Aon Benfield, the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon plc (NYSE:AON), is hosting its 13th Biennial Hazards Conference in Australia next week from 22 to 24 September with the theme of ‘Think Outside the Risk’.
The Hazards Conference aims to stimulate thinking among delegates about big picture trends – beyond the traditional types of risk the industry is familiar with like cyclones or earthquakes. The conference also considers the measurement and mitigation of these increasingly complex sources of risk facing insurers in today’s rapidly changing world.
Conference topics include:
The impact of low probability, high consequence events including geomagnetic storms, pandemics and or a major disruption in food supply – Aon Benfield
Characteristics and Consequences of a 1000-Year Volcanic Eruption – Earth Observatory, Singapore
Enterprise Risk Management for Extreme Events – Coca-Cola Amatil, Australia
Cyber Risks – Implications for the Insurance Industry – SwissRe, China
The sessions are delivered by leading experts from academia, the insurance industry, government and the corporate world. One of the keynote speakers is Professor Warwick J. McKibbin, who has a Vice Chancellors Chair in Public Policy at the Australian National University with over 200 published academic papers. His presentation will explore insights from a global economic model that is used for scenario analysis by major corporations and governments. In particular he will focus on the crisis in Europe, Japanese policy reform and the global implications of the US recovery.
Robert De Souza, President APAC/CEO Australia & New Zealand and conference host, commented: “In recent years a number of events have surprised risk managers. Some of these exposed limitations in modeling capabilities, such as the Thailand Floods, while others have been driven by rapidly changing technology, such as cybercrime. Many new types of risk are arising from the combination of traditional perils like earthquake with our increasingly technological and interdependent society. The 2011 Japan earthquake is an example, which triggered a series of secondary effects that generated losses in ways few imagined before the event. This rapidly evolving risk landscape has led us to develop this year’s theme: Think Outside the Risk.”
Malcolm Steingold, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific for Aon Benfield, added: “The conference is also a catalyst for discussion on the nature of risks facing the insurance industry in our region of Asia Pacific. Understanding the change in demographics and economic drivers is critical when considering new insurance and reinsurance opportunities and planning how to manage that risk to enable profitable growth. Moving forward, effective risk management will entail a combination of advanced modelling tools and qualitative processes to identify risks not properly reflected in quantitative analysis.”
The Hazards Conference has been held every two years since 1989 and the interaction between practice and research has been its hallmark for over two decades.
