Reflections on our TAI Summit 2024
It’s been a few weeks since the TAI 2024 Summit in Louisville, Kentucky, and while flying over the Pacific Ocean (to meet with insurers in Australia and New Zealand), I thought back about the conference, which I think may have been our best ever. Spending time with many of my colleagues, a large number of our clients, and a few of our partners, I came away feeling good about where TAI is as a company and where we are as an industry
Brian Wilkinson, who took over as Head of TAI at the beginning of the year, led things off by laying out his vision of what he wants TAI to be: an important cog in the insurance and reinsurance industry ecosystem, and a key contributor to our clients’ (and our industry’s) growth and success. Many of the breakout sessions emphasized that vision. TAI staff-led sessions detailed how to help clients optimize their TAI administration system and effectively prepare for a system upgrade. We also pulled from our years of experience to share industry best practices when administering reinsurance.
Industry speakers covered a broad range of topics of interest to attendees. EY explored the hot topic of the day, AI, and how it is affecting and will affect the insurance industry. Deloitte got us all thinking about how we currently manage data and what else we could be doing with it, as long as the right governance is in place. And while most people focus on financial risks, RGA facilitated a discussion on operational risks from a reinsurance administration perspective.
Two of the most interesting sessions were the CTO Roundtable and our Thoughts from Your Reinsurers. In the latter, four different reinsurers gave short presentations on treaty risks, the importance of data (a common theme these days), accelerated underwriting, and navigating the political waters of a huge system conversion. I found the CTO Roundtable extremely interesting as TAI’s chief technical officer (CTO)talked with the CTOs of both a large insurer and a small insurer. While some problems are a little different, by and large all companies are dealing with the same issues when it comes to security, emerging technologies, and their effects on data privacy, risk management, and company growth.
Dr. Lisa Belanger, CEO of ConsciousWorks, was our keynote speaker, and she kept the entire audience engaged and entertained with her thoughts on how we need to take care of ourselves in order to be better supporters for our family, friends, and the people we work for and with. The power of enjoying the outdoors, exercising, taking time for yourself, and being grateful for what you have has been scientifically proven. If our attendees came away from our conference with nothing more than a few tips from Dr. Lisa, I think they would tell you it was well worth it.
As with all TAI Summits, it’s not all work and no play. One of the things we started last year was a local community service project. This time we teamed up with Home of the Innocents, a Louisville-based agency, to assemble hygiene kits for the children and families they serve. I don’t know how many we put together, but when we were finished, pallets of laundry baskets were ready to be distributed to the people of Louisville who need them most.
The piece de resistance was our Thursday night outing. Less than a week after Mystic Dan won the Kentucky Derby, all 160+ of us got to enjoy an evening of racing, drinking mint juleps, and making fancy hats in the suites of Churchill Downs. While I walked away that evening down a few dollars (turns out I don’t know anything about horses or racing forms), I also left with great memories of the week and had made a few new friends.
The themes of our summits are Exchange, Educate, and Enable. We certainly covered all three at this year’s event! I’m excited to see how we do the same, and even surpass it, next year in Chicago when we celebrate TAI’s 40th anniversary.
