2018 Breakout Sessions
Browse through our 2018 session topics. You have access to 4 of the 12 sessions on the conference day. We’ve made session selection a little easier by noting who may best benefit from the specific breakout. You can, however, select and attend the session of your choice.For available presentations, click here
Breakout #1 - Data Privacy - A consumer’s perspective
10:00AM – 11:00AM and 2:45PM – 3:45PM
Our industry relies more each day on access to data, for Simplified Underwriting, Advanced Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence. We need to understand the implications of evolving consumer’s expectations, legal and regulatory rules that apply to data to ensure the long-term success of our industry. Join an expert panel on Data Privacy in Canada, as they share insights into how Big Data has risks and opportunities, what represents responsible and legal uses of data, and how in a scenario where consumers may want to re-appropriate themselves of their data, they may still benefit from sharing their information with us on a knowing and consensual basis.
This session is part of a curated path in combination with session #4 and #5.
Session is best suited to:
All insurance industry representatives that are interested in an introductory overview on data privacy legal and regulatory trends and emerging engagement models with consumers on private data disclosure.
Moderator:
Donna Spagnolo
Partner
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Speaker(s):
Eric Boehm
Partner
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Shane Green
CEO (North America)
digi.me
Breakout #2 - ReImagine Regulation
10:00AM – 11:00AM and 2:45PM – 3:45PM
With the changing regulation landscape in Canada, we are challenged to look at insurance with a very different lens than we did in the past.
Since the global financial crisis, domestic regulatory changes, such as IFRS, LICAT, genetic testing, various OSFI/AMF Guidelines - and international regulatory standards influencing Canada, have been numerous and substantive in impact. For IFRS and LICAT, while their purposes are to improve risk sensitivity and the quality and comparability of financial statements respectively, there are significant challenges with their implementation.
The panelists will discuss the opportunities and challenges to Re-Imagine financial management and innovation in this new world of regulation.
Session is best suited to:
Those requiring deeper knowledge of regulation in Canada and associated impacts on the insurance industry, actuaries, accountants and others interested in impact of regulation at an intermediate level.
Moderator/Speaker:
Steve Easson
Vice President and Chief Actuary
Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc.
Speaker(s):
Paul Savage
AVP, Insurance Product and Pricing, Retail Markets
Manulife
Chris Piper
Head of IFRS 17 Valuation Development and Implementation - North America
Munich Re
Breakout #3 - Accelerated Underwriting
10:00AM – 11:00AM and 11:30AM – 12:30PM
Insurance professionals will discuss why accelerated underwriting is the new underwriting paradigm. They will share their experiences and discuss the approaches that their respective companies have taken in this new way of assessing risk.
This session is part of a curated path in combination with sessions #11 and #12.
Session is best suited to:
Underwriters, actuaries and forward thinkers.
Moderator:
Stephen Cooley
Chief Administrative Officer
PartnerRe
Speaker(s):
Karen Cutler
Vice President and Chief Underwriter, Retail and Affinity Markets
Manulife
Luc Bergeron
Vice President, Insurance Operations and Chief Actuary
Humania
Breakout #4 - How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Insurance
11:30AM – 12:30PM and 4:15PM – 5:15PM
Our speakers will share their hands-on experience, including some real examples of how AI is being applied in both the P&C and L&H space.
This session is part of a curated path in combination with session #1 and #5.
Session is best suited to:
Those interested in learning about the topic at an introductory level.
Moderator:
David Moss
Head of Client Markets Life & Health
Swiss Re Canada and English Caribbean
Speakers(s):
Gianluca Antonini - Read About Gianluca
Head Machine Intelligence & Strategy, Group Digital & Information Services
Swiss Re
Pamela Negosanti - Read About Pamela
Global Vice President, Insurance
Expert System
Breakout #5 - Insurance Analytics in Practice
10:00AM – 11:00AM and 11:30AM – 12:30PM
According to IDC, the world will produce 180 zettabytes of data (180 trillion gigabytes) by 2025. This is up from 10 zettabytes in 2015, a growth rate of almost 20x in 10 years. Furthermore, chief data officers and data scientists envision a future where “data monetization” will become a major source of revenue and competitive differentiation. When it comes to insurance, the ability to leverage data to understand and identify trends in the marketplace is critically important, but we have a long way to go.
