ICTC2020: Agenda & Presentation Topics

Climate Change & Extreme Weather Risk: Is Canada Prepared?

Kathryn Bakos

– Kathryn Bakos, Director - Climate Finance and Science, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation

Climate change is a major – and global – issue. We now face the significant challenge of trying to moderate its impact and adapt to the outcome. Kathryn will provide:

• A science-based assessment of the current situation;
• A look ahead into the future implications;
• A review of the adaptations we are making and will need to make;
• Comments about the importance of partnerships and applying synergies.

What will the world be like for future generations?

Automotive Technology, Road Data and Insurance

Julie Bernadou

– Julie Bernadou, Business Development Manager, Mobileye

What applications does collision avoidance technology and road data have for the insurance industry beyond just automotive? The answer may surprise you.

Julie Bernadou of Mobileye will walk you through how innovations help to transform the insurance industry, and what this could mean for you – and your insureds.

Julie will discuss:

• Current trends, bad habits, and solutions in automotive insurance;
• Taking a proactive approach to automotive insurance;
• AI Vision and Data – applications across the insurance industry.

Join Julie for an informative session which will wrap up with an open discussion.

Telematics: Overcoming Key Obstacles Facing Canadian Insurers

Daniel Lajeunesse

– Daniel Lajeunesse, CEO, DEL Telematics

Telematics-based insurance has been growing globally at a steady pace; forecasts predict UBI and PAYD insurance programs with a CAGR of 29% until 2026. Telematics programs in Canada are relatively new compared to the US and UK and only a few insurers have deployed solutions.

Two key obstacles which trouble insurance executives – whether they have already deployed or are still evaluating the business case – are the impact on policy rates and the cost of data acquisition.

What options are available to offset the capital and maintenance cost of insurance telematics programs in both personal and commercial auto insurance. Cost sharing provides an effective way to acquire the coveted data, for example:

• Participation/membership in telematics data exchanges;
• Partnerships with various private sector endeavours;
• Partnerships with government projects, subsidies, and tax savings opportunities.

Various non-policy rate options go beyond the common “UBI is for rate reduction” paradigm, including safety programs, age based programs, and more.

And after an accident, within the claims process, telematics can benefit both the insured and insurer.

How Fast Can You Take A Product To Market?

Justin Hamade

– Jeff McCann, Co-Founder & CEO, Apollo Exchange
– Justin Hamade, Chief Technology Officer, Apollo Exchange

Transforming into an InsurTech – an organization with a strong customer focus, an agile culture, a new technology adopter and an innovation orientation – is something we are nearly all actively pursuing.

Justin and Jeff are depending on your help with a variety of decisions as they bring a new product to the marketplace.

Take away a new and better perspective on the challenges – and opportunities – at the front line of insurance as we enter this new increasingly dynamic decade.

Data and Advanced Analytics Underpin Insurance in the New Decade

Marty Ellingsworth

– Marty Ellingsworth, Senior Analyst, Celent

Understanding customers and managing risk effectively across the insurance value chain spans the globe, carriers of all sizes, every line of business, and the many vendors in these ecosystems. Innovative tools and techniques to measure and manage risk using sensors, third party data etc., permit new ways of insuring the evolving on-demand, gig, and sharing economies.

This session will map out a range of data sources and analytic technologies and then focus on a business case for using better data to insure automobile use. Stepping up to customer expectations in a personalized world with risk-based pricing and customer insights is on everyone's mind for innovation and growth.

Leveraging Third-Party Data for Marketing, Underwriting and Claims

Eric Weisburg

– Eric Weisburg, Vice President - Research and Consulting, Novarica

Insurers have long depended on third-party data in support of their business.

Today, there is greater interest than ever before, as the industry grows increasingly competitive and carriers seek an edge via customer experience and deploy analytics throughout underwriting and claims.

Eric will discuss the highlights from his recent research on Canadian third-party data, including use cases and value realization.

Addressing A Customer Auto Claims Issue With Real-Time Predictive Analytics

Jonathan Spinner

– Jonathan Spinner, AVP - Claims Transformation, National Claims, Aviva Canada
– Dorothy Comber, AVP - Data Science & Analytics, Aviva Canada
– Daryl McGrattan, AVP - Product Analytics and Delivery, Auto Claims, Aviva Canada

With today's focus on the customer experience, addressing pain points is high on the list of corporate objectives. Within auto claims, the process of determining whether an auto is repairable or should be consigned to salvage can be a sore spot for customer and adjuster alike.

