Brokers that usually attend the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario’s (IBAO) annual general meeting this time of the year still have a spring event to look forward to. On April 07, the IBAO is holding its Virtual Spring Summit (for which registration closes on April 05), and alongside the AGM are several notable sessions that brokers will find particularly beneficial.
The first half of the day will be taken up by the AGM. Brokers will be able to get updates on current market challenges, the most recent insurer relief measures, changes to MVR Auto Plus reports, regulatory and advocacy updates, and what the IBAO will be up to for the rest of the year, as well as having an opportunity to voice the issues that they’ve been facing.
“It’s a great opportunity to share some of that information, and make sure that we’re aware of what’s going on in every corner of the province, but also to make sure that everyone else understands that maybe some of the issues they’ve been dealing with are not unique to them,” said Joseph Carnevale, managing director of sales and partner at Brokers Trust Insurance Group, and IBAO president. “Maybe others have had the same issues, and we found different ways of dealing with them, so it’s going to be a great learning experience for our members to connect … and make sure that we’re all on the same page.”
IBAO leadership will also be taking brokers’ temperature on what members are interested in their association pursuing and putting on its own calendar for the coming year.
Then, in the afternoon, there will be a keynote address given by Jamelle Lindo, an emotional intelligence coach, on the topic of, “Leveraging Emotional Intelligence & Resilience in Times of Uncertainty.”
“He’s going to speak about the importance of meeting the needs of our businesses, teams, and clients,” explained Carnevale, adding, “We want to share all the information we have about managing the negative and cultivating the positive within ourselves and among our teams.”
This keynote is a follow-on from IBAO’s Keynote Speaker Series that launched earlier this year and has featured on-demand content aimed at brokerage teams focusing on three categories – Mental Health & Wellness, Marketing, Innovation & Disruption, and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion.
More broadly, the Virtual Spring Summit comes at a unique moment in time, as Canada surpasses the one-year mark of dealing with COVID-19. Throughout the past 12 months, brokers across the province of Ontario have experienced the pandemic in different ways, based on how local shutdowns have unfolded, and have found ways to overcome challenges. The upcoming summit will provide an opportunity to learn from each other as Ontario moves into the second year of the coronavirus.
“Brokerages have fared very well in their approaches to supporting their clients and staff, and I think many of the ideas we get at the IBAO for what we want to do come from brokerages who have said, ‘Look, this is what I’ve done with my staff, maybe this is a good idea to apply to everyone else,’” said Carnevale.
As the Virtual Spring Summit approaches, the IBAO president underscored how excited leadership is to interact with their broker members.
“We’re in the business because we love working with people, and [anytime] brokers get together, it’s a great event,” he told Insurance Business. “We found a venue to be able to do that technologically, and we’ve been getting some great feedback from our members … and given the circumstances, we’ve demonstrated that we will go above and beyond to make sure our members feel connected … and ultimately get the value they need to get out of belonging to our association.”