Join us in an interactive discussion where carriers, reinsurers, and other industry participants share their journey into data analytics across claims, administration, underwriting, and distribution. The industry is “shifting beneath our feet” and those who can lead the charge by infusing technology by redefining modern business practices will be the ones that benefit in the long run.
This session is part of a curated path in combination with session #1 and #4.
Session is best suited to:
Anyone interested in understanding how their industry peers are leveraging data strategy to get better every day. A general understanding of data analytics is all that is needed to participate and learn.
Moderator:
Mitch Ocampo
CTO
LOGiQ3 Group
Speaker(s):
Genevra Pflaum
AVP, Client Data
Hannover Re
Brian Millman
Vice President
MIB Group, Inc. and MIB, Inc.
Breakout #6 - The Disability Claims Management (R)Evolution from Art to Science
11:30AM – 12:30PM and 4:15PM - 5:15PM
Disability insurance business has many components that go into its ultimate success: product design, pricing, underwriting and claims management. While the components may not be unique versus other insurance products, the degree of interaction among these variables and other external elements create complexity and often produce great volatility in results. Disability claims management becomes a major contributor to actual incidence and termination rates being as expected, or not.
In the spirit of ReImagining Insurance, disability claims management has been handed a golden opportunity to move from instinctual and artful case management to more systematic and scientific decision making. Technology advances and the power of data analytics are the ingredients - if carefully baked into disability case management - that can assist an insurer to produce superior business results and customer experience.
Session is best suited to:
Disability/Living Benefits business leaders, pricing actuaries, claims managers and underwriting managers.
Moderator:
Mark Foerster
Vice President, Group Operations and Claims
Munich Re insurance Company Canada Branch (Life)
Speaker(s):
Ken Bowman
Senior Director, Head of Claims
RBC Insurance Company
Steven Solomon
Vice President, Account Management
Best Doctors Canada
Veronika Litinski
CEO
GeneYouIn Inc.
Breakout #7 - Professional Development - Art of Persuasion
2:45PM – 3:45PM and 4:15PM – 5:15PM
Being persuasive is an essential leadership skill necessary for fulfillment in life and success in business. Increasingly in business today, interdependence and collaboration prevail over autonomy and authority. Persuasion is often more effectual than force, as Aesop recognized over 2,500 years ago.
In this interactive session, we'll just scratch the surface of this ancient art by providing you with a few principles, techniques, and illustrations of effective persuasion in an atmosphere of free choice. By the end, we hope to persuade you that the art of persuasion is a skill worth mastering, and we'll provide you with a short list of resources where you can continue your learning journey.
Session is best suited to:
Any delegate wishing to learn the ancient art of persuasion.
Moderator/Speaker:
Emile Elefteriadis, FCIA, FSA
Head Life & Health Products, Canada and Caribbean
Swiss Re Canada and English Caribbean
Speaker:
Frank Grossman, FCIA. FSA. MAAA
Principal
Linden Grove Group
Breakout #8 - Data Science
10:00AM - 11:00AM and 11:30AM - 12:30PM
Data science is a concept we keep hearing more and more about in relation to insurance, but it’s not new. Hear from global leading experts on the topic as they share their journey into this important field and provide valuable insight into how it might influence our industry.
The session will cover the recent historical context of data science, the building blocks of setting up a data science function within a company, and guidance into wrapping up data and analytics in an overarching strategy to realize value.
Session is best suited to:
All interested in the topic.
Moderator:
Robert Mallette
SVP, Chief Product and Pricing Officer Canada
RGA
Speaker(s):
James Guszcza
Chief Data Scientist
Deloitte Analytics
Alexis Iglauer
Head of Analytics and Technology
Partner Re
Brad Lipic
Vice President, Data Strategy Global Research and Development
RGA
Breakout #9 - The Surge of the Behavioural Toolkit: Applications of Behavioural Economics in Insurance
11:30AM – 12:30PM and 4:15PM – 5:15PM
Amidst a landscape of shifting customer preferences and a rise in viable competition, the global insurance industry is undergoing a momentous tide of change and Canada is no exception. As an inherently emotional industry, the behavioural toolkit is becoming increasingly relevant in the navigation of said market complexities.
