October 2016 Meeting Registration
Aloha kakou! This phrase means “greetings to all” in Hawaiian and was just one of the many interesting things I learned during our annual convention. The new designees descended on Honolulu, HI in September for the annual conferment. The record breaking final number of new designees was 7,523, with 12,000 people in attendance at the conferment ceremony. The featured speaker at the conferment, John Quinones reaffirmed our core beliefs in doing the right thing no matter who is looking. More than 50 new designees met with us Sunday afternoon for a reception as well.
We will continue our celebration for new designees in Iowa at the I-Day conferment on November 10, 2016 at Prairie Meadows. Our topic for I-Day will focus on Personal Lines, why it is important to both you and the industry, and what the future holds.
We will be installing smoke detectors with the Des Moines Fire Department for a Good Works project, October 8, 2016. Smoke detectors were purchased with our Good Works funds from the golf charity event in July. If you are still interested in helping, please contact me.
Don’t forget - Burkhalter Award nominees are due October 5. Look on page 4 for more details about how you can honor someone you know by nominating them for this award.
During our October meeting, we will vote on approval of the following officer and Director Nominees for 2017:
- President - Adam Haugerud
- Vice President - Stephanie Wells
- Secretary - Chris Murphy
- Treasurer - Jeff Wilson
- Director of Member Activities - Alyssa Saunders
- Director of Professional Development - Sara VanWyk
I enjoyed learning at the annual convention from industry leaders. The speakers believed that we will see major changes in the next 5 years. During the presentation on the Future of Personal Lines, Robert Olson, Senior Research Analyst from International Risk Management Institute discussed the technology coming our way in the near future. I thought flying cars, driverless cars, and domestic robots were 10 or 20 years away but all of these will be mainstream in the next 5 years according to our speaker. Tiny homes may not be on our radar in the insurance industry but they are an emerging market. Jeremy Pearl from Hawaii ADU LLC identified two hurdles in tiny homes as where to allow them and how to insure them. The industry experts on tiny homes believe we will see ADUs (accessory dwelling units) skyrocket in popularity and be 25% of the housing market in the next 5 years. Due to land constraints, they advocate adding these homes to existing lots which will be a concern for our industry on how to properly insure these risks.
