That's more like it - the kind of Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc. party we know and love. Bathed in end-of-day salutes and smiles with the sun going down over the Pacific, the entire opening reception affair was awash in the glow of impending success. So began the opening reception of the annual RIMS annual convention.
Among the risk manages, there was much laughter at this year's gathering. And there was much relief among officers of RIMS, comfortable once more with what looked to be very robust attendance numbers after a couple of lean years in Honolulu and New Orleans. The last time RIMS held it's annual bash here was four years ago.
Judging by the smiles of RIMS leaders in the welcoming party, this conference appeared to be loaded with promise thanks in part to the Southern California venue of the San Diego Convention Center overlooking San Diego Bay and Coronado Island beyond.
Opening reception convention guests were blessed this year with a view of the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, one of the U.S. Navy's latest pieces of billion-dollar Nimitz-class naval hardware. The carrier, based in San Diego, is undergoing routine maintenance at the Navy's North Island facility. In the middle distance, two America's Cup-style sailboats advertising Zurich North America's blue-and-white logo in their sails tacked back and forth all day.
RIMS conventioners love San Diego. The hotels are close, and the amenities all within walking distance. The convention center itself is small enough to get around, yet not so large as to host multiple shows. That means conventions like this, one of the city's largest, get the attention they deserve.
San Diego, always "easy on the eyes," in the words of one convention-goer, seemed even more welcoming that it was the last time around: More hotels, more transportation and more development in the shadow of Petco Field, home to the Padres and the AIG opening night reception.
Warmth and the spirit of renewal, exemplified by young risk management students Yelena Veretennikova and Samit Shrivastava, both of Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business, pervaded the opening ceremonies.
Veretennikova and Shrivastava, having traveled from Atlanta just to rub elbows with some of the most influential risk managers in the country, said they were looking forward to the next four days and what they hoped to learn.
Shrivastava, a student expected to graduate with an M.B.A. at the end of 2009, already had pricing and risk commoditization issues on the mind, even with sessions 18 hours away.
A house band, after introducing current and former RIMS leaders, played the cover staples including material from - who else? - the Beach Boys. OK, so even if the opening ceremonies weren't as extravagant as last year's toga-themed opening night party in New Orleans, it wasn't for lack of trying.
Who could ignore the trapeze artist dressed as a mermaid spinning and gyrating 15 feet above the ground, to the delight of the conventioneers, at least those people who managed to unglue their eyes for just a moment from the brilliant sunset.
... which has always been the draw of San Diego: A warm sun and the city's pleasant pace is more than enough to get us all to come back. Note to RIMS: Has the leadership ever thought of signing a two-year deal with the city?
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Prime-Time Events: RIMS Serving San Diego
Big props to RIMS and Aon for setting up the 2008 Community Service Day again. This year, two busloads of volunteers descended upon an elementary school about 10 minutes away from the convention center ... 10 minutes across to the other side of the tracks. Staff from Volunteer San Diego and volunteers from a local landscaping company were there to direct all us risk folks.
And direct us they did. We put in a new Zen garden behind the school, built and painted gardening benches, and otherwise tidied up a little, but important, nook of the city. It was good. You land at the airport and see billboards at the baggage claim for RIMS sponsors. You see the RIMS banners hanging from lightposts as you drive from hotel, to convention, to restaurants and back.
So the monetary effect of thousands of conventioneers is obvious and welcome. But to get your hands dirty, as all the volunteers did today at the RIMS 2008 Community Service Day, and then, at the end of the 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift, see the results of your labor ... it's great to have that impact as well. When the principal of the school made a surprise appearance to check out our work, she cried. We aren't that great at gardening ... it was the effort, the humanity, that did it.
Plus, it's fun to see brokers, salespeople, vice presidents of risk managers, former CEOs, entreprenuers, risk and insurance students, etc. all wearing T-shirts and having fun in the dirt. Of course, some business talk could be heard when somebody who had something to sell could corner someone who had something to buy.