Aviva Canada tackled this issue by integrating real-time predictive analytics into the process. This session will review:

• The business issues;
• The technology;
• The data science & analytics; and
• The results – for the consumer, the adjusters and Aviva.

Reshaping Insurance With Data, Analytics, ML & AI

Baiju Devani

– Baiju Devani, SVP Data Science & Chief Data Officer, Aviva Canada
– Doug Grant, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca

Data may be the new gold, but to derive value from it, it must be defined, categorized, processed and analyzed.

Participants will discuss current success stories and how industry leaders have used cutting-edge tools – such as advanced analytics, deep learning, artificial intelligence, and machine learning – to improve insurance offerings and processes.

Hear about the impacts data and tools will have on the insurance business.

Transforming the Canadian Marketplace: Bringing a European Insurance Perspective to Canada

Pieter Louter

– Pieter Louter, Chief Executive Officer, Onlia

Onlia launched in 2017 with the purpose of helping make Canada safer by motivating and rewarding Canadians for developing safer driving habits – grounded in data and behavioural economics, and a belief in rewards over penalties. Through digital direct-to-consumer home & auto insurance and the Onlia Sense safe-driving app, Onlia is making a shift toward a prevention-first strategy. Their goal? To make the world so safe that one day people may not need insurance at all.

This unique approach to insurance is part of a greater European perspective on the role of safety and insurance.

Hear about the Dutch approach to road safety and insurance, using technology to create a movement and shift consumer behaviour, and Onlia's experience in bringing this vision to life in collaboration with their Canadian partners, Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited.

How To Deliver On The Promise, Avoid The Peril And Solve The Math Of InsurTech's Highest Consumer Ambition

Sheldon Snodgrass

– Sheldon Snodgrass, Insurance Sales Author, Speaker, Coach

Join this fast-paced, 30-minute distillation of InsurTech's greatest promise to carriers, consumers, and independent brokers: to sell more while serving better.

While InsurTech innovations run deep in the non-customer facing realms of operations and finance, this session focuses squarely on how to parlay the three most common customer encounters into seamless experiences.

Understand how the inefficient human will ensure that the efficient tech acts as a customer magnet instead of a liability. Leave this session with a clear understanding of a basic math equation at the root of every action you want consumers to take – from a mouse click to a credit card purchase.

Influencing Insurance Customer Behavioural Risk Factors

Jay Sarzen

– Jay Sarzen, Senior Analyst - P&C Insurance, Aite Group

One challenge for P&C carriers has always been that no matter how sound their underwriting processes might be, the actions and behaviors of their policyholders are, for the most part, beyond their control.

However, enhanced risk mitigation techniques, supported by emerging technologies such as telematics and enhanced data analysis, are beginning to emerge.

This presentation will highlight the key actions, activities and technologies that carriers can leverage in order to gain some element of control over the previously uncontrollable.

Proactive Communications: Take CX to the Next Level and Drive Measurable Business Benefits

Eugene Lee

– Eugene Lee, VP - Insurance & Wealth Management Solutions, Hearsay

Most insurers are making significant investments in digital transformation. Consumer and broker portals, mobile applications, quick quoting solutions, self-service analytics, and more. We all want to be more like the digital innovators in other industries.

What makes the insurance journey unique is that the most impactful moments in the customer lifecycle are not self-service initiated:

• Reaching out to a customer who is late on their bill and at risk of cancellation;
• Engaging with a claimant in their moment of need;
• And more...

These are proactive opportunities to engage with customers and they can make the difference between winning and losing a customer.

In this session we will discuss: What is Proactive Digital Transformation? Where can I use it in my business and what benefits will it drive? How can I get started?

Omnichannel Experience Design: What, How, and Why

Anton Abramov

– Anton Abramov, Director Customer Experience, X by 2

As the online/offline divide dissolves, adopting an omnichannel mindset is a useful approach that helps insurers keep customer experience seamless across all touchpoints and interactions.

• What is omnichannel experience design?
• Why is omnichannel experience design important?
• What are customer expectations?
• How can you develop an omnichannel approach?
  • Identify and break up silos;
  • Design for users, not channels;
  • Integrate around a centralized system.

Developing A Change Management Strategy

Pri Manoharan

– Pri Manoharan, Director, X by 2

A key part to any transformation initiative is managing the change and disruption that comes with it. Understanding that change and creating an effective strategy that starts early in the process can make the difference between good vs great. This session will explore the following aspects of an effective change management strategy that should be considered as part of any transformation:

• Sponsorship;
• People;
• Communication;
• Measurement;
• Training.

