InsureTalk21 marks two years of the popular franchise

The 21st edition of the popular InsureTalk franchise took place on 14 April 2022, exactly two years after the webinar first hit our screens back in the days of hard Covid lockdown.

“We’re extremely proud to see ‘our baby’ growing up so nicely,” says CN&CO Events head, Llewellyn du Plessis. “In the early days we had a few hundred delegates at each event. Today it’s not unusual for us to reach 1 400 or 1 500. This tells us we’re doing something right and meeting a need in the industry for quality content and entertainment.”

InsureTalk21 kicked off, as usual, at 10am with an intro by our MC, Nonnie Mhlungu, who has become something of an InsureTalk institution! Nonnie welcomed guests to the birthday edition and introduced the sponsors – Global Choices (headline partner), Guidewire (event partner), IISA (CPD partner) and Cover magazine (media partner) – and the theme for the day, “The Ultimate Customer Experience”.

First up was Wimpie van der Merwe, CEO of of Global Choices and Claims Central Africa, who spoke on the total experience (TX) strategy. TX is based on the idea that no experience operates in a vacuum. Employee experience, customer experience, user experience, etc. all combine to create the total experience. They’re all connected and interdependent. And yet, because of how they evolve as business disciplines, they are rarely treated as such. Companies usually have platforms to deal with each type of experience, but they tend to run independently of each other.

Wimpie unpacked the concept and benefits of a total experience strategy in his talk, under the sub-title “We believe connecting to the lives of people is what matters most.”

Next up was Stuff magazine editor-in-chief, Toby Shapshak, who spoke about the future of work and why change is unavoidable.

“Work has fundamentally changed in the last few decades, but the last 100 years especially,” he said. “At the beginning of the 20th century, nine out of ten people worked in agriculture … Now we live in a world where we can access information and get anything we want from the internet.”

He outlined the progression through the industrial revolutions and the characteristics of each one, leading up to the fourth industrial revolution, which is happening right now.

Thokozile Mahlangu, CEO of the IISA, reminded delegates that there are only six weeks left until the end of the current CPD cycle. Members of CPD organisations should visit their member portals and update their details.

Thokozile outlined some of the many ways insurance professionals can earn CPD hours, including by attending InsureTalk. She congratulated the top 20 CPD compliant members on their achievement for the year, earning between 40 and 85 CPD hours in one cycle.

Thokozile reminded delegates about the upcoming African Insurance Exchange, which takes place at Sun City and online in July. (You can find out more about the conference here.)

Tony van Niekerk’s media update focused on the upcoming Insurtech event, which takes place in early May. (You can find out more about the Insurtech event here.) The conference will focus on the intersection between the human touch and technology.

The customary entertainment slot was filled by singer/songwriter Thankiso Mamabolo, who had guests tapping their feet to some old and new hits, as well as some of her own material.

Thankiso’s performance was followed by messages of congratulation to the InsureTalk team on the webinar’s second birthday.

Zamani Ngidi from Aon Cyber Solutions was up next, with a broker’s view on cyber and the client experience. He presented some insight into the evolving cyber landscape, honing in on cyber risk-based broking, and then shared some client stories.

Key pillars of a cyber insurance policy

His talk highlighted the differentiators between cyber and other forms of insurance, especially as it relates to underwriting practices, and went into some detail around the solutions that have been developed and the nature of technological risk exposure.

Closing off proceedings were Federica Pisano and Richard Starey from Guidewire Software. They shared insights into leveraging analytics to transform claims processes. The pair spoke on how insurance businesses are using analytics to flex, scale and increase efficiencies within the claims workflow.

How insurers are reacting to disruption

They spoke about disruption in the industry, and how insurers have reacted to it. They then touched on analytics as an enabler of transformation, and proceeded to share some user case studies on analytics in claims workflow.

Three lucky InsureTalk delegates each walked away with a R500 Mastercard voucher, sponsored by Global Choices, before Nonnie closed off the session with thanks to our sponsors and partners – Global Choices, Guidewire, IISA and Cover magazine.

To view the recording of InsureTalk21, click on the video below:

InsureTalk22 will take place on 26 May from 10am to 1pm. You can book for the rest of this year’s InsureTalk sessions here.