Written by Martin Wiggins, MDWith just a few days to go, all of the preparation is well underway for the team heading to Deauville next week for AMRAE 2019, where we will be helping a record number of clients engage with their customers and prospects, and share a variety of new products and initiatives to kick off the year.As well as the opportunity to highlight new thinking and services, AMRAE is a great opportunity to take the temperature of those attending as to their thoughts and feelings for the year ahead, getting a handle on what they expect the risks and challenges to be and how they are planning to manage them, reducing any negative impact to their companies. We have recently seen the reports from Allianz and the World Economic Forum, both of which have shown in great depth that major corporate customers are still concerned about Business Interruption and Cyber Incidents, with the latter very much backing up the outcome of the FERMA Seminar at the end of last year.More interestingly perhaps is the relative change in the highlighting of risk in relation to changes in legislation and regulation moving up from 21% to 27% from 2018-2109, and how this is connected with the uncertainty over the political and economic situation across the globe – be that the pressures within the EU and Brexit, or the increasing ‘isolation’ and tensions that we are seeing on a trade level. The news seems to always be carrying stories about the US and the ‘friction’ with China in particular, the slowing of the Chinese economy, plus more about the ‘social’ pressures as people continue to struggle with the realities of ‘austerity’ and the lowering of wage and living standards – as seen in France over the last months.Perhaps connected to this is the question of a shortage of skilled workforce; is this due to increased labour mobility or a general reflection of the way in which technology is outstripping the ability of large numbers of the workforce to be trained/educated to make the very best of it?The programme for AMRAE looks very interesting and thought-provoking, but I’m sure that it will be the conversations taking place outside of the sessions that will be most interesting and I’m looking forward to a lively and interesting debate as to what 2019 is most likely to bring!