The IUMI annual conference is well under way! Isabelle Therrien, CBMU President, and Peter Hohman, President and CEO of the Insurance Institute of Canada welcomed us full heartedly and gave respectively great presentations on Toronto and the history of marine insurance here. We also now know that the correct pronunciation of Toronto is ‘Toronno’.
We had two exceptional keynote speakers. First up was Mark-Yves Bertin, Director-General of Marine Policy, Transport Canada, who gave a detailed overview of all the many initiatives that Canada is currently involved in to help facilitate international trade and protect the environment, and the progress that has been made. Our second keynote speaker, Blair Feltmate, Head of Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, discussed climate change and possible best practices to mitigate flooding. Climate change is irreversible, and it is important to know that it is not going to go away, and we need to be adaptable to help lessen it. Blair suitably said that every day we do not adapt is a day we don’t have.
IUMI President Richard Turner introduced the conference theme “Confronting the chaos for a sustainable future?”. Chaos is defined as a state of utter confusion and disorder and in Richard’s opening session it was relieving to see that IUMI remains a steadying force amongst the ‘chaos’ that we are seeing in the marine insurance sector. One of the key takeaways is that we need to be innovative and inventive to be sustainable for the future.
After taking all that in our most anticipated workshop was up – the Facts & Figures workshop. Philip Graham and Astrid Seltmann, chair and vice chair of the committee, presented IUMI’s figures and the current trends of the market to a captivated audience.
Our day concluded with Sean Dalton, Chair of the Cargo committee, hosting his workshop that included presentations on Arctic shipping, cargo and flood modelling, the cyber coverage clause, finishing with a lively and interactive panel discussion on containership fires. Phew – what a full day.
As the day draws to an end, we see IUMI delegates rushing off to get ready for their evenings out in the beautiful city of Toronno.