But for the most part, this was hard work being done by RIMS finest representatives. Now after filling 40 wheelbarrows of pulverized stone and digging trenches, I am going to put my feet up and relax for the next few days. It's not like I won't have to be on my feet for the next week ... 18 hours a day. Nah!
And direct us they did. We put in a new Zen garden behind the school, built and painted gardening benches, and otherwise tidied up a little, but important, nook of the city. It was good. You land at the airport and see billboards at the baggage claim for RIMS sponsors. You see the RIMS banners hanging from lightposts as you drive from hotel, to convention, to restaurants and back.
So the monetary effect of thousands of conventioneers is obvious and welcome. But to get your hands dirty, as all the volunteers did today at the RIMS 2008 Community Service Day, and then, at the end of the 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift, see the results of your labor ... it's great to have that impact as well. When the principal of the school made a surprise appearance to check out our work, she cried. We aren't that great at gardening ... it was the effort, the humanity, that did it.
Plus, it's fun to see brokers, salespeople, vice presidents of risk managers, former CEOs, entreprenuers, risk and insurance students, etc. all wearing T-shirts and having fun in the dirt. Of course, some business talk could be heard when somebody who had something to sell could corner someone who had something to buy.
But for the most part, this was hard work being done by RIMS finest representatives. Now after filling 40 wheelbarrows of pulverized stone and digging trenches, I am going to put my feet up and relax for the next few days. It's not like I won't have to be on my feet for the next week ... 18 hours a day. Nah!
Tradeshow Floor: ERM - Show Me the Money
As the tradeshow floor of the Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc. was humming to the sounds of drills, hammers and forklift hydraulics setting up the booths in the cavernous halls of the San Diego Convention Center, Bob Morrell, CEO of vendor Riskonnect, was quietly contemplating the next few days.
From a rented condo on K Street, across from the convention center, Morrell decided this year's meeting of risk and insurance managers was going to be a bellwether for just how serious the risk management community is going to be about enterprise risk management and the purchase of software tools to communicate this concept.
"We're going to make an investment decision after this meeting at RIMS, and it's about making a strategic choice," he said.
Why do Morrell's decisions matter? Because Morrell's been in the enterprise risk management and risk management technology space for more than a decade. And where he decides to commit capital or the future efforts of his new company says something about how he's assessing the marketplace.
There's a lot of buzz around the term enterprise risk management. RIMS leadership has pushed hard for companies to adopt the strategy as a way to approach risk. Standard & Poor's has formally declared that its analysts are looking to evaluate a corporate enterprise risk management program when assessing how to rate a corporation's bonds.
But for all the discussions Morrell's had with risk managers - and they are numerous; remember that Morrell's wife, Elizabeth, is a risk manager at the Southern Co. - and despite all the meetings he's had with board members among the nation's Fortune 500, Morrell says that the risk management community still has trouble communicating the importance of enterprise risk management to their own boards.
Many risk managers, he said, are communicating risk management with the help of Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentation, instead of with enterprise risk management presentation software - which is what Riskonnect is all about.
"RIMS talks about ERM all the time, but the reality is how many people here (in San Diego) are responsible for reporting on high-level risk to the board or to the CEO?" said Morrell. "And do they have the tools to do that?" Excel and Powerpoint, Morrell said, are not adequate to give the board a clear picture of the risks facing their companies.
Certainly, the communications gap between people who practice enterprise risk management and their ability to sell the importance of an enterprisewide approach to risk to their board can't be blamed on RIMS leadership.
Over the past several years, RIMS has insisted on a full-court press about educating its members about the importance of enterprise risk management, and enterprise risk management sessions are routinely well attended. This year once again, RIMS is expecting the enterprise risk management sessions to be packed with attendees.
But do risk managers gathered at RIMS provide a receptive audience for enterprise risk management tools? Or has Morrell got it all wrong and is the audience for his product not at this meeting? Perhaps a little of both.
