2022 AGM Question 19 Answers

Mike Loucas

Q5: How can we improve your experience for our next conference in 2023 (April 17 to 19, 2023. Please save the date.)

More guest speakers and instead of doing 6 breakout sessions (3 of the same) I would do 2+2 so 4 different session but with more of a deep dive (longer). I find that most sessions are too high level.

Keep the same strategy and plan!

provide the list of attendees so we can make a point of connecting with relevant industry colleagues

It was so nice to have an in-person event and I think the organizing Committee should be extremely proud of the work they did to put this event on. Keep up the great work.

Keep doing what you’re doing. Well done and well organized!!

You are raising the bar year after year. Please continue with what you are doing.

The Thursday agenda was very tight – no time to breathe. More time to network beyond cocktails and time to do emails or catch up on work.

Not quite as packed an agenda on the longest day.

Make sure to clearly indicate conference price for shuttle from airport to hotel if there is one, I missed that this time.

An idea of dress code for the various events would be very much appreciated.

Perhaps have a session or two on the first day and then have a session or two less on the 2nd day. Give everyone an opportunity to stretch their legs and go outside for a couple of hours on day 2.

The experience was excellent no need to improve it

Nothing

N/A

Appreciated the program, congrats to the organizing committee.

Fairmonts are expensive venues.

More MGA panels

Gauge interest in having operational sessions on various topics – perhaps have vendor/user group breakout sessions. Over the years, the tech panel seems to have vendors promoting their company and systems rather than meaningful discussions about where the industry is headed and how to best service MGAs.

Not sure the attendee ratio of ops vs sales.

More best practices, case studies, industry trends, more focus on technology trends.

all good

maybe better food during the conference

Nothing really. The programme, and venue were excellent.

you are doing all the right things, beautifully done..

The conference itself was very good. I wouldn’t change anything.

Having gluten free options

Can’t think of anything right now?

Bring an mdrt member in to speak about expectations of distribution.

Could you please distribute an Attendees list? This is done in other industry conferences and greatly facilitates fireside chats.

More sessions. There were only 3, which repeated themselves. Leave more time during dinner for conversation (hard to have a conversation during the Calgary Fiddler presentation)

Open bar! LOL

We heard from the MGA principles, could we have a panel of carriers to talk about their biggest challenges and what they are doing to solve them? eg. technology, reducing u/w requirements to get higher face issued, staffing to support advisors, their involvement in succession planning.

!

There seemed to be some problems with the sound system at times. It would be great if the system was checked to ensure the volume worked consistently, throughout the room, (and have a back-up roaming mike).
Perhaps next time a speaker on environmental and ethical investments? This seems to be the direction our industry needs to move in.

Maybe adding a little more business dev. content

N/A

The travel from the airport to the venue is long. Should consider at event closer to the airport.

none

not sure

More plant-based options for food and with respect to the vendor showcase, more time allotted to that for folks to walk thru and network.

This year’s conference felt a bit rushed compared to other years. Having speakings stay on time, while difficult would go a long way to staying on track with the time table.

As a carrier member/partner I have a couple of suggestions.

1. It would be helpful if the name tags could show the name of our respective organizations in as large a type font as our names. It’s not easy to look down at someone’s navel to see who they represent. Just makes conversation a lot easier when someone is unknown to another attendee.

2. I did speak with Michael Williams briefly about this second point. As a full participant I found the content for carriers to be very light. I know the program is built mainly for MGAs but I feel that this is an excellent forum for both carriers, MGAs and other support organizations to learn from one another. This is only such gathering of its kind and I feel we could use our collective times more wisely in sharing, learning and taking-away good feedback about how to get ‘better together’ (good theme). I just feel that our involvement at CAILBA should extend beyond trade show booths and meal sponsorships. I think there’s a big win here for all if we get it right.

A little more down times between sessions – they ran over each other

All good

Don’t schedule it to end on a Friday or start on a Monday. Nobody wants to cut into their weekend with travel.
This is also an opportunity with all MGAs and carriers together in one room – let’s use that better and talk about how we can collectively make the industry better. Maybe create break-outs with MGAs and carriers to tackle big current topics.

Keep doing the great job you always do

Keep up the great work!

more networking breaks.

I think the presentations (break out sessions) need to have a buffer or you need to ensure the keynote speaker before the breakout sessions finishes on time as all the breakouts were delayed.

Also, maybe it would be better to have 6 breakouts and not 3 that repeat although I did attend one of the sessions twice as lots of info was shared and I wanted to ensure I captured it all.

More time in between presentations
Moving regulator discussion earlier in the conference

N/A