Live Blog: Opening Keynote

Dear readers: This is a live blog from the opening keynote address of the Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc. coming to you from the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif.

8:18 a.m.
To the thumping beat of hand painters, about 4,000 attendees watch as painters use their hands to slap paint on two large canvassas. It's a formal welcome from members of the San Diego chapter of RIMS. Welcome statements from the members of the San Diego chapter. Rounds of applause on the part of the audience.

8:25 a.m.
Chula Vista High School show choir singing the Star Spangled Banner.

8:35 a.m.
Introduction of the current RIMS executives and board of directors, and former important board executives.

8:36 a.m.
Recognition of RIMS committee members by Janice Ochenkowski, RIMS president and director. More than 10,000 people are in attendance this year, 900 of them first-timers, she said. There are 439 exhibitors on the exhibit floor this year, with 800,000 pounds of freight.

8:44 a.m.
Mary Roth, RIMS executive director, says the risk management profession is growing and that the visibility of RIMS has never been higher, in part because it is working with other industry groups like ISO and the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. Roth introduces the redesign of Risk Management Magazine, and highlights the new book co-authored by Beaumont Vance, "Risk Management for Dummies." The RIMS Web site will be updated in two weeks, she also said, to make the user interface more intuitive, and noted the launch this fall of RIMS first virtual conference.

8:49 a.m.
Roth thanks RIMS' strategic partners, sponsors and other risk management organizations like IFRIMA.

8:51 a.m.
Diane Wolfson, director of risk and insurance at CAE Corp., a manufacturer of flight simulation systems, is awarded the Harry and Dorothy Goddell Award 2008, RIMS highest award, for her contributions to the RIMS organization and the advancement of the profession. She receives a standing ovation from the attendees.

8:56 a.m.
Wolfson thanks the members of RIMS in English and French. She thanks her mentors and family and children "despite my schtick, and everybody knows I have schtick." "Merci beaucoup, thank you very much," she says.

8:59 a.m.
Janet Kerr of Boston Properties steps up to the podium unexpectedly and hands Janice Ochenkowski a bouquet of flowers. "Now, back to the script," says Ochenkowski, and returns to thanking all the people - colleagues and RIMS officers and directors - that have helped her in her professional career. Ochenkowski turns to tables 98, 99 and 100, the Chicago chapter tables of RIMS, and thanks people at those tables, along with members of her family who helped her rise to the presidency of the nation's largest risk and insurance management society.

9:10 a.m.
Ochenkowsi said that risk management is growing within corporate America, and then challenged members: "Will you move up with it? Do you want to? Are you prepared to?"
"The old cliche that luck is preparation meeting opportunity really rings true," she said. "RIMS will provide you with preparation in the years ahead. One of the most important lessons I've learned is that risk managers need to align themsleves with their industry."
She encouraged members to take the initiative within their companies and to share their knowledge with colleagues and the younger, upcoming generation of risk managers.
She also pointed out the legislative successes of RIMS, including passage of the terrorism act extension and the organization's continued advocacy of the Optional Federal Charter.

9:20 a.m.
Keynote speaker and former homeless San Francisco resident Christopher Gardner, author of the "Pursuit of Happyness," starring Will Smith and Thandie Newton, recounted how television show managers approached him about doing a show about his life.
How did I become homeless: "Was it drugs? No. Was it alcohol? No." Gardner said that he had an opportunity to work with the nation's top heart surgeons after serving in the military, and moved to San Francisco. He left the medical profession for computer sales because he had a family to feed, and then became a stockbroker because there was even more money - $80,000 a month - to be made there than in computer sales at $80,000 a year.
"I made up my mind at a young age that I wanted to become a world-class something," said Gardner.
But when Gardner showed up for work, the man who had hired him had been fired the previous Friday, and Gardner found himself with no job, no insurance and a family. So he cut grass, became a roofer and cleaned out trash. "Things were tense at home," he recalled. Neighbors eventually called the police and the cops ran the license plate of the car through a computer. But because Gardner had $1,200 in unpaid parking tickets in San Francisco, and Gardner was sent to jail.
"All of this happens on a Friday and you know what that means, there's no court until Monday."
For 10 days, Gardner, guilty of unpaid parking tickets, found himself locked up with murderers and hardened criminals.

9:41 a.m.
But Gardner had scheduled an interview with a brokerage firm before going to jail, and when he got out he kept the appointment and was hired - 200 calls a day in cold calls using rotary dial phones. His ex-wife came to see him one day and dropped his son off, but the boarding home in which he was living didn't allow children, and that's how Gardner found himself on the street. Gardner eventually found help through a local church and a reverend who agreed to help, which allowed Gardner and his son to move out of $10-a-day flee-bag motels. Gardner said the hardest thing was to leave his 14-month-old son with someone he didn't know as Gardner went off to the Wall Street firm on a commission-only basis at the former Dean Witter. There were some days that Gardner had to stay at work on the phone, and as a result he was late to the church-run shelter. That forced him and his son to live on the streets, in the airports, in the subway. Gardner said that one of his greatest achievements is that he had broken the cycle of men leaving their child fatherless. Because Gardner was home with his son just about every day, his son never realized they were homeless. After living on the streets for a year, Gardner had saved up enough money to get a roof above their heads,and it was finally the end of living on the streets. Shortly after moving in, a day care center with the word "happyness" in the title opened up down the street and Gardner was comfortable leaving his son at home. Because the neighborhood in which Gardner and his son were living was close the San Francisco's notorious Tenderloin District, and prostitutes were soon helping Gardner and his son offering them candy and even $5 bills. "So to this day, the ladies of the evening are alright with me," said Gardner. "I got no problem with them, I just don't do business with them."

10:00 a.m.
Gardner was still making his 200 calls a day on a $1,000 a month gross until a senior executive at Bear Stearns came to Gardner and asked him how much he wanted: Gardner asked for $5,000 a month, and the deal was done. Gardner was working with colleagues by the name of Steinberg and Feinberg and Greenberg.

10:13 a.m.
Gardner's book spent 25 weeks on the New York Timest bestseller list, and more than a billion people have seen the movie. Gardner, quoting writer Maya Angelou, said that the interest in the movie was due to the fact that the movie is about a father who became a mother, a mother who became a father, and the rupture, finally, of the cycle of absentee fathers. Gardner said that his ultimate contribution to the world is the fact that he'd helped his son, and hopefully his child's children become responsible parents. "The most important thing is to break the cycle of men who were not there for their children." With more than $400 million worth of tickets sold for his movie, Gardner's story has become a lucrative franchise and a sequel is in the works. Gardner signed off saying he hoped he would see the crowed at the movies. He was met with a standing ovation.