Blog Post: Reflections on the 2024 Insurance Industry Event Season
By, Michael Schwabrow, EVP of Sales and Marketing, Cloverleaf Analytics
From the start of the year, it was clear AI would be a driving force influencing nearly all insurtechs, insurance companies, analyst agendas, and event themes. Underneath the excitement around AI, was a refreshing realization that real AI that insurers and the insured would find valuable would not happen until the industry takes insurance data analytics more seriously.
Kickoff: Insurance Innovators, Nashville
That is exactly where Cloverleaf’s event journey began at Insurance Innovators in Nashville. At the event, the biggest theme that stood out to us was the willingness of insurers to move beyond investigation to experimentation. This means trying projects with data modernization and AI even if it ended in failure. The other positive theme that came out of the event was to strengthen empathy to try to better understand insurance customers.
However, perhaps the most astounding fact that came out of the event is that the industry will lose ~400K workers in the next 5.5 years. Data and AI will be crucial to ensuring the industry modernizes and thrives for years to come. It was great to connect with like-minded individuals at a dinner that I hosted with executives from Fenris Digital, FAMI, and long-time Nashville customer Velocity Risk!
Mid-Year Insights: Insurtech Insights & Celent GenAI Symposium
In early June, Robert Clark and I embraced the Big Apple for Insurtech Insights. Halfway through the year and the themes from Insurance Innovators were carrying through. During the event, we had great conversations with our partners Exavalu and Perr & Knight along with potential prospects ALPS Insurance, Ambac, and Preferred Mutual Insurance. It was encouraging to see that Cloverleaf has been and continues to be ahead of the market in terms of the advantages we have empowered insurers with for nearly a decade with our Insurance Intelligence platform.
We also spent quality time with analysts from Celent including Karlyn Carnahan. The analysts gave us valuable perspective on the unique offering that we provide to insurers to grow their businesses by incorporating GenBI, AI, NLP, and ML.
In mid-September, Rob and I returned to the Big Apple for the Celent GenAI Symposium. We had productive discussions with half a dozen carrier prospects and a new partner prospect as we shared about our innovations including what we announced at the event with our new vendor-agnostic support of Pyramid Analytics, PowerBI, and QLIK BI platforms.
NAMIC, Denver: Just Do Something
Next up was NAMIC in Denver. The main theme of the event was “Just Do Something”, when it comes to AI and data modernization as the status quo is no longer tolerable. It was great to spend time with some of our Mutual customers Co-operative, Rockford Mutual, Celina, and Northern Neck. Our platform enables them to use AI on their terms and most importantly they have complete visibility into all aspects of their business which is something that most of their peers, unfortunately, cannot appreciate.
The executive cocktail reception of our soon-to-be-partner AAIS was fun and very well attended.
With the overall CAT effects in 2024 being less than that of 2023, it was nice to have meaningful discussions with ~16 potential Cloverleaf customers.
ITC 2024, Las Vegas: Insurtech Innovation at Scale
AT ITC 2024 in Las Vegas, there were 9,218 attendees from across the insurance industry assembled at the Mandalay Bay Hotel for 3 days of technological innovation, thought leadership, and networking!
The discussions about AI and insurance analytics were honed in on enhancing underwriting, improving insurer operational efficiency, and delivering more personalized customer experiences. The importance of proactive risk management, particularly in response to climate change and cybersecurity threats, was also emphasized this year.
Cloverleaf was a bronze sponsor once again with logo-bearing charging stations throughout the expo and our booth in a great location on an aisle across from a coffee station! (if you have attended ITC in the past then you know why this is a good thing 😊). This made a great setting to announce our major platform upgrade with Cloverleaf v.4.0 with a 50% boost in data upgrade speed and new customization features.
For the second consecutive year, Cloverleaf also co-hosted a VIP Insuretech on Tap reception at Ri Ra Irish Pub with our friends at Socotra on Tuesday evening whereby we welcomed over 500 guests with ~50 being Cloverleaf VIPs including senior execs from Bamboo, AAIS, PCRB, and MS Transverse to name a few. We enjoyed the hospitality of great food, amazing Guinness on tap, and the conversations and networking amongst some of the best people in the P&C industry.
On Wednesday evening we hosted our annual VIP dinner at Stripsteak joined by senior execs from AAIS, MS Transverse, Rockford Mutual, and PCRB. The networking that occurred during this dinner was priceless and further reinforced why personal relationships and advocate-building are the most important outcomes of customer engagements.
For Cloverleaf, the key takeaway was again the fact that we have been out front, ahead of the transformation curve for many years. This is clearly demonstrated as we have earned the confidence, respect, and business trust of 55+ P&C carriers, MGAs, and Program Carriers in the industry today.
Finale: Guidewire Connections, Nashville
Our round-the-country 2024 event season started and ended in Nashville.
At Guidewire Connections there were 3,200 attendees over 3 days. We shared the excellent news of Bamboo becoming a new customer as we support their Guidewire InsuranceSuite implementation.
From connecting with our customers Velocity Risk, CURE Auto, Rockford Mutual, Northern Neck, Fremont, Co-operative, Bamboo, Celina, and new partner/customer AAIS, GWC was full of vibrant interesting conversations. We also had many takers of this year’s edition of Cloverleaf’s designer dress sock.
Several carriers came to spark new conversations about InsuranceNow and InsuranceSuite after seeing the Bamboo press release and stopping by our InsuranceNow partner’s booth OGON Consulting. As has been our custom at GWC, we hosted two VIP dinners that made all the hard work and effort throughout the year absolutely worth it!
Looking Ahead
In closing, 2024 was a year of change and growth as we prepare for 2025, which will be a breakout year for Cloverleaf, our customers, partners, and the P&C industry as a whole!
Stay tuned, enjoy the holidays and we will see y’all in 2025!
Thank you for your support.