"We’re at a very important turning point for enterprise risk management," he said. "It’s going to happen because Standard & Poor's is demanding it. It’s a question of who’s going to have a venue for it. RIMS will have a piece of the pie. The question is how much?"
Morrell, certainly, will have his answer by Thursday, and perhaps the rest of the industry too.
From a rented condo on K Street, across from the convention center, Morrell decided this year's meeting of risk and insurance managers was going to be a bellwether for just how serious the risk management community is going to be about enterprise risk management and the purchase of software tools to communicate this concept.
"We're going to make an investment decision after this meeting at RIMS, and it's about making a strategic choice," he said.
Why do Morrell's decisions matter? Because Morrell's been in the enterprise risk management and risk management technology space for more than a decade. And where he decides to commit capital or the future efforts of his new company says something about how he's assessing the marketplace.
There's a lot of buzz around the term enterprise risk management. RIMS leadership has pushed hard for companies to adopt the strategy as a way to approach risk. Standard & Poor's has formally declared that its analysts are looking to evaluate a corporate enterprise risk management program when assessing how to rate a corporation's bonds.
But for all the discussions Morrell's had with risk managers - and they are numerous; remember that Morrell's wife, Elizabeth, is a risk manager at the Southern Co. - and despite all the meetings he's had with board members among the nation's Fortune 500, Morrell says that the risk management community still has trouble communicating the importance of enterprise risk management to their own boards.
Many risk managers, he said, are communicating risk management with the help of Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentation, instead of with enterprise risk management presentation software - which is what Riskonnect is all about.
"RIMS talks about ERM all the time, but the reality is how many people here (in San Diego) are responsible for reporting on high-level risk to the board or to the CEO?" said Morrell. "And do they have the tools to do that?" Excel and Powerpoint, Morrell said, are not adequate to give the board a clear picture of the risks facing their companies.
Certainly, the communications gap between people who practice enterprise risk management and their ability to sell the importance of an enterprisewide approach to risk to their board can't be blamed on RIMS leadership.
Over the past several years, RIMS has insisted on a full-court press about educating its members about the importance of enterprise risk management, and enterprise risk management sessions are routinely well attended. This year once again, RIMS is expecting the enterprise risk management sessions to be packed with attendees.
But do risk managers gathered at RIMS provide a receptive audience for enterprise risk management tools? Or has Morrell got it all wrong and is the audience for his product not at this meeting? Perhaps a little of both.
"We’re at a very important turning point for enterprise risk management," he said. "It’s going to happen because Standard & Poor's is demanding it. It’s a question of who’s going to have a venue for it. RIMS will have a piece of the pie. The question is how much?"
Morrell, certainly, will have his answer by Thursday, and perhaps the rest of the industry too.
The RIMS Apprentice: Student Welcome Reception
Today, I arrived in San Diego around 11:30 a.m. The weather is AMAZING! We got some lunch and then headed over to the Student Welcome Reception. Once there, we mingled with other students and met people from all over the country, and even Canada. Al Gorski, the chief risk officer for the Orange County Transportation Authority, introduced himself to me, and pointed out everyone in the room whom I should talk to. He also gave me some important advice that I will keep in mind throughout the trip:
1) Talk to as many people as you can.
2) Get business cards from everyone.
3) Enjoy the entire experience of RIMS.
I exchanged cards and numbers with a bunch of students, and we made plans to meet up throughout the next few days. After the Reception, the Temple University students and I went out to dinner with our faculty advisor.
Tomorrow morning, we are going to register for sessions around noon. I will post my schedule then! At night, we have the Opening Reception and the AIG Dessert Party.
1) Talk to as many people as you can.
2) Get business cards from everyone.
3) Enjoy the entire experience of RIMS.
I exchanged cards and numbers with a bunch of students, and we made plans to meet up throughout the next few days. After the Reception, the Temple University students and I went out to dinner with our faculty advisor.
Tomorrow morning, we are going to register for sessions around noon. I will post my schedule then! At night, we have the Opening Reception and the AIG Dessert Party.
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