InsureTalk 13 attracts more than 1300 delegates

InsureTalk 13 took place on Thursday, 24 June 2021, with an audience of more than 1300 insurance professionals from South Africa and beyond. Here’s a brief recap of who said what. You can also watch the recording of the event by clicking on the link at the end of this blog.

Christo van der Rheede (pictured below), executive director of Agri SA, spoke on the state of agriculture in South Africa and the future prospects of the sector.

There were over 40 000 farmers in 2017 involved in commercial agriculture. The Free State has the largest number of farms, while the Cape Winelands produces the most income. The number of farms in South Africa is on the decline, as well as the amount of land being farmed – although the sector experienced tremendous growth in 2020. Christo also spoke about the state of water in our country as a scarce resource and its impact on the agriculture sector, among other relevant issues.

Nick Hudson (pictured below), co-founder of Panda, shared his views on Covid 19, lockdowns, mask wearing, PCR tests, immunity, etc.

His view is that we are all operating in a state of fear and have thus not stopped to think about the actual facts and stats behind the spread of the virus. His presentation focused on debunking commonly held beliefs around the nature and spread of the coronavirus.

The IISA presented a video on upcoming courses and events, including the 2021 African Insurance Exchange. If you haven’t booked your spot yet, you can register here.

Simmy Micheli (pictured below) of TIC, part of Santam, spoke about the impact of the lockdown and border closures and how it affected the travel industry and, by extension, the travel insurance industry.

Her presentation focused on international travel but also touched on the prospect of adventuring into space – and the potential this raises for the insurance industry.

Cover magazine editor Tony van Niekerk (pictured below) spoke on the pitfalls of stereotyping in the context of the media, specifically around matters of generational theory.

It appears that there’s not much of a difference in generational online behaviour when it comes to shopping. We shouldn’t box people, he says, because then you will be excluding potential customers.

Tony also promo’d the upcoming InsurTech 2021 conference, which takes place on 27 and 28 July. Make a note in your diary to attend this always-interesting conference. Find out more and register here.

(Speaking of conferences, have you registered yet for the SAUMA Conference on 2 July? If not, you can sign up here.)

After Tony’s presentation we were treated to a soulful music set by Idols season 7 finalist, Keegan Martin.

Alan Brody CEO of SA Harvest, a food activist company, spoke on the phenomenon of food wastage in South Africa, the dramatic impact it has on our lives and the opportunities it presents.

Ten million tons of food goes to waste every year in South Africa, which is a shocking and catastrophic figure. One of the costs of food waste is hunger, but it also results in waste of resources like energy and water. South Africa wastes 170kg of food per person per year. There are ways to reduce this – and the objective is to halve food wastage by 2030.

Alan unpacked SA Harvest’s strategy to try and achieve this goal.

Hanlie Kroese of Santam closed the session with an interesting presentation on the role of insurance in the food sector. Her presentation gave an overview of the agricultural sectors, touched on changing consumer needs, spoke about the influence of technology on innovation and shared some trends shaping the future of farming (including “pink chicken” farming and ugly produce!)

Click on the image below to watch the recording of InsureTalk13. Remember to register with llewellyn@cnandco.com first if you wish to receive your 2.5 CPD hours.