For brokers and insurers, a unique purpose is driving the upcoming International Summit organised by the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF). The professional development body services the industry's entire ecosystem, from reinsurers to loss adjusters, and its February event in Sydney aims to bring that ecosystem together for a "deep dive" relevant to the whole market.
“It's about identifying a gap in the market for what is required," said Katrina Shanks (pictured), ANZIIF’s CEO.
Australia and New Zealand both have this gap: no single educational international insurance event of depth and scope caters to the industry’s entire ecosystem of stakeholders. So the gap isn't about an insurance topic or challenge; you could call it a missing meeting room. ANZIIF's client base spans reinsurers, risk underwriters, brokers, claims professionals and loss adjusters - groups that rarely sit in the same session, let alone the same building, at the same time.
"We have the ability to bring the whole market together in one place," Shanks said.
For Australian and New Zealand brokers, that's a rare opportunity. Insight on underwriting appetite, claims trends and reinsurance capacity typically arrives secondhand, filtered through separate events built for separate audiences. A summit built to put those audiences in one room changes and uplifts what brokers can learn and ask questions about.
"For this summit we're delivering across macro, technology, innovation and resilience," said Shanks.
The programme backs that logic with speakers regarded as experts in their fields. Jerry Michalski, founder of Open Global Mind and a specialist in institutional trust, spent years advising corporations on where to deploy technologies like AI before turning his focus to how consumer capitalism erodes - and can rebuild - trust. It's a direct match for Shanks' own framing of the industry's future: "The future of insurance won't be determined by technology alone. It will be determined by the decisions our profession makes today about trust, resilience, leadership, and the value we deliver to society."
Tane Hunter, a cancer researcher applying AI to genetic diagnostics at the Victorian Cancer Care Centre, and April Rinne, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and Forbes-ranked futurist, round out a lineup built to bring in perspectives insurance conferences rarely host.
"It's not about stringing together a conference of panels - we're bringing a summit of experts," said Shanks. "We don't have 100-plus speakers like many conferences do, we've got experts in their fields presenting on expert topics."
She said the idea is to take a really deep dive into complex topics.
Shanks said this inaugural event is a pilot, with a decision on an annual or biennial future expected by year's end.
For brokers weighing whether a new date on an already-crowded calendar is worth the time, that's the real pitch: not another set of panels covering familiar ground, but outside expertise on trust, technology and change, deliberately assembled because ANZIIF believes no existing event brings it together.
