I’ve attended more marine insurance conferences than I can count. My typical experience includes sitting in the crowd (usually towards the back) as a passive participant, listening to speakers far smarter than me, and drinking too much coffee. The presentations vary in success and relevancy but all of them clearly require substantial planning and work. While these conferences have been beneficial to my professional development, none come close to the scale and breadth of the IUMI Annual Conference. With over 800 professionals from around the world, the IUMI Conference is the largest and most diverse conference I’ve ever attended. It’s amazing to think of all the work it takes to organize. From the event space to the food, shuttle logistics to dinner table reservations. But by far the most important aspect of the conference is the content. The sharing of information between IUMI members, and the marine insurance industry at large, is what we’re here for. Most of that responsibility falls to the IUMI Committees. Each is tasked with building an informative, relevant, and of course interesting session dedicated to their respective expertise. As a Junior Member of the Inland, Fishing, & Yacht Committee (IFY) I was able to experience firsthand how this is accomplished.
I joined the IFY committee meeting on Sunday morning prior to the conference commencement. My first thought was that this might be the most diverse group of people I’ve ever met. The committee has members from South Africa, Egypt and Belgium, just to name a few. There aren’t many industries that foster this type of global collaboration. After some brief introductions, the committee dug into the market reports. These provided insight into the marine insurance market of each country represented. The amount of expertise in the room was remarkable. It was also interesting to hear the similarities and differences between reports. Some regions had a handful of fishing vessels in their waters while others represented the centre of the global fishing trade. Some countries saw little underwriting competition while others fought off their competitors daily. Despite the differences, the group found emerging and continuing trends that could be viewed across the global landscape. After the market reports were discussed and analysed, we pivoted to the IFY presentation we were to give in two days time. Most of the work had been completed at the IUMI Spring Meeting in Hamburg and the months since. There were a few minor details to iron out along with one unexpected bombshell. The speaker we lined up for one of the sessions had fallen ill and wasn’t able to present anymore. Despite the less-than-ideal circumstances, the group calmly discussed the best course of action. We debated finding a new speaker to present on a new topic but with two days to go that seemed nearly impossible. It was decided that one of our own would create a presentation from scratch and lecture in front of the hundreds of professionals at the conference. What usually takes months of brainstorming, resourcing, and executing, was completed in less than 48 hours. It was a testament to our brave committee member and the teamwork of the group that we were able to pull this off. The presentation went off without a hitch and was one of the best I saw all week, in my unbiased opinion.
Throughout the three-hour meeting I couldn’t help but notice the passion of the committee members. Each had pride for their countries but were also eager to learn what the others had to say. Witnessing the global expertise of these committee members made me realise just how important our work was. The discussions we had in that room were to impact global commerce, sustainability, and the safety and wellbeing of countless people. As our time came to an end, our Chair, Hilton Adams, expressed these exact sentiments as he passed the Chair position on to Rick Salway. Most of this group has worked together for years and it was evident the impact that Mr Adams had on them. As we move forward, the group is poised to continue its hard work and dedication for IUMI and the marine insurance market. We are eager to share our knowledge again in Singapore and promise to keep our speakers healthy this time around!