InsurTech & IoT: Four Keys to Success

Jack Ott

– Jack B. Ott, Founder & Coach, BolderBlue Leadership

When “InsurTech” first burst onto the scene, there was a sense that massive disruption was in the works and new players would quickly push incumbents to the curb. InsurTech turned out to be more of a rising tide, than the predicted tsunami.

The much-hyped Internet of Things (IoT) got off to a slow start in our industry. Technology was not enough. We needed to develop new business models, partnerships and value propositions to make it work.

We have made progress and today IoT is a mainstream part of insurance. The momentum is building.

This session explores 4 key criteria for the success of IoT applications in P&C Insurance. We will look at some specific IoT deployments to identify the success factors and pitfalls. The discussion will be helpful to established companies, startups and entrepreneurs, as they look to participate in the next wave of IoT / InsurTech innovation.

Aggregators: Friend or Foe?

Justin Thouin

– Justin Thouin, Co-Founder & CEO, LowestRates.ca
– Doug Grant, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca

In today's world of digital transformation, improving the many elements of the customer experience is mandatory.

Everyone in the insurance value chain – whether insurer, broker, aggregator, services provider, etc. – has that customer focus, because improving the quality of the business is essential to success.

The growth of aggregators and the role they play has many facets. This discussion will consider different points of view in the debate about whether they should be considered Friend or Foe.

Innovation – The Mutual Way

Tracy MacDonald

– Tracy MacDonald, President & CEO, Trillium Mutual Insurance Company
– Alec Harmer, President & CEO, HTM Insurance Company
– Deb Van Eyk, President & CEO, Lambton Mutual Insurance Company
– Moderator: Randy Straeten, President & CEO, Cognition+

Mutual insurance companies have serviced their communities since the 1850s. They have a longstanding history of innovation and resiliency – never more true than it is today.

These four presidents of technology-minded mutuals will discuss the business innovations that are driving their operations, with an eye to better servicing their member customers. They will discuss:

• Using business intelligence to drive data insights for service, product & pricing;
• Transforming into a digital insurer and supporting a digital consumer experience;
• Improving broker connectivity with a farm portal, and launching a new broker app.

Bringing Other Industry Experience To Insurance

Dimitrios Argitis

– Dimitrios Argitis, VP & GM - Canada, Keal Technology (A Vertafore Company)

Technology is evolving rapidly. Companies and industries are working hard to adjust. This presentation will review some of the key trends in technology, touch on how some other industries are responding to these changes and comment on how some of their best practices are applicable to the InsurTech space.

From technologies such as IoT, CLOUD 2.0, business intelligence and AI, to the Amazon & Google effect on customer expectations, to convergence of the B2B and B2C markets, these advances are rapidly changing the way we create, exchange, and distribute value.

In this ecosystem of ever-increasing complexity, achieving true customer-centricity will require the combination of brokers who are committed to putting the customer in the center of the value chain along with agile InsurTech solution providers who are committed to being innovative digital enablers.

How The Publishing Industry Is Adapting To Digital Disruption ... Without All The Data

Robert Wheaton

– Robert Wheaton, Chief Strategy & Operations Officer, Penguin Random House Canada

The publishing industry has long felt the impact of disruption and innovation: Amazon, eBooks, and digital audiobooks are only the most recent examples.

Like many “traditional” media formats (such as newspapers and music), books are often said to be in decline.

But the Canadian book market is growing; and Millennial readers have, if anything, reestablished their relationship with the book – though not always in the same way as previous audiences.

Meanwhile, publishers only reach the market through retailers and distributors, who are not often willing to share the relevant data with their suppliers. How, then, are publishers adapting to this new world of uncertainty?

Insurance Frontiers: From Here To The Horizon

Chris D. Cornell

– Chris D. Cornell, Head of Insurance, KPMG Canada
– Katie Bolla, Partner, Customer and Digital, KPMG
– Neil Parkinson, Corporate Director; Board member of Gore Mutual, Genworth Financial, and Equitable Life

While the key trends shaping the insurance industry today are all too familiar, the journey to transformation in the Canadian landscape is just beginning. Are you prepared for what's on the horizon and ready to embrace a new frontier?

In this presentation, Chris Cornell, KPMG in Canada's Head of Insurance, outlines the drivers of industry transformation, as well as best practices and strategies for success as insurers look to the horizon.

Chris will touch on:

• Seismic shifts in customer dynamics;
• Business model transformation;
• Alliances and partnerships;
• Game-changing regulation;
• The workforce of the future.

