About the conference
On behalf of the 2013 Health and Care Conference programme committee, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all delegates attending this year’s conference at the Celtic Manor in Newport, Wales. The theme for this year’s conference is “Adapt and Grow”. In our dynamic world, change is the only constant . One of the most respected and inspiring physicists and cosmologists of our time, Stephen Hawking, said: “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”
While I am sure that Stephen was not thinking about the actuarial control cycle when he said this, I am equally certain he would approve of the concept. And, given that the first person to publicise actuarial concepts was a physicist (in 1693 Edmond Halley – of Halley’s comet fame – was the first to publically demonstrate how a life table could be used to calculate the premium rate for an annuity), I feel confident that we can rely upon this wisdom.
We are delighted to welcome Tim Harford, world renowned behavioural economist and award-winning Financial Times columnist, as this year's opening keynote speaker. Tim is described as “Britain’s Malcolm Gladwell” and, with a stroke of serendipity, is also the author of the multiple award-winning book called “ADAPT: Why Success Always Starts With Failure”. Tim will explore key lessons from clinical medicine and how we can adapt this to solve business, organisational and political problems. We are very excited to have someone of his calibre opening our conference.In line with this year’s conference theme, many of our plenary sessions will tackle questions regarding changes to the economic and political landscape, the possible effects on our work, and how we may wish to modify what we do in the light of new information. The plenary and workshop sessions will cover a range of topics from the broad to the practical and specific, including presentations from our working parties.
I am also extremely pleased to announce that our Gala dinner speaker is Katherine Grainger CBE. Anyone in London last summer would have witnessed Katherine’s spectacular Gold medal win alongside teammate Anna Watkins in the double sculls, one of the most breath-taking moments of the 2012 Olympic Games. She is Britain’s most successful female rower and the only female athlete – in any sport – to gain medals in four consecutive Olympic Games. Katherine’s personal journey is a true inspiration.
As always, we listen to your feedback. In order to ensure a high level of technical content, we have introduced the peer review of workshop slide material. This collaboration between insurance professionals is hugely appreciated and mutually beneficial to all.
As with every Health and Care Conference, it is the collective effort of many talented individuals that make this conference the leading market event for health insurance practitioners. I would like to say a big thank you to all of our speakers, with special thanks to Hannah Watson and the Event Management team, who as always, have done a fantastic job. Also, a great debt of thanks to the 2013 programme committee for all their efforts.
Finally, I hope that this conference will provide valuable continuing professional education and practical knowledge that you can implement in the workplace to help grow the UK Health and Care insurance industry.
I look forward to seeing you in Newport in May!
Lisa Morgan
Chair, Health and Care Conference 2013 programme committee