, to a company that does property evaluations as well as a database for housing that information, to structured solutions. It was just a really nice opportunity for a lot of the risk managers to be introduced to new products and services that they may not have even thought of. So, I appreciated RIMS for that as well.

Dan Howell (06:58):
Yep. It's great to be back together in person when we can. That's for sure. Especially as return to office sort of comes together slowly, return to conference seems even more relevant. So, I'm going to date myself a little here and say that I think the three of us would give it three thumbs up for RIMS 2023 and I very much agree with Mark, the Alliant team that put together our participation this year, it really was remarkable and memorable. So, thanks Karen and Mark for joining me to just do this RIMS recap and hope to see you in San Diego at next year's RIMS.