The presentation by Chris will be followed by a fireside discussion.

Fireside Chat: Emerging Technology in Insurance

Eric Weisburg

– Eric Weisburg, Vice President - Research and Consulting, Novarica
– Doug Grant, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca

Eric will share and discuss the results of a Novarica study of more than 100 insurer CIOs tracking deployment and pilot plans across a dozen new technology areas classified as “emerging.”

These include artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), augmented/extended and virtual reality (AR/VR), Big Data, blockchain, chat bots, drones, mobile, predictive analytics, robotic process automation (RPA), the Internet of Things (IoT), sensors and telematics, smart homes, wearables, and more.

See how your plans vary from the industry average.

Innovating Beyond Touchpoints And Customer Irritants: Stories From The Field

Erika Bailey

– Erika Bailey, Innovation Designer, The Moment

Let's face it – innovating in the insurance space is hard. Legacy practices and technology, customer perception, regulation and history are just some of the significant barriers to addressing significant disruption in the market.

This talk is about the good news! Innovation designers (and their clients) thrive on tough constraints and live for a juicy challenge. Erika will share a number of case studies that illustrate how a sample of North American insurance companies are choosing Innovation Design to embed new ways of working and embrace innovation mindsets that create real results and real ROI.

Learn from success stories along with cautionary tales in innovating on the customer experience in claims, auto, and home insurance.

Three Keys to Innovation Success And One Pitfall to Avoid

Julia Bloom

– Julia Bloom, Founder, Bloom Innovation Consulting

Digital transformation and innovation investments remain top-of-mind for insurance executives in companies of all sizes. Innovative initiatives often lack in business agility and fail to produce the promised or expected benefits, thereby limiting future investments.

In this session, Julia will share industry best practices around linking innovation to business strategy, the Innovation DNA and the “thinking in bets” mindset that organizations should possess in order to successfully identify and execute customer-centric initiatives in order to better their experiences, leading to desired business outcomes.

Innovation, Culture, and Capitalizing on Data

Caroline Abela

– Caroline Abela, Chief Product Owner, Export Development Canada
– Michel El-Khoury, Sr. Manager - Financial Services Consulting, Deloitte

In 2017, Export Development Canada embarked on a strategic initiative to expand its offering to help more companies grow their businesses globally. With a goal of more than tripling the customers it was serving in only 3 years, it launched a Knowledge Services business team to innovate a new line of digital solutions to solve the non-financial problems Canadian companies face when their businesses cross borders.

In two years, EDC built an innovation engine that drove the iterative design, development and deployment of user centered, data powered custom applications by the business, in the business.

Hear about their journey to build a results-focused innovation culture, the key choices they made, and their key learnings “from the trenches.”

EDC and its delivery partner Deloitte will share insights including how to drive innovation in a risk averse climate using Agile, Design Thinking and Lean Start-Up, how to rapidly build, deploy and pivot when your tech stack isn’t sufficiently mature, and how to capitalize on the hidden assets and insights in your data.

How To Become An Innovation Anticipator Leading The Industry By Using Co-Creation & Co-Innovation

Sven Roehl

– Sven Roehl, Co-Founder, Cookhouse Labs; Head of Innovation, msg global

The insurance industry is facing one of the toughest times in its history. The customer's perception of insurance could hardly be more negative; interest rates are at a low; InsurTechs are disrupting traditional distribution channels; regulators are maximizing the pressure on internal processes; the majority of organizations run on outdated IT-systems; and it seems that hardly any young talent wants to start a professional career in insurance. These are just a few examples.

Faced with all these challenges, how can an insurance company become an innovation anticipator and industry leader?

Cookhouse Labs has helped many insurance organizations driving innovation by bringing an industry together to jointly tackle the problems. This session will provide insides on:

• The hottest innovation topics and the biggest challenges;
• What it means to become an innovation anticipator – and what's required;
• How co-creation maximizes insights by reducing the effort and investment involved;
• How to progress from idea to new service or product.

The Evolution of Innovation in Canadian P&C Insurance

David Arbuthnot

– David Arbuthnot, Director - Innovation Outpost, Wawanesa Insurance
– Daniel Zhan, Innovation Advisor, iA Financial Group
– Moderator: David Gambrill, Editor-in-Chief, Canadian Underwriter

“Digital”; “Transformation”; “Innovation”; “InsurTech”; each term describes a phase in the continuing saga of the evolution of insurance. Hear about the impact these are having right now, and how the very meaning of innovation is changing, too.

