The RIMS Apprentice: Student Blogger Alert!

Editor's note: We've decided to open up the discussion at the Risk at RIMS 2008 blog by inviting risk and insurance students into the mix. Not only for their much-needed youthful vigor and enthusiasm. But the industry, desperate for the next generation of talent, needs to know what these students' are thinking if they hope to recruit, train and promote them.

Below is the first post from Chelsea Balerno of Temple University. She'll be posting daily from RIMS. About her expectations for the conference and her future profession. About her experiences. And about all of you whom she meets in San Diego. You'll be able to recognize future posts from Chelsea by the headline and topic category, "The RIMS Apprentice." Now here's Chelsea ...

Hello, everyone!

My name is Chelsea Balerno, and I am new to the Risk at Rims 2008 Blog. I am a junior Actuarial Science major at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. At Temple, I am the vice president of membership development for the Sigma chapter of Gamma Iota Sigma. For those of you out there who haven't heard of GIS, Gamma Iota Sigma is the International Risk Management, Insurance, and Actuarial Science Collegiate Fraternity. My position as the VP is basically to help our members transition from students to young professionals. We plan resume reviews, mock interviews, enrichment workshops, social events, etc.

As for work experience, I have had a few jobs and internships over the years. All through high school, I worked at Sentry Insurance, filing, answering the phones and completing other administrative tasks. This past summer, I interned at SMART Business Consulting in Devon, Pa. I worked as a P/C actuarial consulting intern, using Excel, Access, Visual Basic, etc. to complete many tasks such as completing loss triangles, projecting losses and IBNR, creating loss reserve templates, completing research and working on other various tasks.

This summer, I have accepted an internship at Towers Perrin in Philadelphia, Pa., in their retirement practices division. I am very excited, as I love the consulting world and having the opportunity for client interaction.

Enough about me ... let's get back to RIMS! This will be my first trip to RIMS, and I am beyond excited!

I am looking forward to all of the opportunities at RIMS! I hear that over 10,000 people will be there. I can't wait to meet people from all different walks of life and all different sectors of the industry. I will be looking for another internship next summer, and I am dying to relocate somewhere for the summer, maybe the West Coast, or even abroad (I have been to both London and Germany and LOVE both countries). Maybe I will get lucky and meet someone at RIMS who is in need of an intern for Summer 2009? We shall see!

I am most looking forward to the networking experiences. I love meeting new people, and RIMS is full of great opportunities. I am also looking forward to spreading the word about Temple's Risk Management, Insurance, Healthcare Management and Actuarial Science programs (we have one of the largest and highest ranked programs in the country!).

We have so many opportunities for industry to get involved with our students, and I hope to help create some new, strong, long-lasting relationships between companies and Temple University. I also hope to give people in the industry some perspective on the life of a student ... yes, there are some of us out there who actually go to college FOR risk management and insurance by choice! Hopefully, they will be pleasantly surprised by how knowledgeable we are about the industry, and how eager we students are for opportunities.

Well, I should get back to doing my homework! But before I go, in case you want to find me and other Temple students in San Diego, here's my tentative schedule:

My flight gets in to San Diego at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, and I will be attending the Student Welcome Reception at 5 p.m. that night. On Sunday, I am going to a Padres game with some friends! At night, I will be going to the AIG Dessert Reception. On Monday, I will be attending the General Session and Keynote Address at 10:00 a.m. and the Awards Luncheon at 12:15 p.m. On Tuesday, myself and other Temple students will be having breakfast with Ed Troy, Andrew Miller and some other colleagues from GAB Robins. Then we will attend the luncheon and the education roundtable, and finally visit the Exhibit Hall Reception. On Wednesday, my flight for Philadelphia departs at 8:30 a.m. :-(

I will update again once I finalize my schedule. I can't believe how soon RIMS is. Hopefully, I will meet some of you readers there!

Sincerely,

Chelsea Balerno

RIMS Just Around the Corner

It's Monday, April 21, just a week until RIMS begins in earnest. We're still getting last-minute calls trying to arrange meetings and interviews. It's sometimes surprising to me that with such a big investment, too many firms seem to wait until the last minute to confirm appointments and promote their investment and presence at RIMS. I hear the same from some of the risk managers who attend.

With RIMS in San Diego this year, the attendance looks to be great. A few weeks ago, I received a pre-registration list of attendees. When I cut out all the brokers, insurance executives, lawyers and consultants, I figure that at least 2,000 real risk managers or the equivalent risk executive at a company will be at the annual convention. That seems a pretty good pre-registration turnout to me considering that last year's event in New Orleans and the previous year's meeting in Honolulu seemed to lack enough risk management conference goers.

Philadelphia, our hometown here, three years ago was a major exception--attendance was huge and there were plenty of risk managers. RIMS ought to consider bringing the big show back to the City of Brotherly Love. The weather is fantastic this time of year, and the cherry blossoms on Independence Mall are blooming this week.