Decades of empirical research in cognitive and behavioural science has demonstrated that decision making processes of all stakeholders, from customers to frontline professionals to executives, can be biased in their perception of the world, can be swayed by the short term, and can be vulnerable to overconfidence. The good news? By recognizing and anticipating these biases in the way products are structured, sold, and delivered, we are able to develop tools that improve some of the "leakiest" parts of the insurance business.
This session aims to provide an introduction to the most important biases at play within the insurance industry and importantly, a toolkit to help mitigate leakage and improve customer experience.
Session is best suited to:
Anyone interested in better understanding the numerous and fascinating applications of behavioural economics in insurance.
Moderator:
Louis Kerba
Vice President, Development
Optimum Reassurance
Speaker(s):
Melaina Vinski - Read About Melaina
Behavioural Economics Lead
PwC Canada
Matthew Lawrence - Read About Matthew
Director, Financial Services Consulting Group
PwC Canada
Breakout #10 - Innovating Life Insurance: The Role of Venture Capitalists and InsurTech
2:45PM – 3:45PM and 4:15PM – 5:15PM
According to a recent KPMG study, insurtech was one of the fastest growing area of fintech investment globally, attracting over USD 2bn of new investments just from VCs and registering a record number of new companies being launched around the world. The potential for the traditional life insurance model and landscape to be drastically changed is clearly there; this session explores why money is flowing in the insurtech segment and the role that venture capitalists (VCs) play.
Hutch Moragne, Corporate Partnerships Manager - Plug and Play Tech Center – will share their unique business proposition in the VC world, and share insights on how they approach the market, the fundamentals of the assessing an InsurTech start-up and factors for a successful investment.
Joining Hutch will be Jeff Wild of Life.io, a benefactor from Plug and Play’s investment, who will share their experience and lessons learned along their journey.
Session is best suited to:
Open to all participants interested in innovation.
Moderator:
Amhlaoibh Lynch
General Manager
Hannover Re
Speaker(s):
James (Hutch) Moragne - Read About Hutch
Corporate Partnerships Manager
Plug and Play Tech Center InsurTech
Jeff Wild- Read About Jeff
SVP, Revenue
Life.io
Breakout #11 - The Future of Underwriting
10:00AM – 11:00AM and 2:45PM – 3:45PM
The other underwriting sessions have covered where we are currently with Accelerated Underwriting and Genetics. This session will cover medical and non-medical items that our industry is looking at that may impact the way we do risk selection in the future. Dr Cliff Titcomb will cover topics such as Liquid Biopsy and other new scientific changes. Kevin Oldani will cover interesting areas such as wearables, data analytics and other area that may impact underwriting in the future. This session will provide attendees with a view on continued changes in the underwriting process as we incorporate the use of new medical and non-medical information, and how that information may in turn affect risk selection in the future. Discussion topics will include insights from Dr Cliff Titcomb on the impact of liquid biopsy and other medical advances, and Kevin Oldani’s views on non-medical information, such as what’s collected through wearables and data analytics.
This session is part of a curated path in combination with sessions #3 and #12.
Session is best suited to:
Beginner-intermediate – open to all participants interested in how the underwriting paradigm will change
Moderator/Speaker:
Kevin Oldani - Read About Kevin
North American Chief Underwriter
Hannover Life Reassurance Company of America
Speaker:
Cliff Titcomb - Read About Cliff
Consulting Medical Director – Hannover Re
Hannover Re
Breakout #12 - At the frontier of medical advances: Promises and challenges of genetic manipulation
2:45PM – 3:45PM and 4:15PM – 5:15PM
There is no doubt that life science and the study of genes in particular will play a significant role in the future of healthcare and humanity’s life and healthspan, but how exactly genetic testing and engineering (i.e. the manipulation of genes) will affect the insurance industry has yet to be seen. In this session, we will explore how the promises and challenges of this frontier of the medical research may influence insurance risk exposure through consumers’ behaviours and modification of intrinsic risk factors, how those dynamics could be managed effectively and best integrated into sustainable consumer insurance solutions.
This session is part of a curated path in combination with sessions #3 and #11.
Moderator:
Dr. Monica Wilson
Chief Medical Officer, Hub L&H Americas
Swiss Re
Speaker(s):
Dr. Robert C. Green, MD, MPH - Read About Dr. Green
Professor of Medicine (Genetics)
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Neville Sanjana, PhD
Core Faculty Member, New York Genome Center
Assistant Professor of Biology, New York University
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Physiology, NYU School of Medicine
