Yesterday afternoon, risk managers had the opportunity to brainstorm critical topical issues with the experts. The 12 topics covered by Master Class attracted a full complement of interested and knowledgeable delegates.
Said facilitator David Gamble, executive director, AIRMIC: "We decided to introduce Master Class this year to allow delegates to debate a very large number of important topics in a short time. In addition to our expert chairmen, risk managers contributed some interesting comments based on their own experience which we'll be distilling into summaries and circulating to everyone. It proved a great opportunity for the delegates to get involved in the conference and in the discussions in relatively small groups"
The success of Master Class reflects the importance of the topics selected. Ina Barker, chair of the scientific committee for the FERMA Forum 2003, played a large part in choosing the subjects. How did she come up with the ideas? "There were three main criteria," explained Barker. "First, we obviously wanted to cover issues which are really at the forefront of risk managers' minds at the moment and which they find challenging. Second, we thought it was important to look at areas, such as accounting changes, where risk managers might not find it too easy to obtain the sort of information they needed. And finally, in the case of human resources risk, for example, we thought it would be good to 'think outside the box' and pick an area that some risk managers might not actually be thinking too much about."
Another important consideration for the Master Class was to provide a good spread of experts. "We thought risk managers would find it interesting to hear from experts in other European countries," said Barker.
