Earlier this month, I attended the annual RIMS Conference – which this year was held in San Diego. As well as supporting our largest ever number of clients at the event, it gave me the chance to speak with many risk and insurance professionals and gain their thoughts and opinions on a wide range of topics – from the ‘local’ to the ‘global’.

So, over and above the hospitality – and weather in California, what were my 4 takeaways from RIMS 24?

Brand.

This year, more so than in Atlanta, I saw a real step-change amongst the exhibitors – with more of them taking the time and effort to not only create great exhibition booths and hospitality areas, but also to deliver their brands across multiple platforms – from airport advertising and thought leadership to expansive animations and the traditional billboard advertising. Combining these to inform, educate and influence is becoming much more of the ‘norm’ for conferences and RIMS is at the forefront of this – with over 10,000 attendees all keen to know more and meet with individuals and companies that can help them ‘be better’. The need to reach out and engage ahead of your competitors is more important than ever. Congratulations to Sompo for deploying the assets at the airport so well.

Risk is getting riskier.

All the risk professionals I spoke to suggested that the risks they ‘know’ are getting easier, but the ‘unknown’ is the real issue. As Donald Rumsfeld put it, “There are the unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know.” The scale and impact of something you don’t see coming has the chance to really impact and damage.

‘Resilience’ was a key word in how they look to respond to not only climate change, but also continued geo-political tensions – from Europe to Asia, cyber and the advancements of negative AI and supply chain interruptions – and the odd boat hitting a bridge! All of these things are certainly pushing the market to think differently and be better prepared to offer support in a range of layers to help companies manage the risk and get back on their feet when disaster strikes. There was a really interesting presentation from Swiss Re on Parametric Protection Insurance that eases the process of claims and payouts.

Relationships.

In a world where ‘tech’ seems to be the glue that holds so much of modern life together – it was reassuring to see some many people genuinely pleased to meet and spend time talking about issues – sharing and enjoying the company of like-minded people. As well as some great exhibition booths, many have extended their investment at RIMS to adopt ‘Hospitality’ or ‘Business Lounges’. This clearly shows a desire to get closer to companies and people in the market – to better understand and to be better placed to help. By the way, the ‘Best Coffee Award’ has to go to Allianz – thanks for serving me so many!

Better Balance.

Finally, it was great to see a better balance of people attending. The event has come a long way in its inclusion and diversity of all types of people which can only benefit the industry in the long run.

Events such as RIMS provide us with a great opportunity to really get to know the issues that impact our clients on a local basis – and help us shape how we support them. Making our opinions, ideas and creativity routed in the experience of their markets and not just views created many miles away in a vacuum. Really getting to know the individuals, as well as the things that are on their minds – from risk to coverage to relationships – helps us all improve. Sharing and combining that knowledge with others from across the globe gives us the chance to really help a client through both the strategic as well as the tactical challenges they face.

After the sunshine of San Diego, we head to Manchester in the UK and then to Edinburgh – helping clients deliver in their local markets, bringing global context and ideas and helping us be a better partner too. The work for RIMS 2025 in Chicago starts at the end of June! No rest then!