Take a peek into the future: Is the next phase about platforms, ecosystems, or something else? Hear about how the nature of risk and consumer services might change, and the implications for our industry.

The Future of Work: Human-Centric Innovation

Joseph D'Souza

– Joseph D'Souza, CEO, ProNavigator
– Greg Smith, Chief Client Officer, Crawford & Company (Canada), Inc.
– Amanda Ketelaars, VP - Operations, Mitchell & Whale Insurance Brokers
– Sheldon Snodgrass, Insurance Sales Author, Speaker, Coach

Increased customer demands are placing a strain on insurance staff, while at the same time insurance organizations grapple with challenges retaining their existing team and recruiting new additions.

Thanks to ongoing innovations – particularly with artificial intelligence (AI) and human-machine collaboration – the future of insurance work promises a reduction in time spent on tedious activities, a better-performing business, plus increased employee – and customer – satisfaction.

This session will take a more nuanced look at how work is evolving, and some of the implications for people and their roles given the emergence of new technologies.

Digital Can Be Personal: InsurTech For Real People

Amanda Ketelaars

– Amanda Ketelaars, VP - Operations, Mitchell & Whale Insurance Brokers
– Nick Kidd, Director - Business Insurance, Mitchell & Whale Insurance Brokers

Amanda Ketelaars and Nick Kidd will discuss Mitchell & Whale’s decade-long journey from small family brokerage to digital juggernaut, and the way that the team has embraced technology as a way to facilitate what is really an old-fashioned way of doing business: using digital tools and advanced analytics as a means to get back to treating customers like people, not numbers.

Nick and Amanda will present the M&W story through the lens of their ICTA-nominated systems, Goliath and Quotey, two shining examples of this team’s commitment to build the technology that puts people first.

Insurance Innovation: A People Business

Greg Smith

– Greg Smith, Chief Client Officer, Crawford & Company (Canada), Inc.

As a provider of services to insureds on behalf of insurers and others, Crawford Canada maintains a focus on innovation as one way to increase its competitiveness.

Greg will discuss:

• Who are Crawford's clients, from the perspective of the company's Chief Client Officer?
• How was the acquisition of InsurTech startup WeGoLook representative of Crawford's approach?
• What makes the YouGoLook mobile app – the subject of 2020 ICTA nomination – unique compared to other insurance apps?
• Given Crawford's focus on employees, how does its Performance Hub – another ICTA nomination – balance quality and production?

Working With An Insurance Marketplace aka Exchange

Jeff McCann

– Jeff McCann, Co-Founder & CEO, Apollo Exchange
– Alexandra Spence, Director - Marketing & Operations, Berkley Canada
– Neil Macleod, Director - Sales, Insurego Inc.
– Doug Grant, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca

Within the distribution space, it would be simple to state that everything is either “direct” or “intermediated,” which in Canada means primarily broker.

That grossly understates the changes that insurance distributors are undertaking – even as everything changes around them, from products to distribution through claims to reinsurance.

Jeff and Doug will discuss some aspects:

• What is an insurance marketplace or exchange?
• Where does it fit in the overall distribution space?
• How might this change distribution?
• Why now?
• What is an “ecosystem” and what role does a marketplace play?

Innovating Insurance Products and Distribution

Robin Shufelt

– Robin Shufelt, Managing Director, Duuo by The Co-operators
– Mark Morissette, Co-Founder & CEO, Foxquilt
– Bonny van Rest, Chief Marketing Officer, Onlia

Initially feared as a threat to insurance incumbents, many InsurTech startups in the insurance business (rather than providing technology) have tackled niche opportunities.

Boasting a great customer experience, they have brought innovative products and marketing approaches to their sectors.

The speakers will share their experiences and discuss the challenges and success factors.

InsurTechs: Winning in the Marketplace

Jiten Puri

– Jiten Puri, Founder & CEO, PolicyAdvisor.com
– Danish Yusuf, Founder & CEO, Zensurance
– Ron Glozman, Founder & CEO, Chisel AI
– Doug Grant, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca

InsurTechs have been, and continue to be, a key part of the rapid transformation and innovation in insurance. Their impact has been significant in two dimensions:

• With a keen focus on the customer and leveraging modern technology to enable quick and efficient processes, they are a threat to established insurance providers;
• With their cutting-edge tools, they are partners who are helping those incumbent insurance providers move forward faster and help ward off competitors.

This discussion will consider success factors for InsurTechs, from ideation through the stages to successfully competing in the marketplace.