Here are a few tips based on my four years of attending RIMS:

1. Monday night seems to be the really crowded night for entertaining with one reception schedule on top of another. I wonder why more insurers don't seem to schedule Wednesday night events, even though RIMS has its Cirque performance set for that night.

2. The brokers will be there in droves this year--maybe because of the soft market and maybe because they think client hunting will be productive. I saw a list of Aon brokers, for example, that numbered nearly 300. Broker interest may be more a question of self-preservation: there are so many risk managers at this year's show, it looks like brokers will need to keep their clients happy and away from the competition.

3. Stop by the Risk & Insurance booth number 1915. We're just a few steps away from the main RIMS booth. You'll be able to get your photo on the cover once again this year.

4. And now a really big, blatant promotion: Check out on Monday afternoon the session "Reputational Risk: Working with the Media."

I'll be on the panel along with Sam Friedman from National Underwriter, Bill Coffin from Risk Management magazine and Gavin Souter from Business Insurance. It's a great opportunity to embarrass us in front our key audience. Feel free to bring it on.

Enjoy San Diego and see you all there!

Jack Roberts

Introduction to the Risk at RIMS 2008 Blog

Welcome to Risk & Insurance® magazine’s "Risk at RIMS 2008" blog, a mish-mash of everything and anything going on at the biggest event in the risk and insurance universe. We've done this before (some of you might remember a post from Hawaii from our former associate editor, Michelle Kerr, who lamented at the unpredictable nature of risk when flying across the country with a motion-sick-prone toddler).

But our 2008 blog version, produced live from San Diego, is expanded to take in not only highlights from the conference sessions, hot topics and prime-time speakers. We'll also be covering interviews with leading risk managers, brokers and insurance execs. The best booths (and free stuff) from the expo floor. The social scene from the nighttime extravagences. And any rumor fit to print.

Don't expect writing here that's full of p.r. speak and newswire snooze style. We're letting our writers let loose (within reason, of course!), so the tone of our dispatches will be lively and, yes, irreverent. Hopefully funny and entertaining too. All while being well-informed, informational and of course useful for some reason or another.

The material will be posted as soon as it is written, with a minimum of editing; no deadlines, no delays, no run-arounds. For the convention’s largest events, we will post the material as soon as it happens. We’ll just keep posting crisp, compelling narrative about the show to inform and entertain readers who couldn’t make it this year (as well as those folks who could make it and amazingly have some free time to go online).

Can't tune into the Risk at RIMS 2008 blog on a frequent basis? (For shame, by the way!) We're also updating additional "standard" coverage and "best of the blog" stories on our Web site every day, at http://www.riskandinsurance.com/.

Don't think we're cutting the mustard? Or that we've made some brilliant points? Tell us. We'll leave room after every entry for you to post comments, which we look forward to reading. The more comments the better.

We hope that readers will have as much fun reading the blog as our writers will have writing it, but we have thick skin if needs be.

Either way, thanks again for your support and your interest in Risk & Insurance® magazine and http://www.riskandinsurance.com/.

Enjoy.

Risk & Insurance® Blog Conduct Policy

Risk and Insurance Blogging Policy

1. Our goal with the "Risk at RIMS 2008" blog is to expand on our print and online coverage of the annual conference of the Risk and Insurance Management Society (or RIMS for anyone who might be reading this blog by accident).

2. Like every other aspect of our online and print publications, our Risk at RIMS 2008 blog should deliver to our readers the most intriguing, deep and well-informed information possible on the insurance industry. About the innovations, viewpoints and stories of the risk managers for some of the world’s largest corporations. As well as on other professionals who operate in it.

3. Our editors will employ the same ethical and legal considerations in posting to the blog as they do in every other venue of the publication. In other words:

A. No blog content is meant in any way to defame or otherwise willfully injure the reputation of any company and/or individual. (We cannot say the same for fictitious characters invented in a late-night or early-morning post for the primary purpose of entertaining the writer.)

B. We will not willfully or negligently provide false or misleading information about any company and/or individual.

C. Our editors will use a civil tone in posts and in their online dialogue with readers and subscribers. The same will be expected of readers and subscribers who comment to the blog. Of course, this does not mean that we, or you, should not try to be funny, sarcastic or otherwise entertaining (in a good-natured way).

4. Risk & Insurance® withholds the right to deny permission for readers to comment on a post, as well as to remove reader comments that we deem unfit for publication. (Read section 3C.)

5. Risk & Insurance® is not liable for the content of reader comments posted to the blog. However, if you find a particular reader comment (or any blog post) inappropriate, offensive, demeaning or otherwise harmful, please notify us immediately. We will take measures to address and/or remove the particular material.