Around the exhibition

HSBC gets sporty

HSBC is looking to appeal both to risk managers who want to consider operational risk from the unique HSBC vantage point and to those who just want some fun, with part of its stand featuring sport.

And the HSBC team - operational risk director David Breden plus some of its senior major risks and key contact executives including David Tate and Duncan Keens - are looking forward to exploring risk managers' key issues and sharing market knowledge. The broker envisages that key issues for risk managers will include the market cycle, long term deals, electronic trading, contract certainty, and training for insurance professionals.

Giveaways include some sporty items, "even bits of instant memorabilia" according to HSBC - and something to keep everyone cool.

Excelling with XL?

XL is focusing at this year's conference on product recall and environmental risks in response to increasing concerns of risk managers after changes in European legislation. Both risks can significantly affect a company's reputation if not managed well, and XL is running a competition from its exhibition stand to highlight the importance of crisis management, which is an integral part of its product recall offering.

XL expects to see a lot of interest from risk managers in environmental insurance, mainly in relation to EU Liability Directive which came into effect in April. It's one of the main insurers for this liability and is seeing interest from risk managers wanting to understand the implications.

Manning the XL stand for some of the time throughout the conference are: Simon White, Robert Potter and Simon Harwood Matthews - environmental; Ed Mitchell - product recall; Huw Chandler and Chris Andrews - risk engineering; Nigel Bamber, Laurence Flynn and Jon Mead - CRM team; Donal Kelly, UK country manager, and David Gallagher, CRM/sales; Dan Mardell - casualty, and Peter Smithdale - property

To promote its product recall insurance which has an integrated crisis management element and a dedicated crisis hotline Response XL, XL is offering a crisis management workshop worth £3,000 to be won by an AIRMIC member for their company.

NEW BRANDING FOR CAPITA CMGL

AIRMIC conference delegates are the first to see the new Capita CMGL logo and branding, following Capita Group's April acquisition of CMGL. "We expect to be fielding a lot of questions as this may be the first time some risk managers will have heard about the merger and what it means," says business development manager Chris Wright.

Wright also expects some discussion on unbundling enabling portability around claims handling. "Many risk managers are increasingly frustrated by inadequacies in claims handling and service failures but are removed from the process and cannot influence the timescale or urgency attaching to it. Partnering with specialist claims

management companies empowers the risk manager to take control of claims handling and drive through the settlement through direct input into the claims management process."

In addition to Wright, Cath Brennan, Nick Stretton and Andy McNamee are on

or about the stand. With the re-branding having been announced very recently, they won't be armed with new Capita CMGL branded items but will instead be offering collectors' items in the form of CMGL mugs, pens and knickknacks. And, says Wright, they have invested in a quality coffee machine serving the finest real ground coffee!

Fit for risk

Marsh's theme this year is: are you fit for risk? And this means being ready to capitalise on opportunity to remain a healthy and successful business.

As companies face an increasingly sophisticated risk environment, more and more risk managers are asking Marsh about how they take a more opportunistic view of risk and incorporate holistic risk management practices throughout their organisations.

A recent benchmarking study that Marsh conducted among European risk managers found that the main risk issues of concern to them were employers' liability/people-related risks, competition risk, business interruption, environmental considerations, and financial risks - incorporating exchange rates, cash flow and interest rates as well as risks to physical assets. Marsh expects that to be reflected in the kind of questions their team of risk consultants, client executives and technical experts will be asked at this conference.

Visitors to the stand will also be able to test their stress levels, to make sure they are fit for risk. The Medisure team are on hand to explain the output from your stress test. Clients who have pre-registered can collect their bespoke benchmarking reports, using their liability buying performance against Marsh's 2007 UK data for the yet to be published Limits of Liability annual benchmarking survey.

CELEBRATING 21 YEARS

At this year's conference, Link Associates are celebrating 21 years of consultancy work with a whisky tasting. Appropriately the whisky is 21 years old too and the lucky risk manager who wins Link Associates' prize draw gets a bottle to keep.

Richard Howes, who is manning the stand with Richard Baldwin, believes that one of the key concerns of risk managers has got to be future changes in the political landscape which could affect the way they deal with risk. He also thinks that, while risk managers understand the need for business continuity and crisis management training, it's often hard for them to get buy-in from higher up the organisation.

NICE OR NASTY

We asked some of the exhibitors to define ‘nice and nasty clients'. Here's what they came up with.

"We don't believe there is such thing as an ideal or nightmare client. Providing the service paid for by the client is reflective of the workload involved, all parties should be satisfied." HSBC

"Ideal clients are those that value a partnership with their insurer. We prefer to work with our clients to understand their needs and how we can support them as their insurance needs change. ‘Nightmare clients' are those that prefer a transactional approach." XL

"An ideal client is one who understands his business and appreciates ours. A nightmare client is one who doesn't know his business but wants to run ours!" Capita CMGL

"An ideal client is the one looking to find the upside in risk and that approaches the issue of risk as one where they can gain a competitive advantage. There is no such thing as a nightmare client!" Marsh

"The ideal client is one that pays and the nightmare client is one that doesn't!" Link Associates